[Evans, Marv]

You are on the correct path (your friends & neighbors aren't), and I agree with the previous comments completely. Look at it this way: nobody plans to die early, and your period of income earning life is for your WHOLE life and that of your wife. I think others on here will also agree the more you save, the easier it is to continue to save more. I can also guarantee that you will enjoy those vacations in retirement as much or more than you would enjoy them now. What you have available for the necessities of life should also include providing for the after-work life. You are doing a great job of providing for the family, and your friends & neighbors are eating into their resources by lavish, unecessary purchases and losses on interest from everything they borrow money for. They will have a far greater chance of having to be scrooges in retirement than you.