Signs you are doing well financially.

[gbb]

Yeah I get the annual changing of car is per aps a bit much, but every 3 or 4 years to stay within warranty and I can see why people do that.

The other thing is, well, some people dress scrufilly, it does the job of covering one's back, a basic human need. Similarly, some people may see their car like that too. It could be a rust bucket which will do nicely, or a small eco car to get about town, or a small "branded" car to do the same, or one might need to show "success" if one is a salesperson, and so on, whatever reason. And it could also be to keep up with the neighbours, or to show who the boss is, or some people even say it's a way to make a small guy feel like a big guy.

Life shouldn't be just to survive. We live in a wealthy country, why not enjoy it if an expensive car tickles you, or a watch or jewellery or clothes or whatever. I'm totally with the "better to save money and spend a little" rather than the other way round (like most people on this thread).

And for those that want all that, great...sincerely. Who wouldn't want a nicer car, a nicer house and the extras...if it came risk free, we probably all would (-whether we'd admit it or not)
But for some of us, it's aversion to financial risk...and at the other end, a 'ahhh, wtf, let's go for it'

Each has its place. Again, I said earlier, we're all gonna die and whatever we did, however we conducted ourselves, will die with us. So you might argue, go for it, enjoy stuff, enjoy life. But when your inner self tells you no....that's what wins out.

Two things spring to mind.
I worked with a fella that was so tight, people used to sneer, 'I don't understand how he can possibly be happy living like that ?'
My response was...'that's what makes him happy, trouble is, you're thinking with your head, not his. He IS happy doing it '
Another guy had a saying...'live like a rich man....don't die like one'...which isn't a bad way of thinking. Enjoy what you have.

 

[gzoom]

My neighbour, who has a BMW, a 4 x 4 and a SAAB drop top has told me - an hour ago......

There is an easy 'solution' to that, get a plot of land to build house no where near other people, and you will not have to deal with neighbours

We all know wealth/money doesn't correlate to 'happiness' and even to a degree productivity. If you are truly 'happy' why would you ever look for change or transition....Loads of work have been done in this area.

https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/4-steps-to-create-a-burning-platform-to-motivate-change.html

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.883137/full

Individual view points also clearly change in life, what some values as important in their 20s is totally different compared to someone in their 80s. Given money is with us our entire lives, our relationship with it changs accordingly.

https://time.com/6219467/end-of-ambition/

For me, right now, I value family time, and career goals (My motivation at 40 is probably higher now than ever) far more than finances. What I've found the link between been happy with my job (which means performing well) essentially takes away any worry or issues with finances.

Time is much harder challenge, I still manage to just about do the school run, but fitting in time to spend with the family, time to spend on self (riding the bike essentially), and delivering my own goals at work requires constant focus/work.

 

[johnblack]

We all know wealth/money doesn't correlate to 'happiness' and even to a degree productivity. If you are truly 'happy' why would you ever look for change or transition....Loads of work have been done in this area.

Hedonic adaptation - you get that dream house, hit peak happiness and then your happiness drops back down to its natural baseline, leaving you to chase the next dream.

 

[icowden]

We all know wealth/money doesn't correlate to 'happiness' and even to a degree productivity. If you are truly 'happy' why would you ever look for change or transition....Loads of work have been done in this area.

And yet I reckon that given the opportunity of carrying out a detailed 10 year study where those participating are given say £20 million, we'd all jump at the chance to be miserable for 10 years.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

And yet I reckon that given the opportunity of carrying out a detailed 10 year study where those participating are given say £20 million, we'd all jump at the chance to be miserable for 10 years.

I guess we all would.

At our stage of life here (66 & 60), and where we are financially (sorted), it wouldn't change our lives apart from some philanthropy - both to our wider family as well as good causes.

