Delayed Gratification - sacrificing your immediate pleasure today for future

[Oasisman]

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Hey everyone!

Today I was thinking about creating a topic/discussion about delayed gratification. I know most of us here have been wrestling with this idea at some point in your life. For some, they might still doing this for a long time now.

I am in my mid 30's now and this idea is not new to me. I have been thinking of executing this since I started working, but It never materialized. There has been a lot of challenges and temptations, financially. Though I have managed to keep a portion for savings and emergency, but It was just a very small portion and I know it won't going to be enough to give myself and my family a luxurious life in the next 10+ years, when I'm unable to make money like the way I do today.

I know most of us here have at least a portion of their income allocated for investments. May it be in crypto, real estate, or any other form of investments and of course savings. But, have any of you considered going full FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early)? I mean in the expense of sacrificing your immediate pleasures? Like vices, hobbies, travels, and any other related expenses? I won't say these expenditures are unnecessary. Most of us are working tirelessly from our 9-5 job, gigs, businesses, and other activities to generate money and these immediate pleasures I mentioned above can somehow help us recover both mentally from the stress of the workloads we've been carrying on our shoulders from our job. You know, being in sane mind is very very important.

If you're one that have been doing this, I know that it's never easy, but I've got a few questions that could help some of us here, including me :

1. In what percentage of your income you set aside for investments and savings? and do you still manage to provide necessities without you or your family being deprived from living comfortably?
2. Do have regrets on the things you have missed because this portion of your money went to investment and savings?
3. How do you stay motivated? Especially when the market is down.
4. What are your advice(s) to those who wants to go full with investments?

Me, I honestly been slowing down on my travels, boys night out and impulse buying. I'm starting to convert them into long term investments and Imma tell you this, it's never easy lol  .


Please share your experiences, struggles, strategies, and success. It will be much appreciated, especially for those who have yet to start going all in with investments and savings.

Cheers! 

[lovesmayfamilis]

There is a story on the forum about a person who gave up one of his bad habits, smoking, and facts about how he was able to save on buying cigarettes. In the same way, if you give up at least those products that are bad for your health (for example, sugar and everything connected with it), not to mention alcohol, Coca-Cola, and all kinds of fast food, you will not only save a lot but also stay healthy longer. Health will allow you to be able to work longer (I see that at 40 you say that you can’t be like you were at 30), thereby adding healthy habits, and finding time for some other passive income received from investment dividends, I think you will be able to achieve what you want. At least you will be freer in financial matters.

[hyudien]

FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) simply means reducing expenses as much as possible you could say extreme savings the goal is of course to achieve financial independence, there are some people who have succeeded in using this strategy, one of them if I remember correctly is a married couple who managed to retire early at the age of 40, I have done this before but in reality it is difficult to discipline myself, I am still tempted by worldly pleasures    and besides that the challenge for me is because I live in a country with quite high costs so it is not easy at all.

[Strongkored]

I am not a fan of FIRE, so everything I do to save and invest is not for early retirement but because I don't want to have more difficulty meeting my living needs in the future where everything will be more difficult and expensive due to inflation.
If we can't save regularly and also invest, it is better to reduce all unimportant things such as going on vacation too often or going to cafes to have fun with friends or even buying the latest electronic goods.
Some recommend setting aside 20% of income for savings and investment, but if it is difficult to do, starting with a small percentage is better than nothing at all.

[SmartGold01]

Everyone has a percentage they do set aside for their investments and this dependent on how much they makes or receive within the week/month to disbursed to their needs and requirements. Again, one thing I do advise people people is that we aren't the one who have the general control of our lifes ( we are not the giver of life) but people can lose it at any given time, this could be through incident/accident and they loses everything they have planned and worked for in their lifes.

