<prompt> Human: Looking at a calculator on vanguard, I need to save about 14kyear working from ages 25-62 31 percent in order to obtain a retirement income equal to 60 of todays income. Which will not be worth what it is today anyway and is the bare minimum they even recommend . Now 30 is not completely insane but its getting there after 30 for mortgage tax ins etc, then you have misc bills that eat up another 20 student loan debt that would be nice to have gone give it another 10.Point is, to even save for the bare minimum in retirement I have to really stretch my budget to make it work. This is really depressing. Not to mention in my case 401k with my contributionemployer 4250yr5000yr maxing out Roth IRA I guess I put the additional 6k in my 401k? Saving 1200month for a bare bones retirement seems absurd to me  <response>: You arent counting in social security. Ill just give you my personal anecdote and why Im not panicking. The calculator that our companys 401k provider uses is pretty helpful in accounting for inflation, social security, etc... Uses some advanced math on the backend. Basically I make 34kyr at the moment, and Im saving 5 of that in a roth 401k with a 50 match where they stop matching is 5 sadly. The estimator suggests that will be the equivalent of me living off of 2122 per month in todays money if I retire at 67.My wife and I bought a house that is about 14 of our combined income in mortgagefeesproperty tax each month. She makes more than me for sure about 109k now I think?. Shes contributing 10 at work with 50 matching.Our current lifestyle is living beneath our means on bills and other stuff like cars and car insurance, but making up for it by going on vacations and enjoying life on the weekends in general. All we have to do when we retire is do that stuff less.You are probably underestimating how much you spend on eating out, watching movies, bills etc... You probably are not imagining that your student loans, house payment, etc... wont be things you likely would be paying for by the time you retire. You take those out, and its a significant change. If I hadnt met my wife, I would be living in a shared housing situation as cheap as possible renting a room in an apartment or something to keep costs down. Before I met her I was paying 375 a month for my share of the rent in Lakewood, CO, for instance.Its all relative. My grandpa never made a lot of money. He was in the USAF, got some pension from that, and then worked at a glass factory until he was 55 and retired. My grandmother is a retired High School English teacher, but she retired way before 55. They bought their house in the late 60s, it was paid off in full in the 90s. My grandpa is 82 now, my grandma is... I think 79? LOL I always forget. The point is, nowadays they make crock pot meals for lunch and dinner, eat cereal for breakfast, dont go out to eat much at all etc... But they never did, they grew up real simple in Missouri, moved to California, and never lived like the people do in California. Buy most things to make meals from scratch and youll save a lot of money. Buy long-lasting good quality stuff that may seem up-front more expensive, and it will last you a lifetime. I think my grandpa hasnt bought new clothes for himself in 20 years. But its not a problem, all his clothes are high-quality cotton or wool. Just clean em, repair em, thats that.I think most people younger like us are stuck in very troubling consumerism cycles. Did I really need a Google Pixel? Not likely. Did I need a little motorcycle? Nope. Did I need those 3 monitors for my 2,000 dollar computer setup? Nope. etc... The reality is, we dont live the way our elders did, and we live in a world where the money is probably tighter.Its a good thing you are thinking about this, that puts you above 910 of your peers. 