Frugaling

Save more, live well, give generously

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Popular
    • Archives
  • Recommended
  • Contact
  • Save Money
    • Lifestyle Downgrade
    • Save Money with Mindfulness
    • Save at Starbucks
    • Psychological Trick To Reduce Your Online Shopping
    • Best Freebies
  • Minimalism
    • 8 TED Talks To Become A Minimalist
    • We Rent This Life
    • Everything Must Go
    • Lifestyle Downgrade
    • The Purchase Paradox: Wanting, Until You Own It
    • Nothing In My Pockets
  • Social Justice
    • Destroy The 40-Hour Workweek
    • Too Poor To Protest: Income Inequality
    • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
    • Hunter Gatherers vs. 21st Century Desk-sitters
  • Make Money
    • Make $10k in 10 Months
    • Monetize Your Blog
    • Side Hustle for Serious Cash
  • Loans
    • 5 Rules To Follow Before Accepting Student Loans
    • Would You Marry Me?
    • Should I Have a Credit Card If I’m In Debt?
    • $50k in Scholarships in 70 Minutes

YOLO For 80 Years!

By Frugaling 3 Comments

Share This:

Electric Daisy Carnival EDC

There’s a conundrum that we all face as humans: we are born and must die. For many of us, that’s the most frightening thing imaginable. It stops us in our tracks, and we can’t cogently plan for the future. We are literally scared into avoiding death because death is scary. The irony!

The cyclical loop of fear allows our minds to run wild and appreciate only these few moments right now. We don’t know how many more we’ll have. But unfortunately, that tends to come with some significant financial consequences. The attitude can quickly become: charge it now and worry later; heck, you might die before you have to pay it back.

Because death is an unknown – we don’t know until it’s too late – many try to appreciate only the present moment. The Millennial generation, with the help of popular musician, Drake, have a helpful acronym that’s all about living in the now: YOLO. The vowel-laden term stands for, You Only Live Once. In that spirit, we are tasked with spending, eating, and drinking to enjoy the moments we do have. The hope is that when death comes knockin’, we lived our lives to the fullest. Nobody wants to die without living it up.

YOLO has inspired countless teens and 20-somethings to travel the world, and eschew traditional day jobs. And who can blame them? Countless generations before them searched and scoured the world for self-discovery, too! Life seems short, might as well enjoy it, right?

What seems absent from these aspirational lives and depictions is the reality that for most people, life expectancy is about 80 years. Most of my grandparents lived well into their 80s and 90s. That means that while we are trying to live life to the fullest by spending our way into blissful oblivion, we seem to be discounting the fact that humans tend to live long lives. Really LONG lives.

A lot can be done in 80 years, and it needn’t all occur at 18, 19, and 20. In fact, it’s rather depressing thinking the only time to travel and party like a rockstar is at such a young age. Life is full of adventure and opportunity – it doesn’t end at 30, 40, or 50.

YOLO isn’t inherently a bad term, but it’s important to remember that we have 80 years to do it. And if we have 80 years to YOLO all over the place, shouldn’t we plan beyond this one moment? We compete with unknown variables of death, desire, and saving for a long future. Evolutionarily, we have come to appreciate the present moment to procreate and build foundations for progeny.

While these archaic evolutionary bases of behavior affect our behaviors today, our society has changed significantly. We no longer deal with daily threats. Most of us aren’t running from lions, tigers, and bears – oh my!

Regardless of these competing demands – one for YOLOing and the other for living well into old age – there’s an emotion we all seek: spontaneity. Sustainable, life-long adventure requires healthy budgeting and savings. To take that random road trip, we must save and stop spending on credit. This choice necessitates a reinvention of spending habits. YOLO cannot become yet another excuse to party lavishly and become a gluttonous individual. Millennials and people everywhere have an opportunity to better themselves and the world around them. But they can’t do it while swimming in toxic debt.

Share the wealth:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: Aging, death, debt, Frugal, Life, life expectancy, Millennials, saving, YOLO, Youth

Comments

  1. Miranda says

    May 24, 2015 at 9:12 am

    I agree that we aren’t limited to having adventures while we are you. However, while the average American lives a long life, they don’t live a healthy one. Across the board the biggest regret of older Americans is not doing more when they were younger. They assumed they would be able to do more as they aged, and they put things of until after the kids were grown, or until they retired, only to find their health limits them.

    As someone who specializes in gerontology, I’m reminded of this every day. There are exceptions, people who are healthy as they age, but sadly in our culture they are the exception, not the rule.

