The goal should be to die with a bank balance as close to zero as possible.
The reason I save much of my income isn't because I want to be rich when I retire. It's because I can't think of things to spend it on now that would measurably increase my happiness. I'm not big on spending money just for the sake of spending money - that way lies dissatisfaction and the hedonic treadmill, as your desires increase faster than your ability to pay for those desires.
I'd much rather think hard about what I want from life and then spend money, carefully and judiciously, to achieve that. If it's not something I want, why should I buy it?
Own your money, don't let you money own you.
The best example, perhaps, is the military. The point of having a strong military is so that you never have to go to war. You can enjoy all the benefits of having won the war - economic power, national prestige, international bargaining leverage - without actually having to fight it. Once you start fighting, you've lost. Generals usually understand this. Occasionally, you get a president or despot that doesn't (we in America just had one), and the consequences generally aren't pretty.
I get enormous pleasure out of knowing that I don't have to go to work. I could quit any time I wanted to, and my savings would be enough to find another job or get a company off the ground. That's worth a lot more to me than a fancier car or a nicer place to live or a few skydiving trips. It lets me enjoy what really is a pretty nice place to work rather than feeling oppressed by The Man every day.
And I got that job because I could afford to wait another six months or so after my last startup failed, until the right opportunity arose, instead of needing to take the first job offered for financial reasons.
As for the military, I don't think it's really analogous at all. At least in the modern era a standing army is a constant drain on finances and a constant temptation to extremely expensive mischief. How much healthier would the U.S. economy be now if we had disbanded all conventional forces after WWII and maintained instead a small but sufficient nuclear deterrent?