someone who built India's largest private pharmacy network - Guardian Pharmacy - once told me that the key to a sustained startup marathon is to make sure that your lifestyle does not worsen by more than 30%. So if you used to eat out three times a week, you should be able to eat out twice.

this holds true at any point in your life - whether you are a 20 year old doing a ramen startup or a 30 year old with kids. If you have the financial nest egg to be able to maintain a lifestyle at 70% of your original, you should do fine. Now, the way to achieve it is harder - this means that even when you are earning, you are proactively saving a lot ... which means not buying that latest gadget that your coworkers are buying.

This is very, very hard.

In short - dont worry... if you can save.