By "live", I mean "do the optional parts of life", like vacation, date, spend money on hobbies, rent a place other than the cardboard box under the bridge, etc.
So, you just need to acknowledge the risk you're taking on. You can "live", but if you lose your job and are unable to get one for 6-12 months, then not having a savings will be a disaster. What if you're disabled? You'll have to hire a lawyer to help you get on SS, and in the meantime you can't break your apartment lease or car payments to dynamically lower your cost of living quickly.
I've also found that the things you mentioned--- vacation, dates, hobbies, are actually more flexible than you think. Lift tickets make skiing an expensive hobby. But hiking or snowshoeing gives you a somewhat similar experience for much less. You can do some research on yelp and pretty easily control the cost of your dates, and once you're serious with someone, they don't/shouldn't care about you being frugal. Similarly, vacations can be done on the cheap. A vacation doesn't mean a trip to Europe, it could mean finding some cool small town nearby and enjoying it. (I feel pretty ashamed at how little I've explored the Western united states, despite having been to Europe & China.)
I'd also say-- you work as a programmer. If you have friends in their 20s/30s who are non-programmers, you should ask or estimate what they're making. They're probably having as much fun as you for much less.
>By "live", I mean "do the optional parts of life", like vacation, date, spend money on hobbies, rent a place other than the cardboard box under the bridge, etc.
If you're hit by a financial emergency, those things are exactly what you won't have the money to do anyway. At least now you can make decisions about what to cut while not under stress and the impeding deadline of bills coming due.
Pay out now or pay out much more later; it's your choice.
