(NerdWallet) – Have you ever found yourself setting aside less money for retirement to indulge in travel or a pricey hobby? If so, you might be practicing what’s known as “soft saving”—perhaps without even realizing it.

Soft saving involves prioritizing current pleasures and allocating funds less aggressively for future retirement. Those who embrace this lifestyle are more focused on their immediate plans rather than what life might look like at 65 or 70.

Rebecca Palmer, a certified financial planner based in Washington, D.C., and the head of guidance at the financial planning platform Fruitful, describes soft saving as being more conscious of your current life’s joys and not overly sacrificing them for the distant future. “It’s about striking a balance between caring for your future self and enjoying your present self,” Palmer explains.

Is soft saving new?

While “revenge saving” has been in the spotlight lately, the concept of soft saving is not a new one. For years, individuals have opted to satisfy present desires over significantly increasing savings for tomorrow. However, today’s soft saving reflects a more deliberate shift in mindset.

Jesica Ray, a certified financial planner with Brighton Jones in Washington, D.C., recently engaged with a young client who was reluctant to prioritize retirement savings. “They expressed, ‘I’m not focused on that because the amount I’ll have at 50 isn’t my concern. I’m interested in using that money now rather than having it locked away in an account I can’t touch until I’m 59,’” Ray recounts.

Soft saving is often attributed to Gen Zers who’ve watched their parents navigate strict rules around money and budgeting — and they don’t want to take that same approach.

“I really felt allergic to this idea of budgeting when I was getting my own financial life together,” says Nicole Lapin, a Los Angeles-based financial expert, author and host of the “Money Rehab” podcast. “It felt really scary. It felt like, ‘Wow, I can’t have any fun.’ Where are the extras?”

The pros and cons of soft saving

In some cases, soft saving serves as a gentle entry to a consistent savings habit, which can be a boon for people feeling anxious about how to approach financial planning.

“Soft saving invites people to just start,” Palmer says. “It does need to be consistent for it to work, though. It can’t be just, ‘Oh, I’ll save a little when I want to.’ Consistency here is really important so it can be increased later.”

One disadvantage, however, is that if your savings rate is smaller as a person in your 20s, it may be tough to boost it in your 40s — especially if you’ve experienced lifestyle creep and have more financial obligations like a mortgage and children. It’s easier to downsize your savings rate than to upsize it.

The advantage to starting with a higher savings percentage, Palmer says, is that “if stuff comes up, you might need that space.”

Is soft saving smart for long-term goals?

“I actually don’t think this is an irresponsible strategy,” Ray says. “I like the idea of reframing the conversation to, ‘Is your money supporting the life that you want to have today?’”

Good financial planning is about being aware of your decisions, Ray says, and she does her best to make sure her clients understand the pros and cons of their choices. If they understand the tradeoffs and choose to take certain steps anyway, “I think that’s OK,” she says.

Palmer points out that it’s important that people don’t stop investing for retirement, even if it’s not a huge percentage. “If they don’t do some investing for the long term early on, they’re going to miss out on a massive amount of compounding interest, and later you have to work twice as hard to get half as far,” she says.

How to find the middle ground

Soft saving doesn’t mean no saving — it means saving some while giving yourself room to enjoy your life.

The key to making soft saving work is to keep an eye on future you — are your choices going to force you to work until age 75? If so, you may want to tweak your approach. Consider having a financial professional run the numbers on your planned savings rates over time.

“What I do is show them, ‘If you do that, here’s what that means for the lifestyle you can afford when you’re in your 50s and 60s,’ so they understand the impact of the choices that they’re making,” Ray says.

To set yourself up for success, try saving first and spending what’s left. Lapin refers to it as making your “end game” money moves first. “I like to think about paying my future self, that old lady Nicole,” Lapin says.

And make sure you’re leaving room in your budget for some extras. “Whatever that small indulgence is for you, allow for it in the overall plan so it keeps you on track and keeps you from binging later on,” Lapin says.

In the end, soft saving is a great way to get started, Palmer says, but you have to couple it with a consistent system for bumping up your savings over time.

“Don’t rely on memory or willpower or ‘shoulds,’ — automate your soft savings,” Palmer says. “Then maybe have a check-in point for increasing that. Bump it up a little every quarter, every year, whatever that cadence is so you’re slowly building the space for more savings over time.”