Spend or Save?

http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/18bkmp/is_it_all_worth_it/

What is your long-range goal about money and the "good life"? What is "good" and desirable, and what is painful? Do you want to have a fancy house, cars, exotic vacations, clothes, bling? Or do you want to live modestly now so you can be assured of a secure future, which may include financial stuff that you just cannot see coming down the pike?

These may be questions you're trying to sort out. I know I am, at 57 years old. It's always a work in progress. And it helps to hear other people's thoughts--not so much because I really want the advice of other people, but because sometimes the discussion itself helps me clarify my own thoughts. There are no right answers that anybody else can give you. Money is one of the 3 things you don't talk about over dinner with anyone but the absolute best of friends (along with God and politics). And it's one thing you jolly well better talk about with a prospective spousal unit.

In that spirit, here's a thread from Reddit with gazillions of comments, opinions, and real-life, from-the-gut experience. (Here's a link to a blog post earlier this year, where I briefly described what Reddit is: http://nuenglishgettingalife.blogspot.com/2013/01/on-your-own.html)