What's it all for?

I read many personal finance blogs, and so many of them give them same advice:

- spend less than you earn
- have an emergency fund of 3-6 months living expenses
- fund your 401k and/or IRA
- get out of debt (or never get into it)
- etc.

Well, my husband and I have done all this. We have all those good habits, we don't spend a lot of money on clothes or hobbies, we make an honest effort to be frugal in all that we do.

I fervently focus on accumulating savings in our emergency fund and retirement accounts. I've always been a saver and I get a lot of satisfaction in watching those numbers tick up and up and up.

Now that I'm faced with the end of my maternity leave, I've started to wonder, what's it all for? Why am I so committed to frugality and saving... saving... saving? Is it so that 30+ years from now, we can retire in comfort?

But 30 years from now, will I look back and think that I'd trade some of that fat savings account for more time with my babies? Is it worth sacrificing some money now and some future comfort in retirement to have that time?

Or am I working not just for my future retirement, but to mitigate the possible risk of " WHAT IF" scenarios right now? What if my husband loses his job? What if I can't ever find another job as good as the one I have now?

It all comes down to the most basic personal finance question of all.. What are our goals? What is important to us, both now and in the future?

Money isn't a worthwhile end in and of itself, money is simply a means to an end. Should I know what the "end" is that we're working for?