For me, I do allocate some portions of income to savings not more than 30 percent,  30 percent for emergency, 20 percent for expenses to the rest ( although it's not always static) depending on how tight the month or week could be so that I wouldn't entirely ran into want or putting myself into taking loan to sustain with family. I don't also deprived myself from what I think is good for me to consume that would give me good health and a healthy living. You can consume what will give you good health that doesn't mean one must not invest or save such money, when you think about investment also think about longevity because if you aren't alive to enjoy the dividends of your investment then such investments makes no meaning, hence you are cheating yourself and no one else.

It's always important to remain alive and enjoy all that you have labored than to Labor invene without you even enjoying little bit of it. I can also give an instance where someone gained new job and decided to be working on his investments plan, in this, he do away the necessary things he should do, including having good look of himself, consuming good food, living in a comfortable apartment and he fell sick and was rush to hospital, getting to the hospital was told he needs to make a deposit of 500k in our currency to commence treatment and he said such amount is extremely high that he can't afford such amount, and he went on the road side to get some relief medication thinking that would solve his problems.  After few weeks he was found dead after a heavy rain fall and I was discovered that he had a heart disease.

In summary of what I learnt from his case is that, you don't think about savings when you don't have a good and sound health, before making investments think of what you eat or consume to make you have long life, Even though it's Said we can't detects our lives but we should have good time with it while we are alive healthy and breathing fine than being stingy for ourselves and make worse of life or even laboring for others to reap where they didn't sow.

[Despairo]

1. In what percentage of your income you set aside for investments and savings? and do you still manage to provide necessities without you or your family being deprived from living comfortably?
2. Do have regrets on the things you have missed because this portion of your money went to investment and savings?
3. How do you stay motivated? Especially when the market is down.
4. What are your advice(s) to those who wants to go full with investments?

1. It's not about the percentage, make sure you provide necessities which won't hurt your life, only care about the important thing and try to get as cheapest as possible. Example, buy organic foods, cook by yourself, buy skincare and other necessary expense to improve your life. If you want to workout, wear your basic clothes, don't spend unnecessary thing like sports shirt, sports pants, sunglasses, watch etc. If you have reach at the point you already enough with your life, don't increase your lifestyle.

2. There's always thing I regret, but that's the challenge.

3. I have no motivation, all I know is discipline.

4. My advice, if you think you will retire after you have a lot of money, the answer is not, so try to find the other purpose. Like me, my purpose is to not worried if in the future will be crisis or I no longer able to work.

[Davidvictorson]

For me, I do not really have a percentage of savings. I make my budget for the month and then put the remaining balance into my savings. I remove the ones that are not really necessary or urgent. I set priority first, and that is how I will be able to save. For example, I avoid some lifestyles like not drinking, smoking going out in the night like clubs, not eating outside rather cooking at home and avoid eating junks and eating healthy that way I also save myself from some illness that will lead me to the hospital that way also add to my savings.

[batang_bitcoin]

1. In what percentage of your income you set aside for investments and savings? and do you still manage to provide necessities without you or your family being deprived from living comfortably?
2. Do have regrets on the things you have missed because this portion of your money went to investment and savings?
3. How do you stay motivated? Especially when the market is down.
4. What are your advice(s) to those who wants to go full with investments?

1. Maybe 10%-20% but sometimes if it's not enough, I have no savings at all. But if it's with investment, they're mostly in BTC holdings. And yes, I'm still able to provide things without depriving my family for that.
2. No but I have regrets that I didn't put in investments.
3. I don't know how to answer this but I am able to survive bear markets and bad days of the market by just letting it pass and not thinking much about it because it shall pass.
4. Be consistent.

[jaberwock]

I am not a fan of FIRE, so everything I do to save and invest is not for early retirement but because I don't want to have more difficulty meeting my living needs in the future where everything will be more difficult and expensive due to inflation.

I guess, this is also because you love your job, right? And at the same time it provides us more money if we work longer. But whichever path we chose, we can never go wrong with saving and investing.

If we can't save regularly and also invest, it is better to reduce all unimportant things such as going on vacation too often or going to cafes to have fun with friends or even buying the latest electronic goods.
Some recommend setting aside 20% of income for savings and investment, but if it is difficult to do, starting with a small percentage is better than nothing at all.