That would be a nice position to be in.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

There is an easy 'solution' to that, get a plot of land to build house no where near other people, and you will not have to deal with neighbours

We all know wealth/money doesn't correlate to 'happiness' and even to a degree productivity. If you are truly 'happy' why would you ever look for change or transition....Loads of work have been done in this area.

https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/4-steps-to-create-a-burning-platform-to-motivate-change.html

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.883137/full

Individual view points also clearly change in life, what some values as important in their 20s is totally different compared to someone in their 80s. Given money is with us our entire lives, our relationship with it changs accordingly.

https://time.com/6219467/end-of-ambition/

For me, right now, I value family time, and career goals (My motivation at 40 is probably higher now than ever) far more than finances. What I've found the link between been happy with my job (which means performing well) essentially takes away any worry or issues with finances.

Time is much harder challenge, I still manage to just about do the school run, but fitting in time to spend with the family, time to spend on self (riding the bike essentially), and delivering my own goals at work requires constant focus/work.

I can relate to the end of ambition article and your state of play aged 40.

Time passing certainly changes life ambitions. At age 40 I was 20 years into my career plan and all was going really well. My life was my career and my mission was to enjoy my work, which I did, and accumulate enough 'wealth' to comfortably get me through old age.

But, at age 48, I had an epiphany, stood back and took a long hard look at my life as objectively as possible.

I came to the conclusion that I was working myself into the ground and needed to get off of the treadmill and expand, and enjoy more, my non-work life.

And I did, in effect I gave up on my work ambitions and expanded my 'self' ambitions.

It helped that at that time in life I was financially secure which enabled me to be the mouse that jumped off of the wheel. Without this as a base I would not have been able to 'get off'.

However, the biggest surprise was that I lost a lot of my ambitions for the non-work part of my life. In short a driven individual became non-driven, to the surprise of family and friends.

I've never been able to rationalise this change. Maybe I had ambition burnout, maybe you only get so much ambition for one lifetime?

Whatever, I have no regrets about my career and my decision to ditch the corporate world (it took several years of careful planning to achieve) and I truly love my life of low pressure and reduced ambitions bliss.

Ambitions are currently just to stay fit and healthy, have lots of fun, continue to put everything into my relationship with Mrs SD and make sure the kids are well set up for their old age.

If I achieve that I will eventually 'sign off' a happy man.

 

[simongt]

A refusal to admit that length of life is finite and you can actually spend more than you think - especially hard to get your head around if you have been saving long & hard for retirement.

That's probably the trickiest one to allow for. When you retire, you ideally need to have enough saved so you can enjoy your retirement, but how long are you likely to live beyond retirement age - ?
First point is the general state of your health at the time, does it need improving, or are you okay with how you feel - ?
A reasonable gauge is how long did your parents and any sibling live - ? On my dad's side, not much beyond sixty; I'm seventy.
On my mum's side; late eighties and beyond; so who does your physiology best match - ?
So many variables.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

That's probably the trickiest one to allow for. When you retire, you ideally need to have enough saved so you can enjoy your retirement, but how long are you likely to live beyond retirement age - ?
First point is the general state of your health at the time, does it need improving, or are you okay with how you feel - ?
A reasonable gauge is how long did your parents and any sibling live - ? On my dad's side, not much beyond sixty; I'm seventy.
On my mum's side; late eighties and beyond; so who does your physiology best match - ?
So many variables.

It is a hard one to predict. I suppose actuarial models could be used - still a gamble though.

We run our domestic finances on a pretty comprehensive Excel workbook and it does show a years cover metric which could well keep Buzz Lightyear happy. I guess we are very fortunate.

In all seriousness though, it was vital that we knew how we would cope in the long-term when we made our deliberate income downshift some 2 decades back.

 

[Venod]

Ambitions are currently just to stay fit and healthy, have lots of fun

These have been my only ambitions in life, I always regarded work as a means to an end, I never had any ambitions workwise, just making sure I was well payed for what I gave, I used to infuriate my very ambitious boss when I wouldn't go the extra mile to advance his career, but he was crap at his job, I wasn't.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

These have been my only ambitions in life, I always regarded work as a means to an end, I never had any ambitions workwise, just making sure I was well payed for what I gave, I used to infuriate my very ambitious boss when I wouldn't go the extra mile to advance his career, but he was crap at his job, I wasn't.

