That's a fair point, but the broader message of avoiding lifestyle inflation is valid. I used to make a lot less money and have very little in the bank and now that I have a much better paying job (and had a lucky break with an acquisition) it's remarkably easy to justify things to yourself. "Sure you can make more money, not more time" - "this new thing is more efficient" - "if I have X then my life will be better" (that last one is sometimes, but rarely, true - we had a ~500 square foot house and 2 kids and a bigger home did dramatically aid our mental health.

I hate buying gas and feel guilty about it, but also would like to be able to seat 6 people, so suddenly a Model Y seems "reasonable". But sitting down and doing the math shows that even if my goals are environmental, keeping the 12 year old Honda and getting a rental car now and then is much better than a brand new EV (and vastly cheaper) - but before thinking about it carefully, I was tempted.

I really relate to this. Aside from having watched "lifestyle inflation" put people I know who make 7 figures a year into debt to their poorly chosen young ex-wives... I had a brief burst during the pandemic where I bought some wish list crazy stuff. A new guitar ($1300). A Roomba. A drawing tablet. A set of good wine glasses. A second car, one that was made after 1980 and doesn't fly off the road in the rain. And these things make you go, like - wow. This is a really well designed thing. It smells nice and feels solid in your hands. Shit, my life could be so much more enjoyable if my days and nights were spent touching these wonderfully designed objects, which I can afford to feel the pleasure of. Why do I deny myself the pleasure of having them? So I think the basic answer is that I don't want too much comfort in my life. Regardless of money. I think money corrupts by making you too comfortable, yeah, but my objection is more to the comfort than with the means to purchase it. Life should be a bit uncomfortable. Or very uncomfortable, when your 1980 Datsun is leaking freezing water and sliding across the freeway.

A lot of people seem to have the idea that being a full-grown human is being rich. To me, it's being able to plug all the holes in your own roof and always bearing in mind that we're just here for a limited period of time, to gain knowledge and experience, not things to make us lazy and comfortable. But maybe that's just like some weird post-religious self denial predilection I hold onto.

I would urge you to reconsider the car thing. There's a difference between being able to fix your own car/house (which I also derive a great sense of satisfaction from) and routinely taking the risk of debilitating lifelong health problems because of an accident that a newer car with better tires could have easily prevented. (I once spun out in the rain and totaled my car because my rear tires were bald, narrowly avoiding serious injury. Never again.)

Also crash safety is 10x better on current cars than even 10 years ago. You’re not going to appreciate the simplicity of the old car when you’re debilitated for life in a crash you would have walked away from without a scratch in a 2020 base model Civic. That’s not to mention auto emergency braking, traction and stability control, lane keep assist and blind spot monitoring that would have prevented the crash in the first place

I appreciate the attraction of the simplicity of older cars, but you are accepting that a crash could turn you into pink mist if you are lucky, lifetime of pain and disability if you are unlucky.

Yeah, the safety argument is pretty valid. Personally I'd love to forgo driving altogether and cycle everywhere, but that's impractical at the moment.

Seriously, not to mention the other families you can kill/maim if that happens.

It is a world-historical moral affirmation to deny sensual pleasures, likely because this recursiveness causes us to live closer to animals seeking utility from their bodies than immortals.

"But we must not follow those who advise us, being men, to think of human things, and, being mortal, of mortal things, but must, so far as we can, make ourselves immortal, and strain every nerve to live in accordance with the best thing in us; for even if it be small in bulk, much more does it in power and worth surpass everything."-Aristotle, Nichomachaen Ethics, Book X, 6

Living on $100k means being frugal by the standards of the rich, anyway. I think it would be an error not to be frugal even if I considered myself rich, which I don't think I am. I'm happy that my tastes and preferences were set when I was in debt and waiting tables / driving taxi / doing three jobs. Up until I was in my mid-20s, making $100k/yr seemed totally unimaginable, so I appreciate what I have now in a way that I think a lot of people I'm exposed to take for granted. I still pretty much shop the same way, cook the same way, live the same way as when I was a cab driver, with a few additional perks I allow myself. Like a new laptop or new shoes every few years. I'm not just frugal; I literally don't know how to spend money, and the thought of spending it scares the shit out of me. I haven't let a higher income change my basic outlook. Because of where I am in my career, I'm surrounded by a lot of people who make 10x what I do and are worth 30x what I am. And I'm constantly appalled at their decisions and the stupid things they waste their money on. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn't be going to Burning Man or partying in Tulum or buying Lambos or adding a waterfall pool or hiring fire dancers for backyard parties. I'm not sure what I'd do, but it wouldn't be those things. I'd probably plow it into whatever new startup idea got me obsessed with code all night.

On the spectrum of all humanity, inheriting $40k in your twenties is on the lucky side, but it's also pretty basic. I wasn't born a Brahmin and I didn't exactly inherit Dubai. I also know a lot of people who were trust funders from birth and threw it all away, or blew their money on bad ideas. Or blew it up their noses and committed suicide - I knew several of those. Just from my own observation, most people who get money and don't know how to manage it are parted from it pretty quickly. This isn't to say I deserved to inherit something, just that, life finds a way to equalize out stupid behavior pretty quickly.

Reminding myself that that's the case is probably the only way for me not to go broke.

Yes. This advice is decent if you're upper-middle class or above, socio-economically speaking, but to the majority of people, it's just not applicable.

Not to mention that we're in a society that incentivizes people to be irresponsible. I'm not allowed to earn six-figures or I'll lose healthcare. Same with inheriting/having more than a certain amount saved. My meds cost 300k/yr, so I hit OOP max the first month of ANY health insurance plan I have EVERY year. The wrong plan can cost me over 20k/yr.