So, let's pretend I've got $(5X) savings,
and basic necessities force me to spend $5X/year,
leaving me with 5 years to live.

And this is after waiting & hoping for 20 years of earning more money
(earn at a faster rate than I am now)
and chronically holding off spending money on any luxuries
such as WAM videos until I make more money.

But, during those 20 years of non-purchasing,
I've seen WAM producers whose videos I would really have loved to
have bought, such as Pie Fun Productions,
come & go, not buying their product, and now never can.

Should I buy now or wait until the very end in 5 years,
cut my life short by a month and spend $1000 on WAM videos?

P.S. While I am generally highly skeptical of overhype of any technology,
I still consider myself an optimist in general, slightly more so specifically
because yesterday I watched a January 2018 talk by life-extension advocate
Aubrey de Grey which convinced me his ideas are being taken seriously
now by mainstream gerontologists.

However, I don't think life-extension technologies can solve the running
out of money in 5 years issue. Unless, of course, in 5 years societies
no longer use money for economic exchanges.

Z, we are probably a lot more than 5 years out from living like the UFP. Chances grow exponentially that within 5 years you and I will both be very much dead; especially when you consider the ignorance of our world leaders.

My recommendation is get the damn videos, eat what you want, and die happy. I know personally that you've done far less to contribute to the ecological destruction of this planet than most of us (myself included). Buy yourself that extra large size bottle of Hershey's syrup and roll around in it wearing a Boba Fett kigurumi, if that's what makes you happy. You're not hurting anyone doing that.

Me, I said fuck it, I'm going to Vegas. I might not have the money to pay my bills the next month...but I'm tired of surviving. I could survive probably 5 more years at this rate, but I'd much rather LIVE 1. And since you've met me, you know exactly the kind of shit I'm talking about. I'm tired of surviving, I'm tired of the pain, I'm tired of the treatments (which I go through all pretty much alone). I'd much rather spend one week with the people I like, the people that get me, in a nice, warm, and sunny place.

To each their own though.

Whatever you decide, I wish you all the happiness; you deserve some.

Thanks for the ideas, Potatoman.

I've been raised my entire life to think "save, save, save".
But, "save, save, save" has really just turned into
"slightly decrease the rate of water gushing out of the dyke".
10,000 liters a minute versus 9,990 liters a minute.

Terrified or enraged at people(*) make dumbfuck dumbass generalizations
about (presumably all or most)
Americans, or
"this" generation, or
the poor, or
(insert favorite target)

"wasting their money, not saving, etc"

(*) a certain set of people

I know what you mean but after a certain bank proudly offered me a 0.05% interest ISA, I have decided to remove all my money from all accounts and buy a house instead as it feels like such a better option.

Just need to find one with a wet room now...

Buy the videos. Live while you can. we each only get one shot at this.

Silver_Sea: Were you implying your bank's interest rate of pathetic 0.05% was so low that it was worth it to you to remove your money from that particular bank?

Odd - the price (in terms of dollars) of my physical silver has dropped so low since I invested in it in 2011. Yet, I still do not regret it, given all the evils & crimes banks
have committed. I don't trust having the bulk of my money in a bank,
since they can steal it / not give it back to me at any time.

I too am pretty frugal. I think I'd buy some videos, but probably not $1000 worth. Spread them out and savor them.

Yes. Investing money in property (even with a slump on it's way) will (hopefully) be more than a rubbish 0.05%.

Not sure about your mistrust in banks, evil fair enough.

If Dr Z had posed this question 5 years ago and we had the foresight (like the Winklevoss twins) to invest in Bitcoin (which was $2 per coin in Dec 2011), instead of buying lots of wam media every month....then by now we would all be multi-millionaires who could afford to buy a Playboy style mansion and hire dozens of nubile wam models to entertain us every week with wam events.

$10,000 invested in Bitcoins in Dec 2011 would be worth 53.9 million dollars today

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jayadkisson/2017/12/28/the-great-bitcoin-scam/#28f7f4925c1e

Or you go to jail for fraud, because the rules and regulations regarding "money" are quite arbitrary and change according to who you are and how much of "it" whatever "it" is you have. Take Wells Fargo for instance, or "insert your national bank of choice here".

I like how in the opening explanation "The only difference between Bitcoin No. ABC123 and $1 Bill No. L88793293J is that at the end of the day, the $1 bill physically exists and has a face value that is worth something, i.e., Fred could take the $1 bill and buy something off the $1 menu at McDonalds." the author likens the dollar bill to something of value as a commodity such as silver or gold.

However with the stroke of a pen or a wrong word, that dollar can be worth literally nothing over night. We already live in a world where the dollar is worth less than the materials it is created with; depending on the quantity that is printed in a batch. Therefore, technically the dollar that exists in the bank as a digital fiat $1.00.00 is worth more than the FRNs that on average cost $0.054 per note produced en masse because they lack physical production cost.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm

Furthermore, that figure of $0.054 per note is dependent upon many factors including the shifting market of paper, ink, and other ingredients used to create the unit of currency.

In closing, the bit coin like any currency is where it is today because of many factors but to sum up.

1. Fad - popularity: The Franc is worthless because if fell out of style, the Euro was the new hottness

2. Laundering, embezzlement, criminal behavior, manipulation - And many other fancy words that change the values of currencies on an hourly level. These practices which are morally perceived and/or declared as morally wrong, but legally ok, once again depending on who you are.

3. Because some old fat man with a monocle and a history of being "financially cool" fucking says so and we're just goddammed dumb enough to believe him. If that fat man told you to give him $5 in Monopoly money for a car, you'd do it, and he'd still be able to turn a profit through above mentioned means.

This is what I've learned from a decade of working in banking and the financial sector, including revered companies like The Vanguard Group.

P.S. I never looked good in a monocle or fell in with the financially cool kids

Makes me wish I had invested ALL my money early on in nothing but WAM videos,
as they are sure to yield a MUCH greater return than any BANK will
if one goes to resell them later or barter them for medical care or, as in your idea,
a new house.