> It's not just that money has decreasing marginal value. It's about what life you want to live.
I reached a point where I realized that the life experiences I was having were essentially the same as what much richer people are able to enjoy. A great example is when we got a pool. My wife had talked about it for a while, we have young kids and an unusually large backyard for a downtown home, and thought it'd be a great addition to our property. So I looked into it and it was going to cost at least $40,000 to $60,000 for an in-ground pool.
So I went to Walmart and bought the biggest above-ground, self-assembly pool I could find. It cost me $400 for a 16' diameter, 4' deep pool which holds somewhere around 15,000 litres of water (IIRC). A couple of days later my wife and I were sitting in inflatable chairs, floating in our pool and drinking cocktails in our backyard.
At that moment I realized that for 1% of the investment I was having at least 90% of the enjoyment. The experience of laying in an inflatable chair with your feet in the water and the sun beating down on you while you sip Aperol spritzes is essentially identical no matter the size and type of pool so long as it's deep enough to float in.
The same goes for so many other experiences: a rich person can buy a $250,000 car, but at the end of the day, their butt is on a seat like us and their hands are on a wheel like us and they're stuck in traffic just like us. If you can afford a helicopter, that's certainly a step change in terms of experience, but the sacrifices you have to make to get one and the overall chances of reaching that point just don't make it an appealing path for me.
The truth is, if you want a pool because you like floating in water, then the Walmart pool is enough. If you want a pool because you want your friends to envy how much money you have, then nothing will ever be enough.
I reached a point where I realized that the life experiences I was having were essentially the same as what much richer people are able to enjoy. A great example is when we got a pool. My wife had talked about it for a while, we have young kids and an unusually large backyard for a downtown home, and thought it'd be a great addition to our property. So I looked into it and it was going to cost at least $40,000 to $60,000 for an in-ground pool.
So I went to Walmart and bought the biggest above-ground, self-assembly pool I could find. It cost me $400 for a 16' diameter, 4' deep pool which holds somewhere around 15,000 litres of water (IIRC). A couple of days later my wife and I were sitting in inflatable chairs, floating in our pool and drinking cocktails in our backyard.
At that moment I realized that for 1% of the investment I was having at least 90% of the enjoyment. The experience of laying in an inflatable chair with your feet in the water and the sun beating down on you while you sip Aperol spritzes is essentially identical no matter the size and type of pool so long as it's deep enough to float in.
The same goes for so many other experiences: a rich person can buy a $250,000 car, but at the end of the day, their butt is on a seat like us and their hands are on a wheel like us and they're stuck in traffic just like us. If you can afford a helicopter, that's certainly a step change in terms of experience, but the sacrifices you have to make to get one and the overall chances of reaching that point just don't make it an appealing path for me.
The truth is, if you want a pool because you like floating in water, then the Walmart pool is enough. If you want a pool because you want your friends to envy how much money you have, then nothing will ever be enough.
Enjoy what you have!