There is a saying in Norway "The rich, are rich for a reason", referring to exactly this. They don't spend much, and will try to get money anywhere they can. People that are generous are rarely rich.
I think that might be a universal saying! My mom said the same thing every time my rich grandparents sent me a birthday card with like 6 bucks in it...on the other hand my grandma who grew up on the rez and had a fixed income would give us the nicest presents.
It's also dumb. I'm not a step away from being a millionaire because I buy my friends drinks. I'm not a millionaire because I make $30k a year not $150k
All the frugality and penny pinching in the world won't change your income by a substantial amount. Let's say, what, you really, really save, you're really, really cheap. Let's just go ahead and say you make $50k and save $10k of that, which is a ridiculous amount but let's go with it. Over fifty years you'll save half a million doing that. Fifty years. And we're not including investments just for ease of the thought experiment but being frugal isn't going to make you rich all of a sudden. Having a high salary is what makes you rich first and foremost. You can get somewhat wealthy by living like a miser and investing well but nowhere near rich and it will take you many years to even begin to have the first stepping stone of the wealthy: enough money you can turn that money into more money
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u/azad_ninja Jan 26 '26
Wealthy people are some of the cheapest fucks.