Getting old sucks
Being old and broke is worse
Invest your money

Ever since I started on this FIRE path, there have always been people that responded to my urging them to save for the future with a “live a little while you’re young” mentality

Why save to be rich at 70 if I die at 30?
I want to enjoy life now, not when I’m old
And my favorite: Save for what?

What all of these people were too short sighted to realize is:

• anything invested when young grows to large amounts when old
• you’re still a living person when you get old, with wants and needs that cost money. Healthcare will only get more expensive, and old age will be the most medically intensive period of your life
• yeah you may die at 30 or 40, but what if you don’t? You’ll be 41 with no money. You’re living your life as if early death is a certainty
• you don’t have to completely forgo a nice life to save money.

I’m now 41, and I’m technically FIRE, meaning my basic current expenses can be covered by investments pretty much indefinitely. That is an incredible level of security. It’s not my permanent FI number, as I expect my living costs to rise over the next few years, but it’s nice to know if I lost all my income, my investments could sustain my same lifestyle for a long time.

I now have flexibility that the “live a little” crowd most certainly doesn’t, and it’s all because I made sure to save money at every income level, even when my income was so low that saving anything meant not buying even a candy bar for like 7 months

The bulk of my net worth was saved from my late 20s to mid 30s. Yes, I had to deprive myself of some things at times, but it wasn’t forever, and I now have a comfortable financial cushion

Even in my 20s I worried about my financial security when old.

I was working now, sure, but what if I lost my job? What if I became disabled, couldn’t work? What if nobody hired me?

Passive income was a necessity as quickly as I could get it.

I had to get to a position where my future self and people around me would be comfortable

So I saved and invested. You should too. Don’t be old and broke, you really don’t want that. Tighten your belt for a mere 5 years. Buy nothing, live as frugally as possible, save as much as possible. Just a few years, especially when young, can supercharge your financials for the rest of your life