Going backwards

[LivingAlmostLarge]

A blog I read talked about a aingle young woman buying a new car because hers was totalled. She makes a good living, LOTS of family money, got enough gifted cash in 1 month to pay for her new car cash. The car? Audi A5 for $50k. So definitely affordable with her situation.

But the one question I asked, how do you keep going up after this? I mentioned that if you get used to this luxury when in your 20s, what do you do in your 30s? How do you know you'll afford it then after kids, house, etc?

Do you guys every think about it? Since we got Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones in December I know we'll never live without phones that have internet. But that's why we waited so long. We were hesitant to live without an extra $30/month each on our phone bill. It's a charge we knew would never go away.
So we've now permanenently upgraded our lifestyle.

Other ways? Food, eating out, travel, etc. Just the idea of upgrading your lifestyle and then not being satisfied with a lower level later.

[photo]

If she's a trust fund baby, then most likely, she'll never have to scale down. Of course, if her family money dries up during a depression or bankruptcy, then she's SOL.

As I've gotten older, I've scaled up on a few things, but only those that really matter to me. I've usually just figured out how to get what I want for less.

The woman in question, however, if she doesn't go too overboard, will never have to live like the rest of us and earn her way through life. But then again, if she keeps totaling cars...

[Shewillbemine]

If and when I have children, they will drive beater cars that have over 100,000 miles on the odometer.

I know a high school kid whose parents bought him a brand new Jaguar as a first car.

In my experience, these individuals are stuck because they feel they have no other place to go but laterally or up. Oh, and I don't blame the kids in these situations. 100% on the parents.

[photo]

Originally Posted by Shewillbemine

I know a high school kid whose parents bought him a brand new Jaguar as a first car.

Are the parents planning on supporting this kid for the rest of his life? I really feel sorry for him because he'll probably never have the satisfaction of working hard and having the pride of buying his very first car.

Imagine the auto insurance premium for a teenager on a brand-new Jaguar.

[bjl584]

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

A blog I read talked about a aingle young woman buying a new car because hers was totalled. She makes a good living, LOTS of family money, got enough gifted cash in 1 month to pay for her new car cash. The car? Audi A5 for $50k. So definitely affordable with her situation.

But the one question I asked, how do you keep going up after this? I mentioned that if you get used to this luxury when in your 20s, what do you do in your 30s? How do you know you'll afford it then after kids, house, etc?

Do you guys every think about it? Since we got Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones in December I know we'll never live without phones that have internet. But that's why we waited so long. We were hesitant to live without an extra $30/month each on our phone bill. It's a charge we knew would never go away.
So we've now permanenently upgraded our lifestyle.

Other ways? Food, eating out, travel, etc. Just the idea of upgrading your lifestyle and then not being satisfied with a lower level later.

It would be hard to go backwards. My first car was an old Pontiac Sunbird with a bunch of rust, a leak in the roof, and a dented fender. I don't think that I'd want to drive something like that again. But it's all relative. At that time, I was still in college, living at home, and making close to minimum wage at a part time job.

[disneysteve]

This is a great question. To some extent, gradually increasing lifestyle is normal cultural progress. I'm sure we all have parents or at least grandparents who can tell us about growing up without so many things that we take for granted today. No cell phones. No cable TV. No color TV for that matter (I had B&W growing up). No power windows in cars, maybe no AC either. Your grandparents may not even have had running water or full electricity service. The house we rented when we first got married had one electric outlet in each room. That was in 1992. Can you imagine your house today with one outlet per room?

I do think part of the problem with adult children moving back in with their parents after college today is that they don't want to live on their own with any less luxury than they enjoy in their parents' homes. Nobody wants to struggle to make it on their own anymore. The parents and society in general are at fault for that. When I graduated college, I rented a very small studio apartment. I had a fold out sofa bed. During they day, it was my living room - at night it became my bedroom. That was it. Two years spent living in a room not much larger than my college dorm rooms. In fact, it was smaller than my senior year apartment, though I shared that with 3 other guys.

So where does that leave us? Would I go back to black and white TV? I don't even think that is still possible. They don't make them anymore. I don't know if you can even still buy a tube TV. It is all flat screens, and big flat screens at that. We bought our first flat screen a few months ago and I had the hardest time finding a 26". Stores typically only had one choice that size. All cars, even the cheapest ones, seem to have power windows, power locks, AC, etc. That's just the standard now.

