Know a Googler who makes $350k/yr. Lives in San Jose, CA and no kids. Says he can't figure out how to save because his "modest" expenses are too high; thus, he needs a higher salary. Borderline absurdity.

Getting a new car every 3-4 years is extremly expensive. A lot of people think they can't live with an old beater, that they absolutely must have a "new-ish" car. An old beater for those people is a 5 year old car. An old beater for me is an 15-20 year old car.

"Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth 0.001% of his total wealth".

An old beater car can be a huge inconvenience though. My 16-year old (when bought) Saxo had to have bearings replaced, but the bolts for the suspension arm were so rusted they snapped during the process and cost me 1/2 the price of the car to get a new arm and bolts, too. Replaced that car with a 15-year old Astra for a little more oomph (1.6L over 1.1L) which recently had it's handbrake rust onto the disc. A few whacks with a hammer fixed that, but I couldn't use it until after the place I wanted to go was closed because I needed my girlfriend to be able to hit the foot brake when I hit the handbrake off.

Both cars required a replacement battery within a year of buying, as well as new stereo wires for the Saxo which I had to acquire from a Peugeot 106 in a scrapyard and various bulbs for the Astra. These problems are less about age but more about previous owners and myself.

I can't wait until I can afford a newer car, something closer to 5-10 years old instead of 15-20, because I won't be praying that my car will pull off every time I haven't used it for 3 days.

> Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth 0.001% of his total wealth

Haha. Not very practical for most people. If you take "total wealth" to be assets - debts, my house is worth about 400% of my total wealth.

living frugal - meaning actively reflecting on expenses and consumption behavior - actually leads to realizing that life is not about acquiring status symbols to impress the wrong friends or a bigger TV. It's a very healthy virtue.

"And I don't really see how they are able to spend most of their money"

Probably on down payment on things they couldn't afford to buy by cash. Or there are plenty of hobbies that are very expensive.

>> I'm privileged to have an income that enables this

That's what I was looking for. That being true, all the rest is indeed a matter of choice and not a matter of sacrifice.

is that $70k before or after tax?

Before, I'd guess around $45k after tax.