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the poll already make me feel like a big fat loser
Q-school, what leads you to feel like a big fat loser when the leading answer to the poll is a negative net worth?
And we definitely had it easier in some ways in the old days. Our president at the time had a student loan program that was 0% interest while in school, and you could file for deferment on interest as a resident. I was fortunate in that I did not incur a single dollar of interest until after finishing training.
On the other hand, my first year attending salary was 105k, but still it was likely so much easier without the crushing loan balances that are all too common today.
feelings are not always logical. it’s hard for me to put into words. i value efficiency. i am not a spreadsheet person, but i think it probably makes sense for me to be.
with my age and income, these polls always make me feel like i should be in the 20 million dollar range, but i spend too much. i think a lot of people here are incredibly disciplined in terms of their spending. my wife is extremely frugal for our income, but not compared to people on this site. however, we were very happy and well off before this site, and my general sense is my wife is annoyed by what she perceives as needless penny pinching and attention to detail. i’m not sure why i want to increase our net worth when we have more than we spend. it shouldn’t even be an area of focus, but growing up poor, i can’t help myself.
i’m not sure if it’s some inherent competitiveness or a desire to achieve maximum efficiencies, but since visiting wci i’m less happy with what we have achieved and more concerned about the missed opportunities. hence big fat loser so many different ways. snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. penny wise, pound foolish. i’m still processing my new life goals. i wish i had a stronger sense of purpose, but in some ways, i have less purpose than when i just had to focus on feeding everyone and we didn’t eat out cause we couldn’t afford it.
i have every reason to be super happy, and i feel vaguely unsettled by these type of polls that make me think i’m wasting money.
ymmv
This is an opportunity to ignore the noise. You were largely content before and exceeding your expectations and obligations. What others may or may not have or do has no bearing on your life or state of happiness, so knowing about it should not matter either. There will be always someone who does it better, and you should be satisfied that you have done it well enough.
As for the competitiveness, especially with regard to frugality, I am somewhat dubious of the veracity of the self-reported discipline in this regard, jut like I am dubious of all who report running 8 miles per day, eating less than one teaspoon worth of sugar per day, reading journals two hours per day (or whatever stringent routine you can imagine). Some do these things, and more, but most who say that they do do not.
what makes you so sure someone can do it better than me?
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