Worse, because you literally hurl them through traffic at high speeds. If I had to put one of my most valuable possessions on wheels and park it at the grocery store, I would not make that item an especially luxurious thing

> Glad he's happy but I never understood the whole sportscar thing. They go vroom vroom just like all the other cars.

There's sportscars and there's luxury/exotic sportscars.

The latter is mostly a class/signaling thing, since you can't even _really_ abuse it unless you're so rich it's the dinghy for your private jet.

But a proper prepared sports car is a substantially different driving experience than "all the other cars".

You might be surprised how well certain cars hold their value if you take care of them, even pretty low-end sports cars. Go look at listings for a vintage Supra, M3, even an 80s Trans Am Firebird. They're all selling for much more than they were originally purchased for. They may not be a good investment relative to holding a broad equity index tracking fund, but if you need to own some sort of car, they're a good investment compared to most any other type of car.

Likewise with the house. While you probably shouldn't be saturating your entire take home pay with mandatory recurring payments, you're a lot better off spending on assets that hold their value than buying vacations and dinners at expensive restaurants.

This is yet another underappreciated difference between what "paycheck to paycheck" means for the affluent versus the poor. There's a big difference between spending all your money on nice houses and cars versus spending it all on rent that buys your landlord a house and beaters that require more in maintenance than purchase price and will be scrapped at best when you finish running it into the ground.

> A lot of it comes down to lifestyle choices and discretionary spending, essentially they are either bad at budgeting or sticking to it.

I also know some people who are very bad with money and even some who are certainly living an unsustainable lifestyle in order to project the appearance of genuine wealth, but that is by far the exception in my experience.

Saying that it's lifestyle choices and spending habits doesn't sit right with me. I'm not saying that you are doing this, but there are some people who essentially repeat what you've said when what they really mean is something closer to "The dirty poors are living above their station and need to learn to stay in their place!". It's a kind of mindset where you get ridiculous statements about how poor people could pull themselves up by their bootstraps if only they didn't buy iphones or avocado toast. It ignores so many other much larger factors like increased costs, wages that haven't kept up, the effects and impacts of poverty, and the fact that economic mobility in the US is dismal and has been for a long time.

I mean, it's certainly true that pretty much everyone could benefit from more education in managing personal finances. It isn't something most people are taught in school and much has changed over just a couple generations. Not to date myself too badly here, but my parents told me it was wise to put money in a savings account because it would earn interest and at that time, while still not the best advice, it was a whole lot more reasonable than it is today.

Millennials were the first generation of Americans where the majority ended up worse off than their parents and I think going back at least as far as Gen-X that trend has caused an increase in debit as people struggle just to maintain the lifestyle they grew up in.

I've also seen people more recently who don't believe that there is anything they can do to improve their situation, that home ownership is and will always be an impossibility for them, that retirement is a thing of the past etc. and that kind of hopelessness does seem to lead to reckless spending. Smart hardworking kids working 2-3 jobs, none of which give them any benefits, with little to no savings who spend a lot more than they should on convinces and momentary pleasures because they have zero faith in their future being any better than it is today.

There's a lot more going on than people yoloing their money away, especially when it comes to the very poor who in my experience are usually carefully watching where every last dime goes.

Not just status but consumerism and the desire to accumulate stuff. George Carlin had a classic bet on this.

Oh and the expensive education, lacking healthcare, insane home prices and zero social safety net.

How did Cage go bankrupt with 15 motorcycles and a $300k dinosaur bone ? To me it sounds like what could be his pocket change...

Paycheck to paycheck is relative. I’ve seen families bring in $500k/year and barely have any retirement savings. They go buy a home with a mortgage that’s $16k/month, a few fancy cars at $1000/mo each, childcare, maintenance on a home that expensive, and everything else that money is gone quick. They want to give the illusion of stupidly rich at the cost of spending every dime that comes in. Pretty common in every income bracket. Majority of people are terrible with money.

House down the street from me sold for a 5k/month mortgage (I live in a duplex). Now pop two $1000 car payments on there and you maybe have enough left over for food and some bills.