If you're entrepreneurial, I fully believe it's a better use of your time and mental energy to make an additional $5k/yr than to scrimp to save an extra $5k/yr. For the HN crowd, this could mean building a side project that generates income, negotiating a higher salary, etc.
That being said, the type of people who have the luxury to focus on those types of things are in the minority. For those who aren't entrepreneurial, don't work in tech, etc. sticking to a strict budget can be the difference between having money for retirement and not having it.
I call this the "sales mindset" vs the "accounting mindset". In my opinion, once you see the accounting mindset take hold of the leadership of a company, it's prospects are dead. It's not growing any more. Granted, a company can make a ton of money during its slow decline.
There are, of course, industries that are different (Walmart seems to make way more via cost savings than by sales incentives, for example).
Walmart shows how the accounting mindset can work for a company: the more you drive down costs, the more markets you can make a profit in. They cut costs for the sake of being able to expand into places that they otherwise wouldn't be able to, rather than to boost profit from stagnant sales.
> I fully believe it's a better use of your time and mental energy to make an additional $5k/yr than to scrimp to save an extra $5k/yr.
That's not how money works though if you pay income taxes. An extra dollar saved is worth more than an extra dollar earned because you pay new taxes on new income. At the high end in the US, saving $5000 offsets earning $7500. "Every dollar that you don't have to spend is a dollar.fifty that you don't have to worry about earning."
If you're the type of person who can make a decision and not be tempted by other options after the fact, sure. But for many people it can create decision fatigue when you pass the coffeeshop on the way to work every day, when your coworkers invite you out for a coffee, when you're running late at the airport and Starbucks is right there...you have to constantly reaffirm your decision over and over again.
That being said, the type of people who have the luxury to focus on those types of things are in the minority. For those who aren't entrepreneurial, don't work in tech, etc. sticking to a strict budget can be the difference between having money for retirement and not having it.