You and your friend both make $100,000 every year. Why is he accumulating wealth when you aren’t?

If you’re a city lawyer, expect to own a lot of suits and ties. You might be expected to live in an enormous, elaborate house with fancy furniture and oak trim. You need to invite your friends for fancy parties, attend expensive rallies and banquets, and dine at finer restaurants while your kids attend private school.

Meanwhile, if your friend owns a mechanics shop in a small town, he’ll wear jeans and a t-shirt every day. He can live in a simple house, eat what and where he wants, send his kids to the public schools, and do what he wishes without societal expectations. He makes the same amount of money, though he spends less. He’s saving far more than you ever could.

Society expects different qualities of life for different people. The key is not to get too absorbed in image. No one wants to do the dirty work, though I wonder if it might pay off…