Remember, no one likes a cheapskate.

I totally concur. Also, being the type to never spend any money on fun is a good way to drive away even very thrifty friends who may only go out to a movie once every month. If their idea of a good time is to hang out with friends, watch a DVD and order pizza (very cheap, when all is said and done), and you're only down with the non-paying part of that endeavor, guess who is going to eventually stop receiving invitations?

As a famous Canadian Beer campaign once put it: It's all about balance.

You can both be smart with your money and find cost effective ways to enjoy things you love to do.

There is a TON of outdoors stuff you can do that doesn't cost a penny (visiting a state or local park for example or going fishing at a nearby waterway).

Having fun doesn't always have to come at a huge cost.

This sounds like my grandfather. He buys NOTHING new and wont spend any money that isn't absolutely necessary...

We've ben trying for 20 years to get him to buy something fun (like a new car) but he refuses to. He doesnt even buy his clothing new.

He also tells me I dont work enough because I only have one full time job and when he was my age he had 2 full time jobs to save money for later in life.

Everything in moderation.

That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard/read in my life.

Seriously. Most people (myself included) are SO FAR AWAY from the threshold of "saving too much" that this advice seems a bit disengenuous.

Its like a writer in the Orwellian news factory was ordered to come up with a story to justify people spending, to keep the economy moving.

What I find amusing is that Wall Street believes we should trust them with our investment dollars after the latest set of fiascos. And as an alternative, we should spend. But god forbid we actually want to SAVE and truly control our own money.

Rant over.

I've always had a thing where I felt bad spending money on something I wanted. For a long time I was a very broke college/grad student with about $5k in debt, and I always felt like I should be paying bills instead of buying clothes or a dvd or something. Within the last 6 months I've been actively working on not giving myself a hard time when I want to treat myself to somethng nice. I'm not out racking up tons of debt (it actually got paid off in Dec) but sometimes I still feel a twinge of guilt that I'm buying clothes or getting a pedicure instead of socking that money in my savings account.

Don't be a slave to your money. You own it, not the other way around. Cliche but true.

I like being able to look at my bank account and know that if I got laid off tomorrow, I could probably survive for at least a year on my savings.

I probably won't need to, but I think that security is worth way more than a bigger tv or a vacation. I think what happens is people save for emergencies, and when those emergencies don't happen they wish they had spent the money. But if they had spent the money and then had an emergency and needed it, they would regret that, too - possibly even more.

There's no reason to save up a bunch of money if you don't plan on doing anything with it.

People saving too much is a problem? BWAAAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!! Yeah, next I guess we'll be tackling the pressing issues of people living too long, and not having enough debit. *looks at calendar to make sure this isn't April Fool's*

Shiny stuff is great, but building wealth is strengthen your family tree is better.

Call it moderation, call it the middle path, call it whatever you like. The point is: If you go too far to one extreme, you will be miserable.

About four years ago, I bought a computer. It was cheap. Know what I got? A cheap computer that acted cheap.

This year, I finally upgraded it out to a sleek, modern machine. I didn't go overboard; I didn't spend a fortune on bleeding-edge (I'll leave that to the gamers), but I didn't skimp, either. I have found that I have no regrets about this purchase, and neither am I finding the experience in any way unsatisfactory (except that it does generate quite a bit of heat).

In short, I have learned from my mistakes.

I can agree with this. My wife and I have a good nestegg. So we decided to take a vacation...that wasn't cheap...to NYC over break. We had so much fun, but sort of felt guilty when the bill came and we had to eat into savings. I convinced my wife that we have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about because that is what the savings is there for. Honestly it looks like this month our savings will already be back up to where it was before the trip. So yea spend...treat yourself well if you have earned it.

One side not we have no credit card debt and only two loans for cars. So our debt is very limited and nothing with outrageous interest.

Be extravagant with things that have value to you. Don't get suckered in to spending too much money on other people's passions.

@madanthony: I think there are people who are very extreme about not spending money. My husband's grandmother refused to turn on the heat in the winter for fear that she wouldn't have enough money to live on for the rest of her life. Her husband was very successful and left her plenty of money to at least keep her warm in the winter for as many years as she could have lived.

It's not necessary to buy a big screen tv and go on extravagant vacations, but if you won't let yourself do something fun with friends, buy a small gift for your loved ones, or just buy yourself some new socks every now and then... you might need to lighten up a little.

I have guilt when I buy something I don't need, like a $5 mug from Target when I go in for a pair of shoes.

