I absolutely agree and I'm reasonably sure most others here do as well.
The sad truth is some of us only have a year or so to live and don't even know it. Yet many of us still concentrate way too much of our time and energy on "things" - I know I'm certainly guilty in that regard. We may try to resist but end up justifying buying an RV (nolo contendere) or adding a pool, or sports car, or that vacation home on the beach.
Trying to find the right balance between overconsumption and deprivation is a life long battle.
I think my post was unclear, hence was misunderstood.
A nice car is, well, nice. I no longer care about cars, because I am interested in RV now
, but I understand other people's happiness to own one, and not trying to knock it at all.
Most people agree that money spent on experience is bound to bring more happiness than possessions. That too is ambiguous, because possessions are sometimes needed to get the experiences. But if I know I have only 1 year left to live, I am not sure if I would even care to travel. I just don't know what I would care about then, but a car is the last thing I would want. Or an RV. I would enjoy many things and activities in life when I am healthy, but in sickness?
Yes, the right balance between consumption and "having to work another year" is hard to define. And exactly because we do not know if we even have a year left means we need to "live for today", like this thread title says. And if that means "working for just another year", hey, it is not so bad, is it?
Talk about working to death, I once repeated to an older colleague, a former boss actually, the statement that no one would wish to spend more time at work on his death bed. I said that was the reason I wanted to travel now. He shook his head and said that on a death bed, most patients would just wish the pain to end. That left me speechless. It is sad, isn't it?
Another thread with the title "I've Arrived" by Kyounge1956 brought to my mind the song "J'arrive" by Jacques Brel
J'arrive j'arrive
Mais pourquoi moi pourquoi maintenant
Pourquoi déjà et où aller
J'arrive bien sûr, j'arrive
Mais ai-je jamais rien fait d'autre qu'arriver
I arrrive, I arrive
But why me, why now
Why already and where to next
I arrive for sure, I arrive
But I have done nothing other than to arrive
It has nothing to do with financial, and the song poetic lyrics are ambiguous but hint of the end of life, and it is more appropriate to post that here than in the other thread.
PS. Few people know that the popular hit songs "If you go away" and "Seasons in the sun" were English translations of Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" and "Le moribond".