The first time I saw abject poverty was in high school on a family trip to Hong Kong. I saw an skinny old lady, wearing literally rags, washing herself from a p

The first time I saw abject poverty was in high school on a family trip to Hong Kong. I saw an skinny old lady, wearing literally rags, washing herself from a puddle. I had never seen that in the other countries that we went on family trips to. The image is burned into my brain. I am lucky having grown up in a middle class family. My father also grew up in poverty and it affected me as well. He was able to provide for us bery well but the specter of being poor was burned into my psyche to an extremely unhealthy level. It lead to a decade of fear and broken relationships because I was so paranoid about losing my money and my livelihood. Now the combined income of my wife and I make us easy 1%ers and my perceptions of money have changed again. Instead of saving every penny we made smart financial decisions, like buying a house that was very affordable instead of getting as big a house as we could pay for. I’m reasonably comfortable that I will have a job until I retire and I’m very sure my wife will. This allows us the luxury of spending money on things that we never would have, like nannies and cleaners, and traveling business class instead of economy. It’s something I never, ever, would have considered 20 years ago. When I was scared about money in my 20s and early 30s (never living in poverty,though) I felt vulnerable and that I could “fail”. Going through the dotcom bust reinforced these feelings to the point where I went to the hospital several times due to anxiety attacks. I felt like this wouldn’t last and “winter was coming” so I saved every penny and even ended relationships over money. After a particularly bad breakup I realized I had a problem. My mindset now is I can always make more money if I lose my job. It might have to be something unpleasant but it can happen. I’m not wasteful with money but I don’t obsess over it anymore. I’m grateful for being in this position obviously, because all it takes is a really bad recession for things to get really bad. Aside from a couple of perks, like the cleaners and nannies, I generally save most of my money for “winter”. It’s a position that, as I said, I’m grateful having. I have friends who aren’t in the same position, and our mindsets in life are completely different.