Young men cannot usually appreciate life without work. It is either an unbelievable concept or one that is just too far into the future to believe. Company and government pensions are now the exception, no longer the rule. Social security (a grand a month) may or may not be available when we hit the ever-increasing retirement age. Hopefully, we in Western countries have figured out by now that retirement is not a given, but an event that must be planned and sacrificed for, or it will be missed and we will simply work until we die.

The act of delaying gratification is humbling. It is long-term. It is the inverse of living large. However, those of us on the other side of age 40 can appreciate both the prospect of having enough to live without needing to work, and the regret of not listening to those in our youth who told us to start saving and/or investing early on. This gold nugget of mine was harvested through both.

You don't have to work all of your life. But if you cheat while you are young and spend most of what you earn, you will be sorry as you work next to teenage, pimple-faced kids with zero respect for seniors. When you reach a ripe age, at a point in your life where you know what you want to do, but have neither the resources (savings) nor the time to do it (because you have to work), there will be few second chances. End of cautionary tale.