Spending and discounts

Something that bothers me a little is when I see people talk about how they can't save. They're counting every cent and they can barely afford to put a few tens away for a rainy day.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot (a lot) of people out there that really can't do this and by no means am I trying to shit on those people and try to downplay their financial situation. I've heard stories of my grandmother, who grew up in poverty, and I know for a fact her family didn't have a cent to spare and they weren't really wasting their money, they just didn't have money. I know other people personally that experience very intense poverty. I know poverty is real, this isn't about that.

This is about those people that make, say, as much as I make and struggle to save money. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm doing OK. I make about the median in my country! It's not a very rich country, by western standards, but if you make the median income over here you are doing fine. Not great, mind you, but fine.

I save about 60% of my income. I know this is a bit extreme, and I don't mean to say that I should be the standard. I'm a very weird guy, I'm totally aware of that --- I've been made aware of that --- so I don't mean to impose my lifestyle on others. My issue is that people act and say that this isn't enough to save.

On Reddit, someone replied to me on a post wondering how I could possibly save as much as I do, and saying that their sister was actually in the same situation as me and was struggling to save. Look, 60% savings rate is high, hell, 30% is high. But struggling to save? She was struggling? With the median income? No, she wasn't. She wasn't struggling to save, she was overspending and being reckless with her money. She lacked planning, discipline, and sense!

Well, I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but I do mean the general point. If you can't save with my income, you're doing something terribly wrong. Look, I even did some math. I live in a small room, but I could rent an apartment --- maybe she wanted more privacy and freedom, which is understandable on a human level --- for something like 3x what I spend monthly. Even if I spent 3x what I do on rent, I'd still save about 15% of my income. 15% is a very reasonable saving's rate, for most people, so I'm struggling to see where this person was spending all this money.

I did another experiment actually. I'm losing weight (on purpose), so I'm eating in a bit of a particular way. Normally, I'd buy a bunch of veggies and stuff and cook them daily for my meals, but because I'm lazy and trying to lose weight, I've decided to eat lunch at the canteen, and then just scrap together an evening-time meal. You can say what you will about this, I'm getting my calories and my nutrients and I'm doing well both on the mental side and the physical side. My point is that, if I had an apartment, with a kitchen all to myself, you know damn well I'd be cooking. If I were cooking, I'd be saving money. The canteen offers great food for a cheap price, yes, but it's still more expensive than buying stuff and cooking it yourself! I spend under 10% of my income on food, and I could keep that number easily by cooking with an apartment. The experiment I did, little calculation, was to see how much I would spend if I actually ate fast-food for dinner every day. That's right. On top of my lunch and evening meal, if I went out and ate a fast-food menu everyday for a month, how much would I spend on food? The answer is about 24% of my income, turns out. I could eat out everyday, no exception, and still save 47% of my income. Like, come on man. On my income and this person was struggling to save?

It genuinely baffles me what she could possibly have been spending all her money on. I could rent a studio apartment right now for less than 3x my rent, by the way.

I've also considered they may have had to pay tuition, if their grant didn't cover that. Even with that, I would still be able to save over 50% of my income.

Well, I say it baffles me, but that's not quite true. It's very easy to come up with a situation that sounds reasonable and takes up the whole income. Sure, doable. The issue is, however, that if you're struggling to save, you're living above your means. That's my opinion. To save, you must live below your means. It is easy to live below my means when I make as much as I make.

On top of that, this person was telling me about their sister. Now, I don't know how old the person commenting was, maybe they were a child, but it was a financial subreddit so I find that to be unlikely. Regardless, we now have two people that just kind of accepted that it's hard to save on an income like mine.

I'm left wondering how many people live like that. Living past what is reasonable and then complaining they can't save and there's no financial future. Clearly, you need to make your own financial future, not just expect it to be laid at your table. If you keep spending, you'll keep having nothing left. Obviously. So spend less!

I get not wanting to live in a tiny room, I get wanting to go out with friends, I get wanting a car, I get not wanting to eat at the canteen, but damn it sometimes you have to. Sometimes that's the way forward.

If you're broke, act broke. If you're broke and act rich, you'll stay broke. That's what I'm getting from all this, basically, that this person's sister was just acting way out of their tax bracket.

Which is fine, I guess. I mean, at the end of the day, I don't really care what people do with their money. It's upsetting on a surface level because it's so weird that someone would choose to do that, but it's their choice, so I don't really care.

On one hand, I find myself looking at people like this and wondering how many others are the same way. I hear about the country going to shit and people can't save money, but then I hear of this kind of stuff. I have a great family that I know I can rely on. I'm not scared that things are gonna go wrong for me, as long as I'm trying to get them going right, I have trust everything'll be fine. I realize the privilege I've been born into. Still, how can someone just sit there and talk about not being able to save money when I can clearly save money? On the same income!

I've had a lot of help getting here, but most people where I am don't have debt like the Americans, it's not like we're out here drowning in debt and she'd have to be paying off a bunch of student loans.

Whatever.

It takes me back to those things people say about avocado toast and Starbucks. Some people say to stop eating avocado toast and going to Starbucks, because that's money that you could be saving. How can you talk about not having money when you're doing that? I've no clue how much avocado toast or Starbucks cost, but I do see the point. At the same time, people say that that's not the real issue. Hard-working people should be able to go eat an avocado toast and drink Starbucks! Which I also think is a valid point. I guess, how can these two feelings coexist, is the question.

I don't think the sacrifices I'm making are sacrifices that should be made, only that they can be made. If someone refuses to live below their means and cut on extras to save, I find that upsetting. Especially if they complain about it. At the same time, the complaints have merit.

I don't know.