How much money would you have in the bank if you exercised the same financial discipline now that you were forced to when you were younger and first entered the work force? I remember subsisting on a diet of ramen and tuna fish, staying home all weekend in front of the TV waiting for next week to start over again. I had kind of forgotten those miserable days until I noticed one of my middle aged neighbors here pretty much still does the same thing. She never goes out, not even when she's invited by her friends, she cooks all of her own meals and never misses a day of work. If she's been living like that her whole life, she's probably close to being a millionaire by virtue of being frugal. I don't think I'll ever go back to cooking my own meals, but I could definitely do with some staying home once in a while. I probably never drop less than $400 a month at the bars. Multiply that over the last decade and it comes out to a pretty nice chunk of change.