Comment by noitpmeder

$50/week at 10% compounding monthly for 10 years works out to ~$41k

Maybe that means a lot in 10 years, but... is it that impactful now? More impactful than gambling surely, and perhaps this is a bit myopic, but I feel like you wouldn't even be able to buy any new car with that amount 10 years from now. Hopefully it'll still count as an emergency fund.

We saw the value of money halve over like 4 years while everyone who had money made bank. It's tough to be hopeful that any amount saved is going to go far in the future tbh. $41k is about 1/10th of a down payment on a half-duplex, assuming you're keen to borrow the remaining $1.1m.

Definitely don't gamble though, that message I can get behind.

I think that $50 a week is expensive hobby, but affordable.

The real threat is that it wont stop there. Some will go to $100 a week, $500 a week and so on, because that is how addiction works.

For all the rationalizations, they do it for the feeling it gets them. And those feelings will drive higher stakes even after you have gambling debt.