But when I go to the Salvation Army and get a great mug for $1, I feel great because I've helped out the SA, plus I've spent less for the same thing. Most thrift shops are run by charities, so you're helping others and yourself.

You can't put a luggage rack on your casket.

Oh good. I don't have to feel (that) bad I spent most of my refund on knitting stuff. It wasn't a big refund but I'm been saving for something else.

@JGKojak:

Exactly. Americans have been berated for years over saving too little, which was true. Guess what? It's still true. But now we're being berated to spend our increasingly worthless dollars...earned in increasingly precarious jobs...in order to get the economy moving again. How about *NO*. The religion of ever-expanding consumerism ad infinitum amen helped get us into this mess and will almost certainly lead us into another boom-bust cycle. I'll decline to participate in this round, as least as much as my job and finances will allow.

Captain Obvious comment: The NYT has to be one of the most concentrated cliques of hypocrisy and FAIL ever assembled.

We live in a country that has, until very recently enjoyed a NEGATIVE savings rate.

A lot of the trouble we are in is because no one has savings. So we are told we are in "Credit Crisis". If you had savings you wouldn't need credit. In fact it's been so bad that businesses now build themselves on the assumption that they'll have access to easy credit and don't worry about savings.

Which means if credit dries up they are hooped. Saving money is GOOD. Especially right now. One caveat. I would turn your money into something else. Don't keep it as cash. Gold, Silver, Oil, any commodity really.

This seems like pretty irresponsible reporting.

Pretty easy to do this guilt free, my plan:

Bank Account for "Vacation"
Bank Account for "Toys"

Each gets an allocation from my paycheck.

As a bonus, anything I sell on Craigslist goes to something frivolous that I've wanted (just bought a new guitar).

The one thing my GF and I keep saying is that we're SO glad we're not caught up with new cars, cable bills, keeping up with fads and trends and always having to have every luxury, because that makes it so that we have enough $$ to play when we want to play, without having to sweat about it.

I think there is an inherent flaw in the reported study. People may have wished to have lived more hedonistically if, and only if, they ended up in the same position that they're in today. If spending all your money and not studying back then changed the way you had to live today (e.g. having a lower-paying job because your grades were bad) then people would probably report that they are glad they did what they did.

If you aren't in a tough spot, right now there are some incredible values. If you like to travel but sock away that money unnecessarily, you're going to pay through the nose when travel rates go up.

@kc2idf: Going cheap on a computer is definitely a false economy, especially if you enjoy even moderate gaming (Warcraft).

I am bored these days. I felt real bad spending more money than I had so I saved everything.

@mtarget:

Like hell you can't! CostCo has them next to the caskets. They're available in woodgrain, steel, or pvc.

((this inability to reply to comments is getting really tiresome))

I think the really dumb stuff is when people spend hours trying to save an extra dollar or two (see recent column). Time ain't free, get a part time job and you'd be much better off.

@sirellyn: It only seems irresponsible because the audience is misinterpreting it.

As in most things invest in a purchase what the purchase is worth to you. If you are buying a laptop, car, bed, bike, couch, tv, socks, vibrator, etc... invest an amount of money appropriate to the value you place on the item. If in your mind the item is disposable, spend less. If, in your mind, the item is something you want for years of service or value, spend more. If it will be used once and then left to rot on a shelf, spend less.

In fact often times you should consider renting or borrowing items that you can't see yourself using extensively and therefore not worth investing much money in.

Wow. My mom (a Depression kid) had hyperopia for sure. My dad was an engineer and we had a very comfortable middle-class income as I grew up, but she could scarcely bear to spend a nickel on things like new clothes for herself (she did rummage sales before there were consignment shops), trips, etc. She had always wanted to go to Europe but denied herself the pleasure; then died younger than she'd anticipated from cancer.

Balance, balance, balance. Of course, now I'm in the position of wanting to travel and probably never having any $$ for it! Thanks, Economy!

@samurailynn: As you say, it's a personal thing; some people really struggle with spending money on something they actually would enjoy. My brother and I had to do a lot of nagging at my dad when he retired; he finally had the time and the savings to travel the way he wanted to but felt guilty spending the money. Fortunately, he bowed to our pressure and got to take some really cool trips before his health limited him.

Yeah, probably a few people who shouldn't will take this article as license to spend instead of save, but people that easily swayed would have found an excuse somewhere else anyway.

