> As much as everyone likes to discredit traditional values, such savings and thrift, they win out in the long run.

Are those 'traditional values' still relevant in today's economy ?

For example:

> taking advantage of compounding interest.

In my savings account, interest is set at 0.01% for accounts with less than €100k in them, and for accounts with more than €100k the interest is -0.5%. Yes, that's negative interest.

So if you're saving up each year, you start losing money, not making it.