The only realistic way to win is not to play.

This enlightened thinking is good for you ego but you do actually have a material body to feed, so you either play the game of life or you die

And yes, you may call it impoverished. But is it really worth to optimise for material stuff? Settling down with less may pay off a ton in other departments.

Who cares if you drive a fancy car or a 10 y/o toyota? Both gets you from A to B in a relatively safe manner. If someone does care, that’s his problem. Same applies to pretty much any expenses line. Meanwhile having plenty of time to yourself may help to prevent many health issues and do things that make life wholesome.

That’s what I did in my 20ies. I’d freelance during winter with some cross country skiing tours in local woods thrown in. Then wrap up my projects in spring, spend the summer cycling and amateur racing and then start looking for new projects as season wrapped up. I didn’t have money for dance trips but I had a ton of great time on my bicycles and raced at relatively high amateur level.

Would I be happier working 3 months more and spending a couple weeks riding in fancy places with less stamina instead of riding a lot but locally all that time? I don’t think so.

There’s another legendary example in my circles. Dude bought a very nice car. Put on expensive wheels, installed engine tune and all that jazz. He was completely out of money, couldn’t go on any road trip for a while. His girlfriend wasn’t excited to adore the car sitting at the curb whole holiday.