Not defending the alternate mindset per se (my wife and I have a 2006 car, and a 2011 we bought used), but I can understand how it arises from the fixed costs of changing those things.
Some people are truly reckless, but others end up in a situation where they don't forecast perfectly (pay cuts, unanticipated expenses). Downsizing your house is a huge change and a car loan lasts five years. If you're putting 15% towards savings/debt and want to bump that up (or worse: draining your savings by a little bit each month), you can cut back on short-term expenses immediately.
That’s why my wife and I have adopted a strategy of living on only one of our incomes, and saving and investing the other.
I realize we are in a position to do so in that we are both career focused and make enough together that we can afford to do so. If we were working minimum wage jobs, this wouldn’t work.
But I imagine that’s the case for a lot of folks on this forum. Certainly many are single, but for those that aren’t, it’s lkkely true.
What this has enabled us to do is both work for a series of startups. Also, we aren’t interested in kids, but it leaves us with the option if things change. Or, god forbid, one of us were to get sick or be injured.
Living to the hilt as a DINK sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
you can cut back on short-term expenses immediately.
Can definitely agree with that. There's hundreds or even a thousand or two on the table with phone bills, insurance of all kinds, etc and even those are trivial to change up compared to a house or car sale.
Some people are truly reckless, but others end up in a situation where they don't forecast perfectly (pay cuts, unanticipated expenses). Downsizing your house is a huge change and a car loan lasts five years. If you're putting 15% towards savings/debt and want to bump that up (or worse: draining your savings by a little bit each month), you can cut back on short-term expenses immediately.