You make statements about all people. You are the one that has to prove that this is true. My counter example works perfectly because I only need one. Specifically we still buy used skates for the kids, even though I would definitely have the money to buy new ones. Same for the vacations. They can tell me about Disney Land all they want and even though I could buy that cash right now, I will not.
I see what you're trying to do there. I need to quote better. Let's retry:
Quoting myself:
an example to refute the absolute claim of the parent and the article that only the savings rate matters for when you will be able to retire. This one counter example disproved that.
Keyword: only. My claim is that it's a combination of both. Then you come along and posit that it's impossible not to have an inflation of lifestyle and you won't be able to live off of less than you had before once you retire:
not unless you can show someone actually succeeding [...] Plenty of people think they'll be happy to live more cheaply when they've retired [...] Of course it does. You get in the habit of buying things for the kid. You get in the habit of going to these places.
As in you are saying that nobody can succeed in living off less money than they had before. This is what I am giving a counter example for in my last reply. I have increased my salary over the years and I have very carefully kept my spending in check and given this continued habit I think it is entirely possible to retire on less income than now (i.e. 'live more cheaply') as expenses we now have (even used skates do cost money) will no longer be present at that time. Of course the jury is still out and we can talk again in 30 years and see how it actually turned out in the end ;) FWIW, if I look at my parents, same thing happened. Living off way less now in retirement than what they had before but it's OK. Kids are out of the house and self-sufficient. We were always frugal.
I'm not claiming how many people do and can do this. Just that it's absolutely possible. It's probably in the ballpark of people that can take 10 years of the beginning of their career to live so frugally that they retire at 32 with millions in the bank :)
