>Whatever we don’t spend isn’t lost potential for us, but rather is future potential for our kids
That's extremely lazy. If your children follow the same pattern then no one will ever benefit. It was all for nothing.
So your kids will spend the savings but when will they spend those savings? After your death when they are in their 40s and 50s and long past the point where they need your help or while they are still young and you spend time with them?
It's a matter of capacitance and safety against being broke. Being broke and needing services at age 95 is a pretty bad spot to be in. Dying at 85 instead of 95 and, as a result, dying with $1-2M in assets isn't nearly as bad.
If the present is any predictor, I'm sure we'll spend adequate time and other resources (financial and not) with them while we're alive, but in order to minimize the chance that we'll become a financial burden to them, we're very likely to live in a way that will unavoidably present them a surplus at the end.
If that's lazy, then we're proudly lazy, and we come from a long line of lazy people.
Just because nobody spends the money doesn't mean nobody benefits.
If I've got a bunch of money in my account that I'd rather not spend, because I want to keep it for a rainy day, I can still spend the dividends. I can also spend more of my income, if I'm satisfied that the bulk amount is enough that I no longer need to save more for emergencies. I can also be less worried about increasing or even maintaining my income; so I can find a job that makes me more happy instead of one that makes me more money; or work less hours or retire earlier.
Having a target dollar amount for savings and not just increasing it without reason does help maintain perspective though. In my mind, from a very priviledged place, I'd like to be able to pay for long term memory care for several years, even in the face of a market crash and high inflation. Anything more than that, is kind of silly to retain; but I'm still frugal, so spending freely isn't spending frivalously.
That's extremely lazy. If your children follow the same pattern then no one will ever benefit. It was all for nothing.
So your kids will spend the savings but when will they spend those savings? After your death when they are in their 40s and 50s and long past the point where they need your help or while they are still young and you spend time with them?