It sounds like you're a pretty high earner, which is great. If you have more money than you know what to do with, have you thought of making early retirement a goal? Especially if your job is high stress, that could be a huge asset to you over the course of your life.

That would also give you a lot of focus and incentive to continue saving, knowing that you could retire 5/10/15 years early.

To me (obviously you have to decide for yourself), I'd take early retirement over expensive purchases any day. Not so I can sit around do nothing, but so that I could travel and join causes/initiatives which matter to me without the need to worry about money.

We're not in that different of a spot--we've paid everything off, and I can't quite figure out why we're both working at the stress level we are. Maybe both you and I need to re-think our career choices--I'm not sure if it's really retiring early or just changing to something lower key. From the stuff JD has posted lately, it seems that fixing our everyday work lives will make us happier than a new car will (because it soon won't be new anymore...)

Good luck in your decision.

You may be on to something there, my wife's parents were super-frugal, never spent money on anything (so they could travel, etc. during retirement) and he started exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's right after he retired and was dead a few years later.

I do dream of retiring at 50, but that will either be very easy or very hard to do depending on what happens in my career the next 2-3 years.

Remember there are different types of retirement too. You could always phase it in, if you had to.

Maybe something like this:

1) Drop down to a normal "9 to 5" job which is lower stress.
2) Then a few years later, go part-time.
3) Then a few years later, stop working completely.

Also, make sure you're realistic about your expectations in retirement. Do you want to live lushly or just be able to not work? If you can bring in your expectations, even by 10% or 20%, that could also help "make the difference."

I agree with you that it's a balance. To not live life for 50~ years so you can save millions to only die younger than expected is a waste. However, to enjoy your youth while driving yourself into poverty in retirement isn't any better. You just have to find that right balance for you and your family.

I think I'm already at step 1.

And your really missed step 2a -- which is what many, many people do. It is retiring while still on the job. You decide to retire, prepare for it, then just keep working on your own terms until someone gets rid of you. Lots of people get away with this for 10 years or so.

You can question the ethics of that approach...but don't question the effectiveness until you've talked to people who admit to having done it. It is more common than you think!

I have co-workers who won't retire for decades that do this.

I think "2a" is an option. I wouldn't even say it has to be slacking off, maybe just not going "above and beyond." I'll admit it, right now, I don't even think of my hours worked that much, I just do the job... which is usually a lot more than 40 hours. This helps me from a career growth perspective, but maybe not personally. I can sustain this for a while longer since I'm still youngish, but I don't want to do it forever.

Eventually, I'll probably just look for something where I can put in an honest 8 hours a day and 100% unplug myself from work after that. That alone would seem like a vacation.

We've got a 2a in our office at the moment.

Worst thing is she constantly touts about how she could retire any day she wanted to. We all wish she would.

If a "2a" means not doing the core requirements of your job, then I would tend to have an issue with that. It's also not fair to my co-workers to be "that guy."

However, if "2a" simply means not going above and beyond and sticking to business hours, then I can respect that. You gotta live sometime.

Ours is more like, she’s at the age of retirement, has a good stash of cash due to a payout for her husbands death a while back, everything is paid for (house/cars/annual trips), she just works 4 days a week as that’s all she wants to work, but when she is at work she’s a complainer and bitches and moans about nothing ever going right or people not doing their job and she keeps saying she’s had enough of it and she could retire at any time she wanted.

I don't think you should regret it, I learn from everyone on this forum, whether my financial situation matches theirs or not. I did learn from your insight and have been thinking about it for days. I'm almost done paying off my loans and fought off the gimmes during the pay-off process with bookmarks of 'stuff I want'. Now I can buy the 'stuff I want' but don't know if I should. It's difficult to process, to be honest. I don't like feeling deprived but I know I'm doing it to myself, I am not deprived. It's the wanting that is the problem, just as you said!

We all have to deal with the 'wants' and balance whether it makes sense for us and our families.

I currently want a roomba. The cat is shedding. And black leather boots. Because I think they will suddenly make me hip and cool. If you knew me in real life, you would know this is beyond the power of boots.

There are 2a's in my office too. A lot of them are waiting for their kids to be self-sufficient, but they haven't instilled any financial values in their kids, so they'll be there forever; either doing the job they're supposed to, or just hanging around. If I ever have kids, they certainly won't be my albatross (I actually said that to someone two days ago, and they rolled their eyes and just looked at me). I laughed.

The problem at my company is that if you get fired, you don't get your pension after working for 20-30-40+ years. If you get laid off, you get a VERY nice severance package. Those that are waiting around may be in for a big surprise.

My thinking is that I am the master of my domain.

And Taz, don't regret posting. We are all in different phases of our financial lives, and because you want an Audi isn't bad. There are others who want a new mattress. It's the same principle.

Getting back the the original premise...When you have a small/no amount of money, it makes it very easy to know what to do. That was the state my family have been in a long time. Fix the car doors, replace the front door with a new one, music lessons for the oldest kid, a nice family or couples vacation, it was simply no to everything. Well we refinanced so we got money out, primarily for house improvements. But having the money suddenly put things back on the table again, making us have to make decisions that we didn't have to make before. It's hard to have to suddently prioritize maybe in a different way.

It sounds like you were in the similar position, of creating scarcity by earmarking a huge portion of your income, so big ticket items were off the table. If you are feeling resentful of it, maybe you have gone too far in that direction. This might be a good idea not just to explore the car decision, but how you are allocating your money in general to maybe make a slightly better balance. For example in all the money you are putting aside, where is your "fun money?" If you get so resentful of all the hard work you are doing with no visible recompense, then it is tempting to quit and then there goes the good work you are doing with all the responsible allocations.
I guess I'm saying I don't know if the sports car is the answer but it sounds like you need to create a new balance.