Also it is better to save and invest even if not in a regular basis than nothing at all. What is even better is if this allows us to still do other things that we enjoy. This is important because as they say "We only have a short time here in the world". And then we still can't carry the material things with us once we go. Furthermore, enjoying helps us to release our stress that builds up in the long time of working. Socializing on the real world can also help our mental well-being.

[ShowOff]

For me, I do not really have a percentage of savings. I make my budget for the month and then put the remaining balance into my savings. I remove the ones that are not really necessary or urgent. I set priority first, and that is how I will be able to save. For example, I avoid some lifestyles like not drinking, smoking going out in the night like clubs, not eating outside rather cooking at home and avoid eating junks and eating healthy that way I also save myself from some illness that will lead me to the hospital that way also add to my savings.

I think you have successfully implemented a very healthy lifestyle, which everyone wants, but is difficult for others to implement. By limiting yourself from many temptations, automatically the amount of expenditure will be less and the amount of savings will continue to increase, a fairly ideal condition. Many people are quite smart in generating income, but have difficulty saving it.

Of course there are many incentives to make us spend money every day, for now social media is one of them, by setting a priority scale we can realize that saving is better than fulfilling momentary desires. However, don't let being too frugal give the impression of being stingy to yourself. After working hard, sometimes we have to enjoy it.

[Sanitough]

I am not a fan of FIRE, so everything I do to save and invest is not for early retirement but because I don't want to have more difficulty meeting my living needs in the future where everything will be more difficult and expensive due to inflation.
If we can't save regularly and also invest, it is better to reduce all unimportant things such as going on vacation too often or going to cafes to have fun with friends or even buying the latest electronic goods.
Some recommend setting aside 20% of income for savings and investment, but if it is difficult to do, starting with a small percentage is better than nothing at all.

Whether we do it for FIRE or just to secure our finances in the future, saving is really a vital thing to do. And it doesn’t need to be big, we can always start even with a minimal amount and as long as we can sustain it regularly, the goal will still be achievable.

For me, the only way I can save is to refrain from dining out with my family and friends since it really cost a lot. We can always do it at home, still the bond is there. And yes, refrain from buying latest gadgets because it’s not actually a necessity thing to do just to ride with the trend.

[coin-investor]

Me, I honestly been slowing down on my travels, boys night out and impulse buying. I'm starting to convert them into long term investments and Imma tell you this, it's never easy lol  .

With inflation, political unrest, and an economic slowdown in my country, I have to think about my family's future. The solution is also to do what you're doing: cut my pleasure nights and refrain from buying unnecessary things. Nothing beats investment and passive income. You have to follow your spending and investment, it will see you through on your bad days and save you in tough times.

[peter0425]

There is a story on the forum about a person who gave up one of his bad habits, smoking, and facts about how he was able to save on buying cigarettes. In the same way, if you give up at least those products that are bad for your health (for example, sugar and everything connected with it), not to mention alcohol, Coca-Cola, and all kinds of fast food, you will not only save a lot but also stay healthy longer. Health will allow you to be able to work longer (I see that at 40 you say that you can’t be like you were at 30), thereby adding healthy habits, and finding time for some other passive income received from investment dividends, I think you will be able to achieve what you want. At least you will be freer in financial matters.

Not just about saving money but keeping determination and discipline can change the way you live your life massively. If you keep yourself doing healthy habits, it will bleed into other parts of your life. When you are working you’ll have healthier habits and this is only possible if you practice the same discipline into your usual routine.

[Bitcoin Smith]

Let's say you give up your expense like cigarette and expecting you to save fee bucks for what? To pay more to your government in the name of tax when they lack money to finance a war in other part of the world?

I do support we should have delayed gratification but I will never say it's gonna help us financially but just to show our discipline level, we can do it if we want it to and let the discipline to mold onto something bigger and something better that can bring you more money than you're currently making.

