Personally, I spend ridiculous amounts of money on things that are important to me, while spending virtually nothing on items that I must have but do not care about. However, I also err for quality over quantity.

What this describes is some sort of effect where everything in your life, by my standards, becomes important.

Example: I own $500+ headphones, $2000+ in computer gear (computers, laptops, monitors). I own a middle of the road phone (Nexus 5). I don't really upgrade my computer, and replace it when it finally starts breaking down, so, about every 6 to 8 years, which then I build another massively overkill machine. It generally takes an average mid-tier computer all of those years to catch up to mine. GPUs are the exception, and I used to upgrade those every 2 years until everyone got stuck at 28nm; I've been stuck on a 7970 for awhile, due to nothing really worth upgrading until later this year (Geforce 1000 series just came out, Polaris family Radeons in another 2-3 months), and I don't even game like I used to, so I may just keep the 7970.

I own clothes I bought from Walmart that I replace every 3-5 years, the grand total of nice clothes I own is two shirts and two pairs of pants, that I bought on sale at JC Penney, and spent about $120 on, and I hardly ever wear them.

I own a 7 year old 42" TV that I hardly watch, but has good enough visual quality that the final generation of 1080p TVs are hardly different (better blacks than anything else). The higher end 4k TVs ($1k+) are clearly better, but I won't buy a new TV until a) mine actually dies, b) tomorrow's $500 4k TVs look as good as today's $1k+ ones. This is assuming I even bother keeping a TV. I do not own a game console.

I do not own speakers. I own extremely small library of Blurays that I am considering selling. I hardly watch them. I own a $150 all in one printer. Some of the furniture I own is as old as I am, or maybe older, and was left to me when my mother passed away, it is solid wood and in good condition (all the damage done to it, I did personally as a kid).

I own Victorinox Fibrox knives, but only four, only the ones I use (chef's, mini granton-edge santoku, carving, boning), not a useless "complete set". I do not expect to ever have to replace these, and I own a fine enough synthetic wetstone to sharpen them myself, and generally keep them sharper than factory sharp.

I own a single 10" Lodge frying pan, a 12" pan, 8" pan, and 4 quart saucepan Mauviel M150S, usually insanely expensive (the 4 quart usually goes for $360), picked up at a tiny fraction from a chef supply store dumping their discontinued stock on Amazon. These, too, will last forever. I put more mileage on my Lodge than I do on the rest.

I own a pair of normally $150 running shoes that I picked up for $60 that I absolutely adore and try to treat well. I put about 5 miles into them every day, so they probably will last 2 years at the absolute very most.

I don't eat out. I cook my own food, and aim for nutrition and flavor over weird exoticness. I don't buy premade food generally, I avoid refined sugars, grains, and non-foods ("junk food") frequently sold in stores. I aim for foods that are in season or simply on sale this week, and then stock up and freeze stuff. Bulk packages get turned into meal sized blobs frozen in good freezer bags (never get the cheap shitty ones, good bags hinder freezer burn).

I don't own a car, yet I live in an area that you need a car. I am considered low income for an area that it itself is considered low income. Although, the irony, is I own a business, but I put my business before myself and pay myself very little; I pay myself what I need to, not what I want to.

So, I don't know. Maybe I do understand this, maybe I don't. I generally buy the best of something that meets my needs and is not too grossly overkill (I like products that can grow with me) (my main computer is the exception to this rule: overkill is best kill), and then own it as long as possible. I am a staunch believer in the Buy It For Life movement. I do not Keep Up With The Joneses. Their life is theirs, and I do not live their life, instead, I live mine.

So, I don't know. I almost want to interpret the article as simply not being an adult (not that I'm claiming I'm an adult, I'm only 33, too young to be one of those yet), and letting childhood insecurities grab ahold of them and take them for a ride. I don't resonate with that behavior.