It's fairly easy to go through that kind of money depending on where you live. If you're living in SF or NY you could well be spending $4k-$5k on rent or a mortgage. Supporting a spouse and children is very expensive even before you consider college. Forget the $400 emergency in the article, kids, not uncommonly, need $10k of orthodontic work. I also find that busy professionals tend to eat out a lot more because they don't have time to shop and cook, which is another significant cost.

We make much less than that and we saved nearly that much a month saving for our own wedding last year. I don't understand where the money goes with some people.

It's really easy if you purchase lots of little things using a non-cash form of payment. It's even easier if what you're buying is non-physical, like streaming movies or video games for a tablet/phone. The key is to remove the physicality on one or both ends of the transaction and keep the single transaction cost in 2-digit range or the low 3-digits. And of course, never budget, ever, and try not to mentally track how many purchases you've made over the past few weeks. Do that as a pattern, give it some time, and money will evaporate Brewster's Millions style.

Only the rare whale can make a huge debt in savings buy spending on digital goods. The real money goes out on car payments, rent payments, vacations, and eating out every day.

You could rent an HD movie every night for $20 and it'd still only swing your expenses by $600 each month. If you're making $35,000, that is absolutely huge.

If you're making $150,000 - it really should not be huge.

typical night out for many of my twenty something friends:

>uber to the first bar - 15-20$

>drinks at the first bar - 15$

>several drinks and food at a brewpub or the like - 50$

>nightcap at a bar - 10$

>uber home - 20-25$ (surge pricing, bars closing)

Youve just spent 110$ in a single night out, essentially on a single meal.

rinse and repeat each weekend day, maybe up to 12 times in a month - youre out almost 1500$

That or i know a ton of people paying more than 200$ per month for their car payment. plus insurance thats a good chunk of money!

Theres two grand right there that could have otherwise gone into a retirement account.