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I don't think it's that people with money NEVER stress about spending money - it's a matter of degree. Most software engineers are good earners by US standards, and as such, going to the water park for $40 doesn't really register. Buying a $1 soda isn't even worth thinking about. However, buying a $20,000 car would certainly lead to some thoughts like "Can I afford this? What won't I be buying because of this car?" The advantage that a good income provides is that you're not stressing about daily purchases - not that you stress about nothing at all.

This is exactly it. Practically everyone has some legitimate financial concerns but when your financial concerns get to the point that every single purchase feels like it's effecting your bottom line in a meaningful way is when there's an extra layer of stress on your day-to-day thinking.

I find having a good income just brings on the stress of ensuring that you are saving enough for when you no longer have a good income, and so that $1 soda is still a mental hurdle, even if you can easily afford it.

I've found that automating my finances make a lot of those stresses go away.

I don't have to worry about accidentally overspending in my checking account and not being able to pay my bills because my bills are paid from a separate account, and they're all on auto-pay.

Likewise, my savings and retirement investments are automated and I just know that enough is going there. I have a checking account, which is labeled "Spending" and that's what I use to buy groceries, etc. It doesn't matter that it's literally dwindled down to almost $0 a couple times a month because my bills and investments are automatically managed.

My wife and I lived pretty poor for the first 3 years of our marriage, and only the last couple years have I been earning enough to be able to "set-it-and-forget-it" with my finances. The reduction in stress is HUGE, though. Earning more money definitely allows you to spend your time thinking about things that don't cause such stress.

Interesting perspective, but I feel like the stress comes from the idea that you can never have enough saved. Even if you schedule a certain percentage of your income to be saved automatically, what if you need that percentage + N in the future? You are ultimately limited by your income, but within those confines, if you squander a $1 now, you won't have that $1 to fall back on in the future.

I have a fixed monthly allowance for whimsicalities. I tends to make things a lot more clear and simple. It also makes it more obvious that buying experiences is a MUCH bigger return on investment than buying stuff.

That Moto X you bought recently? It will keep you satisfied for a while - the same kind of satisfaction that comes from a large, copious meal, or really good sex with someone you're attracted to but not really attached to; but it won't make you happy or bring you peace. However, going out camping with the kids for one night - it's 10x cheaper and brings real happiness, peace, and clarity.

I always thought that, at least for me, there's a level of cost below which I can just buy something on a whim without worrying about whether I can afford it at all, and above which I need to think about it for a minute. When I was in college, that level was about $10. It was a kinda weird transition when I got my first professional job out of college, and I had to get used to that threshold being closer to $1000 instead. I can see how it can be stressful if you're broke enough that your threshold for this is more like $1.

> there's a level of cost below which I can just buy something on a whim without worrying about whether I can afford it at all, and above which I need to think about it for a minute. When I was in college, that level was about $10. It was a kinda weird transition when I got my first professional job out of college, and I had to get used to that threshold being closer to $1000 instead.

And then you get two kids and a mortgage, and that threshold drops like a comet into a neutron star.

I'm currently at the $10 threshold and live with a slightly older roommate whose threshold is more in your current range.

Going out to restaurants, shopping, and general errands are so different for us. I help him out a lot so when we do things I listed he usually covers my meals and everything but I'm still in my lower threshold thinking.

Going to the grocery store and spending $300, to the hardware store and dropping $400, picking up some car part for $100 in a single day and he doesn't bat an eye. I would have exhausted an entire month or more of pay in one day if I did something like that.

Going to a restaurant and seeing a meal costs me, say, 2 hours of work requires me to think about it. If my roommate is covering it might only be 20 minutes of work.

The differences are amazing.

> Do people with money not stress about spending money?

It's a matter of degrees. It's quite different to ask "Can I afford to buy this product? Should I get a cheaper one, or go without?" at every product at the grocery, or ask "Can I afford to continue buying those groceries? Should I change my routine?" once after you pay your grocery bill.

> In hindsight, nicely presented lunches, gym (and perhaps babysitting?) on campus apparently serve a very real purpose. It makes sense that they are minimizing distractions.

One of the less savory goals of these perks is to make sure that you go back to work as soon as possible after you're done with your things. A different perspective is that it's win-win: your employer benefits from less downtime in their employees, and the employees benefit from the perks.

> The article makes me feel like the wealthy people don't have worries like that. I kind of envy that.

There was an excellent article a year or three ago about the stresses that the super-rich go through. I can't seem to find it anymore (I can't recall any keywords besides "super-rich"), but it gives you a sense of how their financial stress is of a different quality.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/secret-f...

...I was literally off by one word. /facepalm

Thanks.