<prompt> Human: Im 27 with a good paying job but Im boarder line obsessed with saving money. Since I was a teenager Ive been paranoid about never having money if an emergency came up because my mom and dad never had money so I would save my money religiously. To the point where I would not go out on the weekends or not eat lunch with friends during the week because I NEEDED to make sure I had saved a certain amount of money from that given paycheck. Fast forward to present time. I own my own home, I have a small child, and I put away 3 away in my 401k my company plans to match next year. But Im STILL obsessed with saving at least 500 a month. I do use my credit card and I have roughly 1500 combined on two at the moment that I should have paid off in the next couple of months. But I hear so many ads that say an average American has up to 16K in credit card debit. How is that possible?I need some clarity on this because its starting to drive me insane. I need a new mattress and I get extreme anxiety thinking about spending 500 on a new mattress because what if my daughter need surgery or what if I get this unexpected bill for something. Basically is 500 a lot to save in a month? Do most people save any money at all? I just want to know how other people handling saving their money or If Im just crazy. TIA  <response>: About the only way I can make sense of this post is that youre using saving to mean that youve only got that amount in cash and youre carrying over that balance every month. But your claim that youre obsessed with actually saving money is completely at odds with that. If youre such a saver, how did you even get credit card debt? Why do you care about a 500 expense ruining you when youve presumably got much more than that in a savings account? 