View: https://youtu.be/fW280u2pbIw

 

[derrick]

We opted out of the 'status' game years ago. I've tried to explain to a couple of neighbours that them paying a huge amount for a PCP car means they're worse off as a result, but the answer is always "but I like my nice BMW". They scoffed at my old Saab/Peugeot despite them costing just a month of their car payment.

As a youngster I was taught "income £1, expenditure £1.05 = misery / income £1, expenditure 95p = happiness".

Yes, we're fortunate to have a decent income. But managing that income during more challenging periods has meant we've no mortgage, no debts and have decent savings. Her spreadsheet isn't much different to the one I've kept for over 20 years with the result being that we're in a position to make larger necessary purchases when required rather than going into debt. My sons appear to have learnt similar principles.

Note that I also see the status game stuff in my cycling club; some members have to have the latest and best bike. Even if they don't ride it much. As a family, apart from son no. 2's ex-team bike, we've got bikes built from older decent but unpopular framesets bought cheaply with nice components fitted.

Cycle chat is all about the Status game.

 

[DCLane]

I can relate to the end of ambition article and your state of play aged 40.

Time passing certainly changes life ambitions. At age 40 I was 20 years into my career plan and all was going really well. My life was my career and my mission was to enjoy my work, which I did, and accumulate enough 'wealth' to comfortably get me through old age.

But, at age 48, I had an epiphany, stood back and took a long hard look at my life as objectively as possible.

I came to the conclusion that I was working myself into the ground and needed to get off of the treadmill and expand, and enjoy more, my non-work life.

And I did, in effect I gave up on my work ambitions and expanded my 'self' ambitions.

It helped that at that time in life I was financially secure which enabled me to be the mouse that jumped off of the wheel. Without this as a base I would not have been able to 'get off'.

However, the biggest surprise was that I lost a lot of my ambitions for the non-work part of my life. In short a driven individual became non-driven, to the surprise of family and friends.

I've never been able to rationalise this change. Maybe I had ambition burnout, maybe you only get so much ambition for one lifetime?

Whatever, I have no regrets about my career and my decision to ditch the corporate world (it took several years of careful planning to achieve) and I truly love my life of low pressure and reduced ambitions bliss.

Ambitions are currently just to stay fit and healthy, have lots of fun, continue to put everything into my relationship with Mrs SD and make sure the kids are well set up for their old age.

If I achieve that I will eventually 'sign off' a happy man.

Agree with above. My crash in 2016, along with a colleague who died when hit by a drug driver running from the police plus Vernon from here, meant I re-evaluated my work and personal goals. Not intentionally but it seemed to feed through that I wanted to do more of what I enjoyed (working with students, time with family) rather than what I was doing at the time (management).

Fast-forward seven years and I'm sure I made the correct choice. I've my life back, have a better relationship with my children and enjoy my job. Yes, I'm a little worse off financially but am more satisfied with life overall.

Cycle chat is all about the Status game.

Possibly. But given some of the bikes we ride the 'status' is different to others.

 

[Alex321]

Cycle chat is all about the Status game.

For some, maybe. And in some cases, that would be the "reverse status" game - being proud of the fact they have very cheap bikes that they have made into something usable, rather than spending oodles (that is not a criticism, just pointing out it is still a version of the status game).

But I think there are also quite a few of us on here who genuinely couldn't care less what other people have in relation to what we have.

 

[Reynard]

In my case, bike "status" is of the "I ride whatever fits me" because at my height, there's not a great deal of choice

 

[Moodyman]

there's nothing like the sight of a car on the drive of a house that's worth less than the car itself!!!....

You must have visited Bradford then?