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The question I'd ask of people making 500k is, what's stopping them from living frugally for a few years and then spending the rest of their life in the "do wha

The question I'd ask of people making 500k is, what's stopping them from living frugally for a few years and then spending the rest of their life in the "do whatever you want" category. But I guess it's selection bias. If you're the sort of person who likes living frugally and otherwise doing whatever you want, you're less likely to end up making 500k to begin with. It's kind of like asking why are assholes and psychopaths over-represented in the ultra-rich, it's possible to make it to eight figure net worth on talent, hard work and good luck, but to make it that far and wanting to just keep on going says... something.

jajko 2y ago
Frugal living is very easy when single, still OK when in couple with compatible person, but gets darn hard with kids. Not impossible, just much, much more constant friction, and choices done easily by you for you gets harder when they negatively impact your own children.
- vouaobrasil 2y ago
  I'd argue that a lot of people who are wealthy and don't have children might influence the over all data. Not having children in itself can be a great source of happiness for some.
- Earw0rm 2y ago
  True, but at $500k, being frugal means living a $250k standard of living, which is still way more than most people have. I guess it comes down to what you see as negative impacts. I'd never been further than maybe 1500 miles from home until my mid teens, so I don't feel like my kids miss out by not having the kind of globetrotter holidays that people on $500k can do. If I had that kind of money, I'd rather save it and escape the grind ten or twenty years earlier. But I guess if your $500k peers are all going to Dubai and Singapore with their families you might feel differently. Same with cars, clothes and so on. I'm not talking about barebones ramen living, more trying to take an objective view on the relationship between spend and quality of life, and outside of a few of the most expensive cities, there's a pretty sweet spot well below the 500k mark.

jajko 2y ago

Frugal living is very easy when single, still OK when in couple with compatible person, but gets darn hard with kids. Not impossible, just much, much more constant friction, and choices done easily by you for you gets harder when they negatively impact your own children.

vouaobrasil 2y ago
I'd argue that a lot of people who are wealthy and don't have children might influence the over all data. Not having children in itself can be a great source of happiness for some.
Earw0rm 2y ago
True, but at $500k, being frugal means living a $250k standard of living, which is still way more than most people have. I guess it comes down to what you see as negative impacts. I'd never been further than maybe 1500 miles from home until my mid teens, so I don't feel like my kids miss out by not having the kind of globetrotter holidays that people on $500k can do. If I had that kind of money, I'd rather save it and escape the grind ten or twenty years earlier. But I guess if your $500k peers are all going to Dubai and Singapore with their families you might feel differently. Same with cars, clothes and so on. I'm not talking about barebones ramen living, more trying to take an objective view on the relationship between spend and quality of life, and outside of a few of the most expensive cities, there's a pretty sweet spot well below the 500k mark.