@Jubilance22: Congrats on paying off your debt! I'm planning on being all done with the CC debt next month (finally!) and will still be facing student loans, but I'm planning on scaling back the debt payments a bit to give myself a little more room for purchases. I was pretty ruthless about cutting back in order to get the credit cards paid off, and soon there will be a little more breathing room.

If you're meeting your savings goals (for emergency fund, planned expenses, special purchase, etc), hopefully the spending guilt twinges will go away. At least, that's what I'm hoping for.

I saved as much as I could while I worked. Now I am retired and half my savings went down the drain in the current economic crisis. What's left could well go for medical expenses. In the USA the only way to go is to be be very wealthy or very poor. I am strongly tempted to spend what I have left on the stuff I chose not to buy because I wanted to save money. If I end up with no money I can get subsidized housing, food stamps etc.

@sirellyn:

Of course it's irresponsible but the NYT is just a political organ following the template they've been given. What would the template be if the other party was in power? Here's a wild stab:

"In these unprecedented economic times, Americans are understandably reluctant to heed the administration's desperate calls for more consumer spending."

One emotional downside to saving and spending wisely is that your friends think you are strange for sitting on so much money.

Where do you live that fishing is free? About $54 a year here in California.

I gladly pay it to fish with my son, however. =)

"People feel guilty about hedonism right afterwards, but as time passes the guilt dissipates."

I use this same logic when trying to get my wife to make out with her friends.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things.

@madanthony: The article isn't at all telling people not to save. It is very possible to have both a satisfactory emergency fund as well as a discretionary, "fun fund." If I got laid off tomorrow, I don't want more than 6-8 months' worth of savings because it would probably make me feel "too safe" to the point where I would procrastinate on job searching.

Plus, working solely to put every cent away is a pretty sad life. If you don't actually spend money on things you want every now and then, then what's the point? There is plenty of middle ground where you can save comfortably AND enjoy life.

Saving money is fine. But there's nothing wrong with treating yourself every once in a while. It doesn't have to be something expensive; it doesn't even have to be a tangible thing. Maybe a movie or something like that.

@failurate: Exactly. People need to actually read beyond the headline. Nowhere does it imply that you should not save money at all.

Might I suggest that when the debt generation looks back, it will regret spending too much time working to pay for the things that didn't end up guaranteeing happiness.

Instead of spending that extra hour at the office so you can drive a BMW instead of a Ford, take the kids to the park.

I think this article is talking about a select sub-group of the population. But even though I tend towards the spendy I can relate that one can get wrapped up in saving too much. After we got all our non-mortgage debt paid off it really was hard to go from a tight-wad budget to a more relaxed budget. Judt like everything else, if you get into a habit of not spending it is a difficult habit to break. We still save most of our money but we save it for short, mid and long term goals which means that we have short term savings for fun and for travel/vacation.

@Laughing-Man: Including moderation itself.

@sirellyn: Commodities? Really? Let's say you invested in oil a year ago. How would that have worked out for you?

Commodities are incredibly volatile. You can lose your shirt. And long-term they rarely do better than the rate of inflation. Most people should NOT be in commodities. And that includes gold.

@JGKojak: +1

I'm one of the two people in my circle of friends that seems to have savings in order. Close to 2 years of cusion should both my wife and I have to look for other jobs and a decent amount in various IRA accounts. I think less is criminal with two kids and a home to care for.

That said with little to attract my investment and with all that savings I do need to go out and refresh a few things for myself. I'll probably get some new work shoes, crossgrade some of my A/V equipment and other such little things. We also have some home projects that need to be done this year.

It's also about mixing fun with functional. For instance, I'm doing something fun today: I'm going to get a manicure. For about $20 (with tip), I'm doing something that I've been putting off for weeks because I just couldn't bear to spend the money on something I guess I could've done myself. After a few nail polish mishaps, I realized that there was no way I could do my own nails and have them look professional.

And where's the functional part of it? Well, the winter weather has wreaked havoc on my hands. $20 for a professional manicure and spa treatment, and for my hands not to feel like sandpaper when I shake the hand of someone who will hopefully be my future boss (I'm going on a job interview tomorrow)? I'm there.

ok, what you are talking about is investing your money. There is such a thing as businesses holding too much cash especially if that business is not in a mature market. You are misunderstanding how the economy works...credit is needed for HEALTHY businesses to make better use of their cashflows and better time or smooth out their expenses vs. their revenue stream. BTW, gold is at an all time high...I'm not saying it's bad investment, just be aware before you start giving advice

@failurate: Agreed. If anything, maybe they were irresponsible in overestimating their readers' abilities to understand their point.