I don’t feel that rich.

[VentAlarm]

The replace water filter blinking light came on my refrigerator today. We’re going out of town so I wanted to just get it done today (rather than Amazon later) so I went to Lowe’s and grabbed one. They’re $40. I immediately thought “I don’t want to have to come back in 6 months for a replacement” so I spent an extra $40 to have a replacement in 6 months. When we replace the air filters, we buy the allergen grade ones. I keep an extra propane tank for my grill for when it runs out. I wanted to buy a smoker and asked the misses last month - she said she didn’t care and to just budget it for this month when I got paid.

I know these are relatively little, but these things made me feel wealthy. I distinctly remember as a trainee thinking “geez, $40 - maybe next month we’ll replace it.” I bought a crappy grill that I knew would wear out in a couple years, now I buy what I want.

FWIW, I’m 3 years out of training with a NW of ~600k and paid off student loans and I’m in academics. Certainly nowhere near FI, but very comfortable. I say no (or more often I say later) sometimes, but can get most anything reasonable.

[VentAlarm]

Oh, here’s another thing that makes me feel wealthy - I set the AC to whatever I want. I have the nest thermostat that adjusts accordingly, but, as a med student, I wore sweaters and used a space heater in winter - I still remember being able to see my breath one day when I woke up and my space heater turned off - or went shirtless in gym shorts in the summer and tried to spend most of my time in the library.

After years of my father telling me not to touch the thermostat, that makes me feel wealthy. Although, full disclosure, I do use the line “are you trying to air condition the whole neighborhood?” when my son takes his time coming in or out.

[Jack_Sparrow]

I feel like I can do anything I want just not everything I want. I don't see how you can get any richer than that. I can buy pretty much any car I want. Travel to any location in the world I want. I can afford the type of house I want. I just can't do all three at the same time.

[Tim]

We just took a 5 week trip across the country and during that time flew somewhere else for a few days. I figure if I can take a vacation during my vacation, I'm probably rich.

I just got an opinion from a house guest that left today. It was along the lines of letting loose of the purse strings more. Philosophical comment.

I asked my wife why we drove to Chicago. Of course she said it was because they doubled the price. Price was not an object. She still wants another road trip and an International vacation. I had previously told him she doesn’t have bad spending habits. She buys what she wants and goes where she wants. Fabric stores are her current weakness. New shoes, clothes, jewelry, shopping as a “sport” are NOT part of her pleasures. We drove over an hour to eat at “Tom’s T-bone” on the gulf, had drinks on the boardwalk. Back to the question about driving. She brought it up. Face, I hate spending money on things I don’t want or need. Call me cheap, I had no need to fly and wanted a road trip. She asked me today what would be my next car. Her favorite she said was my Towncar. Why? The wheel base made the ride much different than you find on cars today. Some day I’ll want a new car. Not going to be a Range Rover or a MBenz or a Beamer. Might be Porsche but more likely an ev or a Lexus. No idea.
Rich is a secure feeling of “would you rather”, budgeting your desires independently of price.
Having leftovers, she doesn’t feel like going out of cooking. And we don’t feel like testing my limited skills. Maybe tomorrow.

[CordMcNally]

Long story, but my wife lost her iPhone recently. It showed up at a house in a not so nice part of town. I drove by the house and spoke to the neighbor outside and when I asked him, “if you were me, would you go knock on the door?” He said “no”. I took him at his word and bought her a new phone the next day.

That’s why you don’t knock. You just bust in. Element of surprise.

[xraygoggles]

Yea agree it's the small things which you may not recognize are a bigger deal to most folks, that make you realize if you've made it.

For me, that's constantly purchasing and losing Apple Airpods. At first, I would order a new one when I lost the current one, but now I've been ordering them 2 at a time. Maybe one day, I will find a big stash of lost ones under my couch or bed, who knows?

Edit: meant Airpods not Apple Watch, haven't had my coffee yet.

[burritos]

Great blog post on the psychology of feeling rich: "Who Feels Rich Really?"

https://ofdollarsanddata.com/who-fee...r_id=701150654


tl;dr

This is why when I ask, “Who feels rich really?” the answer is—no one.

Because you can always point to someone else who is doing better.

But, the trick is, not to forget all the people who could be pointing at you.

Do we have enough? The answer cognitively is "never" while in reality, the answer is "yes".

[childay]

Yea agree it's the small things which you may not recognize are a bigger deal to most folks, that make you realize if you've made it.

For me, that's constantly purchasing and losing Apple Watches. At first, I would order a new one when I lost the current one, but now I've been ordering them 2 at a time. Maybe one day, I will find a big stash of lost ones under my couch or bed, who knows?

LOL how many have you lost at this point?

[xraygoggles]

LOL how many have you lost at this point?

I meant Airpods, not the watch lol. But quite a few, which is annoying, to say the least. Prolly 3 or 4 so far.

[Anne]

I meant Airpods, not the watch lol. But quite a few, which is annoying, to say the least. Prolly 3 or 4 so far.

This makes a lot more sense. I was thinking “just put the watch on your wrist—it’s not that difficult”

I’m on my second Apple Watch. The first one stopped working while on a trip to Japan. I had a fun experience going to the Apple store in Tokyo where translation services were provided by a Cuban who was fluent in English, Spanish, Japanese and who knows what else. I really enjoyed talking to her. Ultimately they couldn’t fix it and recommended if I wanted to replace it i wait until back in the U.S. as i guess the models sold in Japan are slightly different. I don’t like to spend time shopping—when I went to buy the replacement the sales person tried to sell me on the highest cost model and i was looking at the additional features and couldn’t see anything i wanted above the standard model. I said that and he was like “if I’m going to buy something new I would want all features available”. I thought that was a pretty lame sales pitch.

[Hatton]

I meant Airpods, not the watch lol. But quite a few, which is annoying, to say the least. Prolly 3 or 4 so far.

I was thinking to myself this is why my Apple stock keeps rising.

[wideopenspaces]

Why I think it’s hard for people to feel rich- it’s hard for people to feel like they have enough because by nature we compare.

Take my son. He was satisfied with his three scoops of ice cream until he saw his dad had three (very slightly) bigger scoops. I mean, c’mon man! You’re THREE. You are lucky your parents are softies and giving you that much ice cream in the first place.

Substitute kid for adult, and ice-cream for money.

Did your kid even eat all 3 scoops? ;-)

[ObgynMD]

Did your kid even eat all 3 scoops? ;-)

Oh yes. And he begged some off his dad, too. Gold star parenting right there 🤩. We were joking that if only we all could do the age = scoops situation…

[TXDoc21]

When the phone was stolen, we used find my iPhone. It was initially somewhere in the apartment building adjacent to the market where the theft occurred. We wiped the phone, set it to emit obnoxious sounds, and then reported the IMIE of the phone to render it permanently locked and useless. The phone was later located at a dumpster facility, thrown into the garbage. Hopefully the thief will be discouraged from further thefts if stolen phones are unusable.

how do you report the IMIE to permanently lock it?

[Nysoz]

I feel like I can do anything I want just not everything I want. I don't see how you can get any richer than that. I can buy pretty much any car I want. Travel to any location in the world I want. I can afford the type of house I want. I just can't do all three at the same time.

I guess using your examples, rich would be doing anything and everything you want. Buy any car you want or dream about. Travel to any location in the world first class or privately. Buy houses that you want in every location you want to be.

Then you could probably do all three at the same time.