Money stress is real. Still, almost nobody looks back and wishes they’d spent less time with their grandma.

Money stress does not stop being real because something else matters more. Being short of money is not solved by being told what counts. The second point is about proportion rather than denial: in the long accounting, the hours nobody regrets are the ones spent with people who were not going to be around forever.

Take the money seriously, the shifts and the saving. Then protect one standing hour a week for somebody old in your family, a visit or just a phone call. It costs almost nothing and you cannot buy it back later.