Let's be real though; that savings you were able to wipe out by overspending when the cost of living went up wasn't nearly enough to matter anyway. The amount of savings that matters is in the low 7 figures. If you are very careful and disciplined and organized, and sacrifice most opportunities to live well on your time off, and lucky enough to avoid major catastrophe- you can* achieve that after an entire lifetime of selling your soul to the capitalist machine in 40-hour increments. So that for your final 10-to-20 years before dying of old age, you get to maintain a humble working-class standard of living without having to work, and that is a successful life. The American Dream.

*Or at least you could acheive it, under more favorable economic conditions than what we have now or can expect to ever see again in the future.

If you have a 401(k), is it really your retirement savings or is it just your surviving a layoff and not becoming homeless for however many months it takes to find another job savings? That depends entirely on how big it is right now. And if you have to use it for the latter while it's still at its current size, the chance of being able to use for the former goes down significantly.

Also, if you paid off all your debts would you still have savings left over? If not, then you don't actually have any savings.

Maybe young people are choosing sports betting over investing in stocks and bonds these days not because they don't understand economics and finance, but because they do. A small, very high-risk chance of making enough money vs. a low-risk chance making definitely not enough money- that could be entirely rational.

Because if you've only saved almost enough to retire, you still have to work until you die to make up the difference; just at a low-paying part-time job. You know, the hardest, worst jobs involving the most actual work.

Ok that was a heavier rant than I originally meant to write in response to a lolcat shitpost on 196. Maybe more directed at the dozen or so boomer-coded, survivorship-biased, victim-blaming Marketwatch op-ed articles I've hate-read for whatever reason.

The ADHD demanded an impulsive sacrifice 😭