Yes, and to each is or her own, but to me it's a balance. I watched my parents do it. They saved and invested wisely, but they took vacations, too, but again they did it wisely.
They lived long and comfortably. Ma died at 86 and the old man made it to 93.
I'm trying to learn from them, even though in my younger days I was out of control. I didn't save any $, but I didn't rack up debt either.
Now, I'm counting the days to retirement...OK, years! LOL, but not that many years.
Anyway, for every story like my folks, there's one like your folks, and frankly, ya just never know.
I too made so many ill advised moves, most coming from the fact that Alcohol/Drugs ran the show for me for years.
Lost both parents over the last 4 years and they left my sis and I in a nice spot. I immediately paid off all debt I had and I maxed out a tax free savings account. I have had to dip into it from time to time as sometimes life just gets bloody expensive and my bride went back to college and we only had one income coming in for quite some time.
I also did something my mother insisted I do with some of the money and that was treat me and my better half to a great vacation. I did, hit Sandals in Jamaica a few years back, had such a great deal on another Sandals in Barbados we went last year and tied the knot and also made a booking for a return in 2020 for our 2nd anniversary but again, only going because of the great deals we got while on the site
In the last year I did something I was very shaky about doing, stock investments. Marijuana was recently legalized here and I invested not in pot companies but invested in companies who supplied some necessary materials for all the government sponsored grow ops. Now, I wouldn`t have had the $$ if not for my folks but I did a ton of research and assessed a reasonable amount that, if I lost it all, wouldn`t change our way of living. I bought in to two different companies supplying two separate products, purchased shares in both with a share selling initially for under 10$
Both blew up and I cashed in when one hit $41/share and the other $38 and change, they have since gone up but not by much and I walked with a real nice penny. I now only have one stock and I`m not sure I`m allowed to mention who it`s with but it`s a car company whose stock fell a ton a while ago and I bought really low
Any way you cut it though, I have not just discipline with my dollars now but respect for it. My folks worked hard to leave us both with some financial breathing room, didn`t want to blow it with outlandish purchases