saw a Dave Ramsey video earlier, and he had a study that found that the most significant contributor to having money in retirement was that you saved money early and often. not the rate of return, not what kind of fund you put your money into.
so i did some math (don't worry, it's not that painful).
example 1, salary of 80k, 30 years of saving/investing, set aside 15% (12k), assume 6% annual return (quite doable, moderate risk needed), you'd end up with $1,017,620
example 2, salary of 80k, 30 years of saving/investing, set aside 5% (4k), because you want to live larger, assume 12% annual return (hard to do long term, lot of risk to be taken on), you'd end up with $1,085,170
i'll stick with option 1 Alex, not that hard to live a little simpler for peace of mind and options later.
end of math...