Do I think about it? Absolutely. I knew that once we got cable TV, which we've only had for a few years, we'd never go back. I knew that once I got an iPhone, I'd never go back. On our last cruise, we got a balcony cabin for the first time. I warned my wife beforehand that she'd never want to go back to a regular cabin after that and I was right, so every cruise from now on will have that added expense.

I guess it all leads back to what we always preach. Live below your means. Pay yourself first. As I've said many times, as long as our savings goals are being met, I really don't care how the rest of the money gets spent. Do we spend more on luxuries than we used to? Yep. But as long as that is in context of our overall financial plan, I think that's okay. If something were to happen to our income, I'm sure we would agree to cut back. We might not be thrilled about it but we'd do it. We know where those cuts would be easiest to make. Personally, I'd be happy to cut out some of the fat right now but my wife and daughter aren't quite as minimalistic as I am. I do worry a bit about my daughter as she grows up but I think we've set a reasonably good example for her of living responsibly below our means. I occasionally think she is doing something wasteful or frivolous but then I remind myself that I was no different at her age.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Exactly, still have my one and only car. But I wonder if you do buy a nice car before kids and everything how do you take a step back later? Is it always up and better?

[kork13]

This is a topic very close to home for me right now... I've actually half-written a couple threads about this and never went through with it. I'm returning back to the states with my savings/investment/retirement accounts burgeoning (thanks to aggressive saving), and this summer I'll be getting a significant promotion and raise. Needing a new car, a place to live, and generally just living my life in the company of my family, friends, and peers, the opportunity (and rationale) for upgrading my standard of living is significant. My biggest hesitation is that I could over-indulge myself then get used to the "high life" and not want to ease it back later on. It's easy to rationalize, especially knowing that I can afford it while still saving a good amount. So honestly... I dunno. It's a fine line to balance, and speaking personally, a hard balance to keep.

[Cassius King]

I think I'm going in just the opposite direction as I age. While younger, I needed to stay intune to my friends/colleagues and what's going on.
Now, I'm trying to unplug much more and get away from those things. Hopefully I can get to the point where I have basic cable, basic cell with texting and limited minutes.

I find myself taking on my avatar's persona more and more each day.

[snshijuptr]

One of my goals is to limit our lifestyle inflation to what we can afford to do in retirement at our current savings rate. In order to inflate our lifestyle, we have to first inflate our savings then have money leftover to inflate our life. Thankfully, we are both fairly simple people with inexpensive hobbies. Still I've seen this with my friends and my parents. I had one friend who bemoaned that his parents put him into a 1 bedroom apartment all on his own for a couple years after college while he was unemployed because the lifestyle was completely unsustainable. My parents actually told me one day that they could retire, except for their expensive tastes in wine. I'm hoping that by thinking about the income I receive from my investments, instead of the income I receive from my work, I can focus on keeping my lifestyle from inflating too much over the years.

[Gina23]

This is sad news. I have been saving for an Audi A5 for 5 years and am still too cheap to buy one new, so I'll continue saving and wait for the right used deal. Must be nice, but I wouldn't want it any other way. How do you ever come to appreciate anything?

[feh]

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

Exactly, still have my one and only car. But I wonder if you do buy a nice car before kids and everything how do you take a step back later? Is it always up and better?

I don't think it needs to be "always up and better". Our next home will be smaller and less expensive than our current one. We've gotten rid of satellite/cable tv, even though we could afford it.

Of course, it's easier not to "go up" in the first place. Then there is no "down". We bought a new car last summer; we could afford something nice and expensive, like an Audi. But we didn't buy such a car, simply because I'm not gonna spend $20-30,000 more than I need to.

Wants and needs don't change depending on what one can afford.

[Like2Plan]

Originally Posted by LivingAlmostLarge

Do you guys every think about it? Since we got Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones in December I know we'll never live without phones that have internet. But that's why we waited so long. We were hesitant to live without an extra $30/month each on our phone bill. It's a charge we knew would never go away.
So we've now permanenently upgraded our lifestyle.

LAL,
You have brought a very good point--something I think about, too. We have iPhones and data plans. Any way you look at it, it is a lot of money.

Still, I love my phone and I would not want to go back to a regular phone. DH and I like to travel and my iPhone has saved my bacon quite a few times. DH is always using his phone to look up stuff--any time he has a question about anything. I figure with competition, the pricing for data plans is going to come down like the pricing for cell phone time in general. (Trouble is I have been waiting 3 years and haven't seen much movement. )