Page 106 - Morgan Housel - The Psychology of Money_ Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness-Harriman House Limited (2020)

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Past a certain level of income, what you need is just what sits below
your ego.

Everyone needs the basics. Once they’re covered there’s another level of
comfortable basics, and past that there’s basics that are both comfortable,
entertaining, and enlightening.

But spending beyond a pretty low level of materialism is mostly a reflection
of ego approaching income, a way to spend money to show people that you
have (or had) money.

Think of it like this, and one of the most powerful ways to increase your

savings isn’t to raise your income. It’s to raise your humility.

When you define savings as the gap between your ego and your income you
realize why many people with decent incomes save so little. It’s a daily
struggle against instincts to extend your peacock feathers to their outermost
limits and keep up with others doing the same.

People with enduring personal finance success—not necessarily those with
high incomes—tend to have a propensity to not give a damn what others
think about them.

So people’s ability to save is more in their control than they might
think.

Savings can be created by spending less.

You can spend less if you desire less.

And you will desire less if you care less about what others think of you.