Is it?

I'm on my second iPhone 13 mini, this one being the replacement after the first died of a drop. There are two more stored in the attic, each preconfigured with the accessories I like and with a SIM from my provider in the box. So if anything happens to this phone, as soon as I get home I just break out #3, restore the latest backup, activate the SIM, and I'm back in business.

An iPhone 13 mini with the accessories I like (case and charging adapter) is about $300. That's amply worth it to me, a couple times over, to never have to think about how to replace a cooked phone and get back into communication with the world. Nothing special about the phone, it's if anything unusually unassuming. It's just the phone I happen to like (since 2021 when I concluded it no longer made sense to keep keeping 1st gen SEs alive) and thinking about phones is something I only like doing when I want to. That's the problem this money solves, and I have the money available to use this way, so why not?

Scale the dollar amount up a few orders of magnitude and the necessity down by the same amount, and sure, I see how it makes sense to "just" drop an identical set of wheels at every one of your pied-à-terres. What did the funny sweary smoking man in the movie say? "You learn to spend what's in your pocket."

But that's what makes it "weird". Most people can't afford to do that. As you point out, it mashed a certain amount of sense, but we're in the midst of an housing crisis. People who have enough money to own, not just multiple houses, but so many cars that they got tired of different cars so they just bought more of the same? Weird because I've never done that.

How many iphone 13 minis have you used concurrently, and in how many different locations did you own them? Byb your own admission, you only use one at a time.

I have not done these things when I had less money and now I think removing minor hassles with extra money is worth it. At another order of magnitude of money I'd definitely acquire multiple copy of things I need.

I love your go-to bag example which I wished to have but never did. In a weird way because I have more time to pack but not much resources or time to travel anyway.

Of the 261 words in your comment (archived at https://archive.is/Vfx9Z#selection-161.6-184.0), none of them mention that you see it as "grotesquely flagrant consumption", so reads like the meme about the temporarily embarrassed millionaire.

I will say, this no longer appears to me to qualify for the name I suggested a few minutes ago. Oh, the statement remains false, only I now no longer believe you competent to defame. Have you had a meal today?

It feels like a bit of a tautology, but I think has some reality to it as well. When you're steeped in a more frugal mindset, it can be hard to remain rational or detached when analyzing consumption patterns "just a few orders of magnitude" larger...

If I had to guess, I would say I've been braced by someone whose morning was complicated by treating "take with food" as a little too much more of a suggestion than an instruction. No judgment. Nothing I haven't run into before.

It's not about concurrent use at all. It's all about availability. I had my simple, trusty Logitech keyboard and mouse. And 2x more of each, in a box, in a cupboard. I'm not using them. But I have the comfort of knowing that if either fails, I'm back up again in two minutes. That, for me, is comfort.

Now, if I had two workplaces (for example home and the office) would I carry my hardware between places? If I can't afford to buy two of them, yes. But if I can afford to pay 20€ twice, I'll have one keyboard at home, the same keyboard at the office, and so. That, for me, is comfort.

Now, scale the keyboard for 20€ to a Lexus for 40k€. Same thing.

I’m still having the 12 mini, so that’s why I’m not investing into having exactly the same. More likely I’d go with 13 mini, if this one would die suddenly. Or whatever else be on the market by that point. Theoretically, that can happen in 5 years. I’m holding the phone till it’s physically killed, or is unbearably slow.

I maintained five iPhones SE 1st gen from 2016 through most of 2021. Toward the end of that time it grew noticeably more difficult and slow to source model-specific parts and tooling. This time around, I know how to plan ahead more effectively. I had a 12 mini, but knowing Apple only drops a good small phone every half decade to keep us weird nerds interested, when the successor model came out I immediately upgraded.

I don't expect a real problem even in the worst case. The US is a huge internal market and has enough local internet to function. But for $300 flat I would otherwise just save anyway, why not hedge twice while I know I can?

Triples is best.

https://youtu.be/8Inf1Yz_fgk

https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704...

classy mfer lol

> "From 2019, California joins most of the other states in the nation by requiring newly bought cars to be issued temporary license plates."

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/07/steve-jobs-loophole-clo...

(note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs)

I guess not being localizable by press/random people is a nice plus if you can afford.

but didnt he buy always the same model?

I guess we both where right at different points in time ;)

Eh, pedantry, but you'll find that building and occupation codes dictate a certain number of disabled parking spots. You could argue that a spot that is ostensibly this, but "everyone knows" is Steve Jobs' spot, is not a disabled parking spot.

(But yes, odds of the City of Cupertino taking any issue with this whatsoever are entirely zero.)

https://folklore.org/Handicapped.html

(Apple personnel @ the time probably unaware of that technicality. Story says it wasn't fixed)

> he seemed to think that the blue wheelchair symbol meant that the spot was reserved for the chairman.

lol

Unless you had reached a level where you were having almost everything in your life managed by assistants, and you were the type of person that wanted to give up all that control, then have “your car” ready to go whichever house you were at would be the lower mental overhead solution.

Most people don't really like it, but find it to be the best option to go from A to B quickly. If you involve other people, be a driver or a renting business, you add complication and cost.

I can readily believe this does happen at the right level of wealth, but there's something deeply absurd and humorous about someone sending a vanguard to their second or third home before they arrive.

My very typical American suburban home on a 0.2 acre lot is better built, has better views, parking, heating, cooling and so on than a 3 generation rich (from my standards) cousins' home in India. However they do have half a dozen servants at home and I have obviously none here.

So it does sound weird that people seek even further from developed world middle class point of view.

I would 100% buy my old car again in like new condition vs getting a new one if it was a feasible thing to do.

Not really, decision fatigue is a thing.

My colleague actually took me out car shopping a couple of weeks back, to the Ferrari showroom because apparently to get some models, you need to be one of their favorite customers or a referral from one. We also visited a Lamborghini showroom next (which apparently didn't have such restrictions). But deciding between their cars was so tough, and I really wanted to get an EV instead for my daily driver, that I just ended up renewing on my rental Honda Civic for a few more months lol. I could buy these cars, but I tend to be vested in things I buy, and suffer from FOMO for not buying the rest, so might as well postpone the decision to when I can afford to hold them all together and give them time to maintain them.

There's also the real problem with rose tinted glasses. For example, I was a huge fan of the Testarossa ever since I was a kid, but just one drive inside one showed me how badly designed it actually is in the interior.

I would totally do that if I could. I have done it with shoes when I've had the good insight of thinking about it. I do it often with clothes when I find a good product that suits my needs. And I wish I could do it with my very-average-but-reliable car.

I'm dreading the moment I have to buy the next one and take the risky decision.

I am very fortunate to have an above average salary for where I am from, but what surprised me from going to pretty much broke to quite well off, is that my life didn't become flashy, it just became VERY comfortable with normal, everyday things.