[DaNNy001]

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Please share your experiences, struggles, strategies, and success. It will be much appreciated, especially for those who have yet to start going all in with investments and savings.

Cheers!  

It's important for young people to always think about the future instead of focusing on things that are temporary...a lot of people are obsessed with material things but they tend to forget that no matter how flashy something might look it would depreciate and lose value over the years but your investments and assets would always appreciate and give you an edge over the messed up economy...when the financial market is down the only that keeps me motivated is that fact that it would go back up again

[Raflesia]

Even though I like the concept of financial independence, I'm not too interested in early retirement, so maybe I won't be included in the group that FIRE says, but even so, I will still invest in the end, not to retire early, but to make my future or old age a little more secure, especially for now I invest, especially when investing in bitcoin, I still use this as a hedge against inflation that occurs, so this is one of my reasons for staying in investment until now.

As for the percentage of savings and investment, I think this depends on the income and of course the expenses that you have because not everyone will do the same thing, but with what I get now from the income and expenses that I do now, it is likely that 30-45 percent I set aside for investment and savings (of course savings are smaller) because savings are only for the short term and this can be an emergency fund, the remaining 55 percent I use for my needs and my small family to survive in everyday life.

So far, it hasn't been too disruptive because I'm quite happy with it because I try to adjust to the existing situation, but of course not everyone will be the same because it depends on each person's income and expenses in the end.

[stadus]

I really love the acronym FIRE -  it’s always been my dream. And while I’ve already retired (and I do call it early), I haven’t fully reached that level of financial independence just yet. But I’m getting there. What I’m really aiming for now is full financial freedom.

As a former employee, I realized that if I stayed and retired from the company I was working for, I probably wouldn’t have reached my dream. So I took a risk,  I retired early, even if things weren’t 100% certain. And I’m glad I did.

Crypto came at the right time for me. I found a space I truly enjoy, and I’ve grown here ever since.

[skarais]

1. In what percentage of your income you set aside for investments and savings? and do you still manage to provide necessities without you or your family being deprived from living comfortably?

I can't save from my salary from my real job, my monthly income is only enough to be allocated for my own expenses even though some of it is for my family's daily needs. So, I can't allocate it for investment, while my investment funds are collected from other jobs as a second source of income.

2. Do have regrets on the things you have missed because this portion of your money went to investment and savings?
3. How do you stay motivated? Especially when the market is down.

I never regretted it even though I had to postpone some of my pleasures and desires to buy luxury goods. I didn't buy an expensive laptop, I didn't buy an iphone, I didn't buy a car, I didn't buy anything expensive while building my investment, but after I made 3 times more return, I started to consider some of them.

4. What are your advice(s) to those who wants to go full with investments?

Focus first on building investment and delay some pleasure, this does not mean you will not enjoy it. The future return can be used for whatever you need, many people actually practice it.

[mirakal]

For me, I do not really have a percentage of savings. I make my budget for the month and then put the remaining balance into my savings. I remove the ones that are not really necessary or urgent. I set priority first, and that is how I will be able to save. For example, I avoid some lifestyles like not drinking, smoking going out in the night like clubs, not eating outside rather cooking at home and avoid eating junks and eating healthy that way I also save myself from some illness that will lead me to the hospital that way also add to my savings.

If you really want to save, one should cut those unnecessary expenses. Otherwise, whatever you have saved, you will only spend it later on in order to sustain your spending habit. So start the control and discipline on yourself first until you get used to it, and you can easily disregard your spending habit.

Prioritize saving more than spending. Focus on your needs, and when you have extra money, that’s the time you can spend on your wants. But always reserve extra funds for saving, regardless of its amount, the important thing is at least you have set aside an amount for you to save.

[justinlamode]

I'm happy I found Bitcoin and have started investing in it. Due to my commitment in Bitcoin, I have cut down on my frivolous spending to be able to invest in Bitcoin with most patt of my discretionary income. Sometimes, I go as far as 60% of my income into Bitcoin because that is the best investment that made