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Will Cutting Daily $5 Lattes Really Make You Financially Free?
Extreme frugality is not the key, nor is overindulgence.
What started as a save and be ultra frugal to become financially free and retire early has come under fire in recent years.
Content on social media has morphed from investing advice discussing how just investing $5 a day could completely change your life to satire around these strategies and how you’ll never be able to afford the first downpayment on your home even after cutting out everything you enjoy.
Both sides have their merits and valid arguments.
The way they have been presented on social media, however, has made it seem like you have to sit on one side or the other and follow the ideologies to an extreme.
You could either be ultra-frugal and never “waste” a single dime or live only once and blow all your life savings.
But what people need to understand is that these examples aren’t meant to demonstrate that the extremist side is good. You’re supposed to take the good things from both sides and find a middle ground for a higher quality of life.
