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.