<prompt> Human: Im about a quarter of the way through the millionaire next door and part of me doesnt agree with the sentiment of the book. Being a self made millionaire is EXCELLENt but at what cost? Are you willing to live your life never buying anything you want, never going on vacations, never doing ANYTHING? Am I jumping the gun with this book where I should just wait to read the whole thing to understand or is this really what they are saying?My wife and I love to travel and yes we would have more money in the bank to invest if we stayed home all the time but I just think I wouldnt want to wake up one day 80 years old looking back at my life not having done anything but stashing money.Thoughts?  <response>: There is. Its been a while since I last read that book, but it really brought a lot of things in perspective for me. Looking at the overall long-term picture over obsessing over what is going on month to month was one of the big takeaways.While my household income is above the median, my SO and I try to put about 25 of our gross income in savings automatically. About 40 gross goes to taxes. We made a rule that any luxury want items need to be paid in full in cash so we have separate capitalone360 accounts that money is funnelled into every paycheck.We like to go on small vacations with the kids. We like to spoil our kids a little as far as activities they want to do are concerned. We want to save for college expenses. We want to pay off our mortgage early. My SO and I like cars, too. We do not finance them. Every other year we take an entire month off of work to go on an extended vacation with the kids.I buy clothes from thrift shops and consignment stores for both the kids and myself. I found a pair of NYCo work pants that fit perfectly for 1 at the local thrift shop! I hang dry all our laundry to keep our clothes nice longer to be fair, I grew up without a dryer so its NBD to me. We bought a house for 400K when we were approved for a 1M mortgage. Coworkers of ours do have 800K to 1M houses. I just didnt see the point. 