Hey Randy, thanks for sharing your thoughtful comments.

First off, I totally agree that it’s fine for different people to have varying ideas and approaches. Nobody (including — *gasp* — me ;)) has “the right answer” that’s universally true for everyone in every situation.

Having said that, it is completely legitimate to question someone else’s approach or parts thereof. As for your statement that I “have plenty of [my] own ideas and content, not sure why you’re taking time to disparage Rocco’s…” — I was responding to someone else’s content (since it appears Rocco has blocked me a while back without my ever noticing it, but that’s a different story) — where they were praising his approach.

Be that as it may, I freely and openly acknowledged that Rocco’s striving to lower expenses is totally valid and helpful (though not everyone is lucky enough to live in the heart of their favorite city in a rent-controlled apartment that lets them reduce their housing costs so much…).

I don’t personally care for his “bucket” approach, but I don’t see it as financially harmful. It’s just moving money from one pocket to another, it neither adds nor reduces your financial resources.

As you can tell from my article, my biggest “beef” with Rocco’s approach is that it comes across to me as “sour grapes” (see the nine-line fable here: https://read.gov/aesop/005.html).

Worse, it “gives permission” to people to stop even trying to plan for their penultimate future (we all share the same ultimate future — pushing up the metaphorical daisies). And by the time they realize that they’ve screwed themselves over, it’s too late to do anything about it.

You say I never took the time to fully appreciate his approach. I’m willing to listen. What, specifically, about his approach will prevent abject poverty if you follow his advice until you’re (say) 70 and suddenly can’t make any money from any work?

I’m not being facetious here. Truly curious.