I've observed this time and time again in my friends. One of my buddies and his wife graduated from a top-10 MBA program. His wife recently needed to get a ne

I've observed this time and time again in my friends. One of my buddies and his wife graduated from a top-10 MBA program. His wife recently needed to get a new car and she wanted a Honda Civic which is a car that's got a decent balance between price and utility. He convinced her to get a luxury sedan because being seen in the company parking lot with that is a big no-no. Another friend increases spending in proportion to income as well. Bigger house, new car, fancy toys. Babies get spoiled with way more than we grew up on. It's a sad phenomenon. This is "Keeping up with the Joneses" disease. If instead of spending all your money keeping up you become disciplined with your spending you can retire early. And these people certainly don't love their jobs. How could you pass that up?