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Wealth has tested me, and poverty has liberated me.

When I am flush with cash, and I have been very flush a couple times in my lucky life, I've noticed that money tested me. I spent more freely on things that do not last, particularly expensive food, and impulsive gifts for loved ones. Now, I know gifts are not all bad, but it is bad when you're not doing it to a budget, because a gift now is many gifts taken away from your loved one later, because that gift cash could have been compounding interest.

While wealthy, I've blown a fairly amazing wad on rent and mortgage, yet no place I've ever lived changed my life in a meaningful or lasting way. Certainly my neighbors, family, and friends did, the actual places never did. Same with food. I adore tasty food in fancy atmospheres. Adore it. And guess what happens the next day. Same thing that happens to any other kind of food.

I blew a giant wad on a fancy exotic car when wealthy. Everyone around me at work was buying fancy pants cars, and I just felt compelled to drink the kool aid. I've held onto it for over 12 years, but you know what happened within the first couple of years? I started noticing all the subtle little bits of plastic used in the car's interior that reacted more quickly to sun damage. They immediately started looking cheap. It was like a magical illusion that was slowly being dispelled when exposed to the light of truth. The tight steering got looser with age. I immediately straightened out the suspension and got hard composites, because it was eating through tires in less than 7k miles. It was money that could have been much better spent. In fact, just after buying it, I found that I needed it for an incredible business opportunity where I could have bypassed having to rely on a publisher for a game I had just released and could have enjoyed a much larger royalty, but woops, blew it on a car. It looks more like a beater these days. I keep it because I've learned to be thrifty again and to remind me that I need some humility.

I was also tempted to lecture more. I felt like when I was rolling in it that I had sage advice for others about getting more money of their own. I don't know where this illusion comes from, but it's nonsense. People get wealthy in very, very different ways, ranging from luck to hard work to being sneaky to being generous to networking to creating to serving. It's all over the map, and it's presumptuous to think you know more.

I also noticed that I was less tolerant with anyone

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