This enrages me so much. I saved more than 5 years of living expenses during my twenties and I did a lot of fun things that according to this article are IMPOSSIBLE unless you're sitting at home anxiously checking your grocery store receipts.
I spent two months traveling Europe on a shoestring budget when I was 23 (funded entirely by my savings at a part-time job), came back twice a few years later, visited lots of cities in the U.S., took writing classes, drank a lot of beer, etc. The things I didn't do were: take out an auto loan for a car I didn't need, buy high-end fashion products, move into a luxury apartment, live in an extremely high-CoL city like NYC (where I imagine the author must reside, based on their attitude).