This all seems very hyperbolic to me. You're painting it as being a matter of judging rather than useful, lived advice.
For the first five years of my adult life I wouldn't have even considered spending $5 on a coffee, or a take out sandwich, or whatever. It felt like a ridiculous sum of money. When I visit parts of the UK that aren't awash with wealth, it still does.
I genuinely did think of it through the lens of - not doing that meant that I could quite rapidly save a month's rent, then a few months' rent, and so on.
Would it make me a millionaire? No. Certainly not in isolation. But it would break my fall if I were to become unemployed, temporarily ill, etc.
And that initial spark of starting to save, having a buffer, not going homeless if I lost my job for a month or two or six, was an essential ingredient in me becoming what you seem to call 'The Haves'.
$5 a day for 5 years is over $9K. Non-inflation adjusted. You could stick it under a mattress and that's still six months rent here in London or a _year_ if you share a flat. It's genuinely a large amount of money.
If I'd spent my whole life chucking money at everything that came my way I'd still be poor because I would never have been able to risk switching jobs, moving, I very well could have ended up homeless in periods when I left work for a while, etc. Living paycheck to paycheck is basically suicide. You have to make hay whilst the sun shines.
Until I had a decent amount saved I essentially did not have discretionary income. I felt it was frivolous. That has worked out for me and I see no reason why it wouldn't work out for others; as such I believe expressing my opinion to be useful advice, and it is rather odd to have that lived experience be painted as "moralizing".
For the first five years of my adult life I wouldn't have even considered spending $5 on a coffee, or a take out sandwich, or whatever. It felt like a ridiculous sum of money. When I visit parts of the UK that aren't awash with wealth, it still does.
I genuinely did think of it through the lens of - not doing that meant that I could quite rapidly save a month's rent, then a few months' rent, and so on.
Would it make me a millionaire? No. Certainly not in isolation. But it would break my fall if I were to become unemployed, temporarily ill, etc.
And that initial spark of starting to save, having a buffer, not going homeless if I lost my job for a month or two or six, was an essential ingredient in me becoming what you seem to call 'The Haves'.
$5 a day for 5 years is over $9K. Non-inflation adjusted. You could stick it under a mattress and that's still six months rent here in London or a _year_ if you share a flat. It's genuinely a large amount of money.
If I'd spent my whole life chucking money at everything that came my way I'd still be poor because I would never have been able to risk switching jobs, moving, I very well could have ended up homeless in periods when I left work for a while, etc. Living paycheck to paycheck is basically suicide. You have to make hay whilst the sun shines.
Until I had a decent amount saved I essentially did not have discretionary income. I felt it was frivolous. That has worked out for me and I see no reason why it wouldn't work out for others; as such I believe expressing my opinion to be useful advice, and it is rather odd to have that lived experience be painted as "moralizing".