The other day I was talking about a lot of tech stuff with a person where one of the conversation was about the toys and gizmos that we own. I had one particular item that was fairly expensive and he was shocked as he assumed a company must have given it to me for free to promote or something along those lines. That wasn’t the case I explained as I simply spent my own money for it. Again he was shocked that someone would have such expensive items who is not using it for some kind of business.
Now the thought that ran across my mind was it actually wasn’t that expensive as anyone could technically afford it. Even the person I was talking to. But the difference was how we both chose to spend our money I felt. For example, in this restaurant he was actually drinking alcohol a lot where as you can imagine that could easily rake up a $50 to $100 bill just for the night. For myself I actually choose to instead spend that type of money on items that have long lasting value where it will in some way improve my quality of life in the long term. Like there while spending $100 for him on alcohol may bring him joy for me it’s getting that item that helps me increase productivity.
So really we are spending the exact same amount of money just in different ways. I think that’s important to think about where many times it’s simply about one’s spending habit versus assuming the other person is just financially richer than you. Otherwise you will in a sense be in denial about how much you actually make where you can easily just adjust your financial habits to get those things that you desire. There is true difference between literally having no money and choosing to spend it all on certain things.