> Every car I've owned has been cheaper than the previous and honestly these days I'm mostly public transit. But at the same time, I've become many times richer

> Every car I've owned has been cheaper than the previous and honestly these days I'm mostly public transit. But at the same time, I've become many times richer between each car purchase. Not only cars/transportation. Housing. It's amazing how housing situation in the US is pretty much theft of the young and the poor. I paid more for housing ( rent/utilities/etc ) as a poor college grad than I do now many years later. Property taxes/insurance/etc ( tax deductible unlike rent ) is much lower than rent. Not only that, when you are wealthier/more stable, you can afford to plan ( food, groceries, etc ) and wait for deals that you just couldn't when you were poorer/younger. Even bank accounts. When you were young/poor, the bank charged you "maintenance fee/account fee" because you didn't have enough money in the bank. Now the bank has a "rep" specifically assigned to me to offer me "plane ticket upgrades", special offers, higher interest accounts, "free trades" on IRAs, etc. I can only imagine what REAL wealthy people ( tens/hundreds of millions or even billionaires ) have. I know a bank I worked for had an entire floor ( "wealth management division" ) dedicated to help high net worth individuals. Wonder what perks those people got.