I was recently mentoring a junior engineer that's newish to their career. I was giving them the usual financial advice about spending within their budget, avoid luxury cars, 401K contributions, limit your credit card debt, etc. It made me reflect that I've pretty much lived like that for awhile now. I live in the same house that I bought when my TC was a third of what I make now, and have owned the same car for over 8 years. I never wanted to upgrade and scale up to a bigger house or faster car as my salary grew. Who else doesn't want to constantly upgrade as their TC improves? #personalfinance
I'm here for a good time because you never know how long you'll be on this planet. Allow yourself to enjoy the fruits of your labor - whether thats a new car or the same 50k into stock market. If you're happy with however you spend (or dont spend) your money then by all means. Different strokes for different folks.
There's robust research that spending money on goods and services doesn't make people happier in any sustainable way. It's called the hedonic treadmill. You will just get used to the new level and feel the same as you did before you inflated your lifestyle. IIRC the only exceptions to this are reducing stressors (most notably financial security), physical wellbeing, consistent altruim, and spending on experiences.
You do you bub. Whatever makes YOU happy. Regardless what studies show or not. I'm actually pretty frugal besides my hobbies (which are expensive hobbies to begin with). My hobbies make me happy. Thus I am perfectly happy to spend money on things that do make me happy.
Trunk you work at IBM, your TC isn’t going up that much let’s be honest
I haven't spent my entire career here.
You’re always complaining about your pay. In fact I know your TC. Stop flexing
I've lived in an RV for over 4 years, I guess that makes me frugal?
Are you that guy that lived in the parking lot and showered in the office?
Where do you park? How do you get decent internet.
TC or gtfo?
Does the speed limit increase with the faster car? If not why would you need a faster car?
Exactly. The top speed of my car now is 160. I abandoned the idea of getting a 200mph car because I don't want to get arrested going 180 in a 65.
The acceleration does, the handling does, the attention you get does, the experience and fun does change.
Same. I drive an older car, live in a very sensibly sized home. All my hobbies are relatively inexpensive. It’s allowed me to have a good quality of life and save a nice cash cushion, and invest. It feels great to not have to care very much whether I get laid off or fed up with my job. I’ll have time to find something better. I’m not house poor.
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I’m very frugal too. I spent the first few years at MS saving like 50% of my TC, investing the rest of it in the stock market. A large part of it is that I’m not a very materialistic person and don’t see myself staying in the industry forever because it’s so competitive (was also very bearish about my future because of my slow growth and a unsuccessful internship in college). I’ll probably increase my spending a bit this year because I’m lucky enough to change jobs with a pretty substantial comp increase.
> (was also very bearish about my future because of my slow growth and a unsuccessful internship in college) How did you get past this and reach success? What did you do to change and improve your situation?
I don't think I've fixed the growth issue yet, but it's possible that I simply lucked out by taking on the wrong projects and having bad managers (former coworkers mostly thought that I was at a higher level than I actually was at). Honestly, I think I was really lucky in scoring a FANG offer. I don't think I'm that smart. But I'm open to trying out new things, taking risks, and learning along the way. Growth hacking with experimentation!