<prompt> Human: I live in a cheap area, still in my old college town Im 24 by the way. That also means rent is cheap, so I can get away with only dealing with about 325month on rent and utilities. My groceries are also cheap, as well as car insurance, but Im now making car payments of about 430month I have a decent APR and I have a short loan, so Im not really here for loan advice since my interest is only going to be a few hundred bucks in the end.So if you do the math, you can tell Im putting quite a bit away for retirement each year. Something like 12k, I think its actually a little more than that. So Ive been getting by just fine taking home the small amount that I do, but other people are telling me to stop being so damn cheap and to live life. Im not really sure how much I should be putting away into retirement if I want to retire comfortably. Im putting away a lot of my paycheck because I want to retire at a higher standard of living than what I am living at right now. I dont know what amount that should be. I understand with my degree in engineering, Ill probably be making more money in the next few years if I go to a bigger city, but then I worry that cost of living will increase a ridiculous amount and that will negate the higher salary. On the other hand, even 45k is a low salary for this cheap town edit: Ames, Iowa.Im not sure if thats enough information or not. Really, Its hard to ask a specific question. But does 12kyear sound reasonable for retirement at my salary? Would maybe only putting 9kyear into retirement, and then putting that extra 3kyear towards a week vacation on the opposite side of Earth be irresponsible? Everyone tells me I need to live life, and world-trips are the common suggestion I get from other people Ive only been to Mexico and Canada, live in the U.S.. Ill be honest, I would enjoy traveling and seeing places, but then again who wouldnt? I dont know what else to do with money. I dont want a fancy car, I dont want Italian designer suits, and I already have the usual emergency fund stocked up. But traveling, seeing the world, and exploring in general might be worth a few thousand dollars a year. Or is it? I really need to grow up, man up, and get an opinion of my own but I seriously dont trust myself to spend money on myself. I have way too many irresponsible friends that are the extreme opposite of me, and I feel like Im on the opposite extreme and need to meet somewhere in the middle.  <response>: It sounds like youre doing fine. If theres something you would like to do, that you arent right now, then do something about it, but otherwise just let people talk about whatever they want. Too many Americans and people in other countries too are worried about having the shiny toys, but if you are happy without them, why do anything differently?If you want to go on a nice vacation, work out some numbers and make it happen. Its called personal finance for a reason, its personal to you. Some people do like the fancy cars, or the expensive suits, other people like to have a huge home theater or go traveling around the world. You really shouldnt be just shoving away money, its good to have a goal youre working towards. Basically: dont worry so much about what other people think. Do what makes you happy. If you can be happy living off 1000month youre in a pretty good place to be, try and use the rest of your income to improve your life in other ways. 