So you knew someone that spent $40.00 per week at Starbucks and that proves your theory to be correct. I see! Well, when most of the people my age started out there was no Starbucks to go too. Average salaries were in the range of $8000 per year and that had to pay for everything, not counting taxes. Like I said EVERYONE'S situation is different but to just think that there is nothing to putting $400 a month away to use when they get to 65 years old is not the reality for the vast majority of people. Particularly, in the era I grew up in. By the time we got to the end of college at around 22 years old, we had that lovely Police Action in So. Vietnam and by the time we got out of our Government obligation we were 25 or 26 trying to get started in a world that was already saturated with those that managed to have the proper timing to not have to do that service. It also depends on where one lives. If you lived in a big city and had a marketable skill then you might start out with more salary, but if you just married, started a family and were working your way up. that $400 was pretty evasive if you are in more rural areas.
I'm sure that you are expressing your individual experience but you are one person in a group of 350,000,000 people and not everyone would be lucky enough to start out that way. Try doing all that on $300 per week, pay a mortgage, pay for a car, buy food, clothing and pay for utilities and see were you might find $400 per month just lying around with nothing to need it for life in general. I'm just saying that your idea of it is simple to just cut back on something and put it away, is not what most people are able to do by necessity. I'm glad that you were able, but don't make it sound like we were all spending foolishly instead of planning for the future. Before anyone can get to the future, we all have to survive the present.
If it was a Dunkin Donuts one, I would probably have it forever because 