    I try to strike a balance. Do what I can today, while saving for the future. It can be hard, because I do turn down opportunities today to save instead. So now I’m trying to set my daily life up to be as fulfilling as possible, so I don’t need big adventures. Things like not working as much as I am physically able to, so I have time for balance every day. I’m considering moving someplace where there are more things to do, more places to explore, and more opportunities, so they can be a part of my daily life, instead of needing to get away. That would increase my cost of living, though.

    It’s all about trying to find balance.

    Reply
  2. Maryalene says

    May 25, 2015 at 4:47 am

    I’m all about YOLO….but not about going into debt or going broke because of it. My husband died at age 37 so I’ve stopped thinking that I have time to do what I want and started thinking that if something is a priority, I’d better do it now instead of later.

    Reply
  3. our next life says

    June 2, 2015 at 11:57 am

    This is a tough one, but in general we take the approach you advocate, of looking at the long view. That said, we also know that, for the things we want to do (mostly outdoor adventure activities), we have only a certain window when we’ll be physically capable of these things. And there’s the lingering fear of disability that’s our unique situation (http://ournextlife.com/2015/04/08/why-the-urgency-2/). But we’ve always been puzzled by the quote “plan as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today,” which is very much in the YOLO vein, because certainly we’d all be tempted to splurge too much, make bad decisions and maybe burn some bridges if we really lived as if we’d die today! For us, the right balance has been to stick with our jobs long enough to retire early, rather than quitting sooner and traveling or adventuring more. We see others younger than us and our age traveling full time, but we know that we wouldn’t be happy without the financial security that we’re building. So we’re comfortable with the sacrifice of a few years in the interest of giving us long-term security.

    Reply

Join the Conversation: Cancel reply

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe

Best Of

  • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
    The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
  • 8 TED Talks That Will Inspire You To Become A Minimalist
    8 TED Talks That Will Inspire You To Become A Minimalist
  • Debt Is The Illusion Of Success
    Debt Is The Illusion Of Success
  • Who Are Your Financial Role Models?
    Who Are Your Financial Role Models?
  • This Statistic On Greed Will Shock You: Have Less? You'll Give More.
    This Statistic On Greed Will Shock You: Have Less? You'll Give More.
  • Is Frozen Juice Cheaper?
    Is Frozen Juice Cheaper?

Recent Posts

  • How to Pay Off Medical Debt
  • 5 Ways to Save Money Before a New Baby
  • 4 Ways to Save Money on Streaming Services
  • 5 Ways to Save Thousands in Mortgage Interest
  • Why Professional Maintenance on Your Vehicle Saves You Money in the Long Run

Search

Archives

  • January 2023 (1)
  • March 2022 (3)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (2)
  • August 2021 (4)
  • July 2021 (5)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • May 2021 (2)
  • January 2021 (2)
  • December 2020 (2)
  • October 2020 (2)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (3)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (5)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (3)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (3)
  • December 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • April 2018 (5)
  • March 2018 (6)
  • February 2018 (4)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • December 2017 (10)
  • November 2017 (3)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (5)
  • May 2017 (2)
  • April 2017 (8)
  • March 2017 (4)
  • February 2017 (3)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (2)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (4)
  • July 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (3)
  • May 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (5)
  • February 2016 (2)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (5)
  • October 2015 (5)
  • September 2015 (4)
  • August 2015 (6)
  • July 2015 (8)
  • June 2015 (6)
  • May 2015 (14)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (13)
  • February 2015 (12)
  • January 2015 (15)
  • December 2014 (10)
  • November 2014 (5)
  • October 2014 (6)
  • September 2014 (7)
  • August 2014 (12)
  • July 2014 (11)
  • June 2014 (12)
  • May 2014 (16)
  • April 2014 (13)
  • March 2014 (13)
  • February 2014 (9)
  • January 2014 (20)
  • December 2013 (9)
  • November 2013 (18)
  • October 2013 (15)
  • September 2013 (11)
  • August 2013 (11)
  • July 2013 (27)
  • June 2013 (18)
  • May 2013 (16)

Best Of

  • The New Rich: How $250k A Year Became Middle Class
  • 8 TED Talks That Will Inspire You To Become A Minimalist
  • Debt Is The Illusion Of Success

Recent Posts

  • How to Pay Off Medical Debt
  • 5 Ways to Save Money Before a New Baby
  • 4 Ways to Save Money on Streaming Services

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Modern Studio Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in