<prompt> Human: Quick background - about to graduate college into a pretty good job with only a few thousand in student loan debt. Ive been heavily lurking rpersonalfinance as well as reading a few books, trying to do everything I can to set up a savings plan with the newfound paycheck before it gets here. Dont have the complete picture yet, but my job offers excellent 401k matching and a few relatively safe stock options significant member of the SP index so Ill probably start there once the emergency fund is complete.The question isnt about that plan; its about why do YOU invest? There is so much talk of how to save, but not much with regard to WHY to save other than the obvious emergency fund reasoning. My personal plans are a bit shorter term and seem frivolous compared to the weighty all-encompassing retirement phrase that seems to be the common answer to this question. Put it this way.. As someone pretty into weightliftingfitness, I am very goal oriented, and have so far been the same about savings. For example, I will buy a luxurysports car someday. For me, putting a picture of a Porsche above my desk is a much better motivator than a vague comfortable retirement idea. Is this the wrong way to go about it?Edit: Thanks for all the fantastic responses! For people who find this thread down the road, common answers seem to be ability to maintain a lifestyle, buy what you want when you want it, just generally not worry about paycheck-to-paycheck living or insurmountable debt. Edit2: bobsmithhome with my favorite response thus far really puts into perspective what retirement actually means.  <response>: My mom makes 150k a year, but doesnt save or invest any of it. She has an overpriced mortgage, and needs to finance vehicles, etc. Sometimes she finds it hard to pay some of her bills at all. My wife and I make significantly less money but we invest a decent portion of it, simply for the fact that we will never finance anything, we will never have anything under us that will suck us dry. Thats why they call investingsaving, paying yourself first. 