Years later, around 2015, I was serving meals at a homeless shelter and I met a guy (client at the shelter) who asked me what I do for a living, and after he realized I have some background in technology he started telling me about his past. He told me that he made 6 figures before the dot-come bubble burst, and then he got laid off during the burst. He was a network engineer and told me even though he was making a ton of money, he still made several bad financial decisions and spent all his money when he had it.
For me it was a lesson in financial planning. Suddenly all the theoretical concepts that I learnt a few years earlier in b-school (risks, diversification, investments etc.) became suddenly clearer to me. Ever since that day, I just assume that things can go wrong any time and I must be prepared for the worst.
And years later to this day, as I get more philosophical about life, I also wonder - why do we have so many wants - and I actively try to get rid of unnecessary clutter in my life.