"What I gave up to save $1 million" predictable Yahoo article and comments

[cavewoman]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/what-i-gave-up-to-save--1-million-182630420.html

I wasn't sure if this should go here or on the antimustachian page.

Yahoo's newsfeed is a source of entertainment to me, if I take it in very small doses.

Plenty of the "my grandparents save $1 mil but didn't take vacations with us, I'd rather live now" as well as the "what about us not bringing in 250,000/year" and of course the "well, duh, they are all single men w/o kids" comments.

[Gone Fishing]

The article is actually quite non-judgemental, just a few folks talking about what they did to get where they are.  When it comes to the comments, it always amazes me how people throw around the word "sacrifice" when it comes to finances.  Killing your first born son so it will rain on your crops and you can feed the rest of your family is a sacrifice.  Driving a car for 12 years and making your own coffee is not "sacrifice", only a choice.  The root of the word sacrifice is sacred.  If your car or coffee is sacred, you have bigger problems. Although judging by some people's actions, they really do seem to worship their posessions.  What can I say, it's an F'ed up world we live in...

[Rpesek6904]

I noticed something in the comments that was really interesting. Lots of people calling the savers "materialistic." The basis of calling them materialistic was that they saved so much money. Then they would say "but you can't spend it when you are dead. I am going to die broke and not save anything." Of course, they are the ones that are materialistic because they feel the need to spend every cent they have. The person with a net worth is not materialistic (probably) because they specifically decided not to buy a bunch of "stuff" and for that reason they accumulated wealth. Anyway, I was just kind of surprised at the total reversal of logic whereby the saver is called "materialistic" and the spender is somehow virtuous. 

[Neustache]

I've kind of succumbed to that strange thinking, too, when I think about how much money I'd like to save...as if I'm making money a God or am too materialistic...but the alternative would be spending it on crap I don't need....or the super altruistic move would be to give it all away and not save it.  I plan to be very generous when we reach FI (we already are in the habit of giving) so that feel good bit that comes from giving is also going to be delayed gratification..but we'll be able to afford it and it won't affect our daily lives to give 10K here and there.  I'm already fairly generous with my time in the form of helping others who need it since time is what I have loads of these days. 

[dragoncar]

The article is actually quite non-judgemental, just a few folks talking about what they did to get where they are.  When it comes to the comments, it always amazes me how people throw around the word "sacrifice" when it comes to finances.  Killing your first born son so it will rain on your crops and you can feed the rest of your family is a sacrifice.  Driving a car for 12 years and making your own coffee is not "sacrifice", only a choice.  The root of the word sacrifice is sacred.  If your car or coffee is sacred, you have bigger problems. Although judging by some people's actions, they really do seem to worship their posessions.  What can I say, it's an F'ed up world we live in...

I think it's apt in this context, with the meaning "an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy."  Thus, we Mustachians are masters of sacrifice, but without the negative connotation given by Yahoo commenters.

[libertarian4321]

Those that commented on the article missed a very important point.

If you save and invest enough early on, you will amass enough money that your investments will earn more than your salary.

So by age 45, you can be retired, take that European vacation, and still grow your net worth by more than Mr. "Live for Today" makes in a year.

While Mr. "Live for Today" will still be working, squeezing in his 2 weeks vacation a year, struggling to pay his mortgage, and be looking at working until the day he dies.

They don't understand the power of saving and investing.  It

[MoneyCat]

You can't be surprised by the Yahoo comments.  Yahoo is for people who still live in the internet of 1998 and they are truly frightened of any kind of change.

[Setters-r-Better]

Article seems to be gone?