I then asked her a question on which path she would take....
(1) Minimize vacations expenses to retire early or
(2) Take great vacations and retire later.
She prefer option 2 because she is in her 20's and she wants to enjoy life. She also claims that at age 40 or 50 she will be "too old" to enjoy these things in early retirement.
Any comments on which option you would take?
I would probably disagree with the test/question in general.
We actually made the choice to cut out expensive vacations for a few years (as well as cutting all other purchases, moving into smaller places to reduce our rent, paying off all debt etc)...
But that was with the "light at the end of the tunnel" of being able to take an extended 1-2year trip and/or buy our freedom at the end of those years of savings.
If I was told we had to cut out all those things for 10-20years or more... there's NO WAY we could have maintained focus that long and/or would have been miserable the entire time.
If the plan is to work for another 10-20years I'd keep taking vacations too (in order to simply stay sane)... but if the goal/plan is to ratchet all things down in order to make immediate life change fast and RE way way earlier (like in your 30s), then it's easier to get onboard with sacrifices.
We may see things more in black and white... but making small sacrifices to shave only a few years off retirement seemed hardly worth it to us, while we were happy to live insanely cheap/meagerly for a few years in order to retire by 35.
It's all about the size of the reward I guess.