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Old 12-10-2006, 02:11 AM   #11 (permalink)
RT Wolf
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Toronto, Canuckland
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I'd like to reframe the question in a larger context:

What will make you the happiest?

There's a few answers to this:
Many people think that material things will make them happy, and acquiring material things does make you temporarily happy (usually). However, many consider this a temporary or hollow happiness. Many spend their entire lives trying to gain material goods only to find that they did not get the happiness they had craved.

Another answer is focussing on creating value. This is where one moved out from simply being a consumer and becomes a creator.

Material things in themselves are not good or bad, it's how you feel about them. If you want them cause others don't have them, you're probably on the path of pride and envy ("It's envy, not greed that makes the world go round." Warren Buffett). On the other hand, if you can genuinely look at a beautiful car and want its beauty (and there are some cars that are simply gorgeous), that's slightly better.

I would recommend reading "The Millionaire Next Door', your family sounds like a textbook case of that. That and I would recommend looking up Warren Buffett. He may be the second-richest man in the world, but he lives a very frugal lifestyle. These are recommended if you'd like to practice frugality. Personally, I found The Millionaire Next Door to be a huge eye-opener for my spending habits (which, arguably, were pretty frugal to begin with).

And Buffett's thought on business, ethics, frugality, etc are just amazing as well.

Another thing to keep in mind is what you're saving money (or practicing frugality) for. I want financial independance and that's why I'm saving money. Saving money to spend doesn't sound like a meaningful ideal. On the other hand, if you consider the amount of money you're making/saving as an indication of how much value you are creating, that's another perspective.

So, there's no right or wrong answer to these questions. At 17, you're thinking about/dealing with big issues and I respect that. Keep at it and I hope this helped.
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