There have been some daft articles published about Uber, but one of the daftest I ever came across was a calculator that estimated how much you could save by not taking an Uber or Lyft ride. Yes, you read it here, some clever company by the name of Credit Karma decided to calculate how much it would cost to take 25 years worth of Uber/Lyft rides that cost $20 and found out that it would amount to $323,200. Now, what does this article go on to state, that if you took those $20 and saved them instead you could enjoy that money growing even more with interest. Then the article went on to present savings on Starbucks coffee, that's $87,000, and weekly manicure and pedicures would save $107,000.
Well, here's one for you, if you decide to go live in a third world country you could live off $100 a month. While you are suffering your Uber/Starbucks/Mani-pedicure free life you could dream about steak, chips and a cold beer while you eat rice, drink warm water to suck on a piece of dry fish (OMG what an extravagance) all this while living in a hut without electricity and plumbing (to save more).
Saving is more like life insurance; you don't need it, life insurance is an extravagance for your dependents to enjoy when you die. In other words, save on the life insurance premiums since you cannot enjoy the fruits of your life insurance investment. Invest that money in a better health insurance policy, at least his policy will help you out when you will truly need it.
I have to be quite blunt, articles about how we save money by not buying Uber rides are about the daftest and most idiotic articles that there are to write about, and so, I wrote about anti-saving articles. I also can't stand budget experts that try to teach young people how to limit their spending budgets by cutting back on living in favor of saving. I do agree; we need to save, it is important to save. However, 99% of us will not become millionaires and will live an average life following a dream that eludes us. So rather than trying to become rich by saving and not enjoying life, we should live and enjoy life, but work hard to improve it by increasing our income. Save money, save 20% of your income every month. If you earn only $1,500 a month, then save $300, that's enough, after 25 years that will grow to $90,000 (without interest). Since you will most probably earn more driving for Uber, you will be able to save more by holding back 20% of your income and not skimping on that important Uber ride you need to get to that meeting across town.
Bottom line: If you don't enjoy life, then why are you living? Saving is not about cutting out the things you enjoy; saving is about spending wisely and saving a percentage of your monthly income to assure you have a better life when you reach your pension years. Saving can also be used for specific projects and targets.