You sound much like me w/regard to advertising and not seeing any of it. This has probably saved me $100K or more over the years simply by not being enticed to

You sound much like me w/regard to advertising and not seeing any of it. This has probably saved me $100K or more over the years simply by not being enticed to buy/lease new cars. I have a 2000 truck and a 1997 Miata, both bought used and kept well-maintained, and I'm perfectly happy with them. I'm not sure if that would be the case, the happy part that is, if I was constantly exposed to new-car-porn. I see beautiful new or newish cars all around me, and not just in the "nice" areas, in a city with a below-average income profile. It's hard to fathom how people both will, and can spend so much money, on very expensive, depreciating assets, most likely using borrowed money. Advertising and its emotional manipulations have become extremely powerful, and between TV and the internet, most people are probably exposed to more minutes of it per day than ever before. If you can't fight its power, avoiding it entirely is a sound strategy.