Age: 22
Annual Salary: $25,000
Monthly Take Home Pay: $1,668
Monthly Beauty Expenses: $62

Beauty Budget Breakdown: A.J. is a 22-year-old recent graduate working as an assistant at a publishing company. She spends $750 a year on beauty -- she gets $60 facials every other month, uses drugstore makeup, gets cheap trims at a no-frills hair salon and occasionally splurges on manicures. She pays for her most of her expenses, but her parents still cover her cell phone and car payment. She has no savings and no debt.

Why: A.J. argues that splurging on facials means she can go lighter on cosmetics. "Keeping my skin under control means I don't have to spend a lot on expensive makeup," she says. She occasionally worries about not accruing savings, but feels she doesn't make enough money to save. "I'd only be able to set aside around $50 a month, and even that would be making a sacrifice," she says.

Matthews says that now is exactly the time that A.J. should be worried about socking away savings each month. "My advice is even more urgent when you're young," she says. Matthews says that even setting aside as little as $50 a month is significant, especially because it builds the habit of saving. "You should automatically say, 'This is my take-home pay, these are my expenses and this is what I need to invest.' Then, after that, that's your 'play' money."

Matthews also notes that if you're not saving, your money is basically depreciating while you sleep. "If you're not investing, your money is not accumulating," she explains. "If you're earning zero interest, your money isn't even growing at the rate of inflation."

Switching from salon manicures to an at-home DIY job will save A.J. about $20 each month. She can also switch her facial routine to once every three months instead of every other month, saving her another $120 a year. Ildi Pekar, facialist to celebs like Miranda Kerr, says that maintaining your after-facial glow is possible if you follow the right at-home regimen. She recommends asking your esthetician for a routine. Pekar also says that using a facial scrub twice a week will get rid of dead skin build-up, leaving you glowing and polished.

It doesn't sound like much, but scrimping here and there adds up to $360 a year -- a nice cushion if her car breaks down or another emergency pops up. Meanwhile, putting that money into a savings account means her money will appreciate.

Age: 55
Annual Salary: $200,000
Monthly Take Home Pay: $12,261
Monthly Beauty Expenses: $243

Beauty Budget Breakdown: Patti gets a $100 facial every other month and a $120 hair cut and dye every two months. She spends about $50 on organic makeup and beauty products and $1,000 a year on Botox injections.

Why: Patti says that she's fairly low-maintenance compared to most women her age with similar incomes. "I don't get manicures or pedicures, and I've never had plastic surgery. I think I have to do the things I do in order to maintain a professional image in my line of work," she explains.

Technically, using the 10 percent rule, Patti has $14,713 a year to use on purchases like makeup. But things get more complicated when you factor in her daughter's college bills and her hope to retire in 10 years. Patti has a retirement fund and her husband has a pension, but Matthews says that not all baby boomers are so lucky.

"An estimated two-thirds of baby boomers haven't saved enough money to maintain their standard of living in retirement," says Matthews. "A 2010 survey showed that 34 percent of Americans actually have zero retirement savings and 22 percent of that number are people older than 65." If a baby boomer has no retirement plan in place, she should immediately cut back on all nonessentials. "A baby boomer doesn't have that much time to save, unless they're OK with working until they're 80 -- assuming there is a job they can do, and they're in good health," says Matthews.

Her best advice? "We need to spend on certain things to make our lives meaningful, and we do have to take care of our present selves as well as our future selves. So the general principle is to find a balance."