members and their systems

A friend of mine told me yesterday that he wants/needs to buy a new car. He is puzzled how people can afford all those cars you see on the street. A year, or two, ago he went to buy, or maybe it was a lease, a car for his wife (Fiat 500X) and, after whatever paperwork he needed to submit, the dealer asked him if he had added a zero to his income by accident. The salesperson had never seen anyone with such an income buying such a car. To put it in perspective, my friend was worried that the car may be too expensive for his financial situation.

Sure, people buy cars more often than D’Agostino amplifiers so maybe it is not a great illustration of the way people acquire expensive things.

what i think he said was go back to the gold standard, invest like he does, adopt virtue signaling frugality, and then have to work an additional 9 years to attain ( unverified ) 1% status.....

of course, i’m not really fully retired at 55, there are those pesky pay it forward positions, etc.....

@ghasley should be a t shirt dude, so erudite. Ya commercial property asset values are due for turbulence....I see conversion to condo happening bigtime in constrained growth markets.like Boston.

i liked your thinking on 1% also @whart we need to chat again soon brother..

to the OP, your first question is deserving of a lot of focus. i know a lot of gear churners, i draft behind them....big king salmon eat the bait that wild Coho salmon wound...too busy slasshing and moving to eat.... so there is a lot of super gear out there....

have fun

A good thread, y'all.....'educational' to state a least,...*s*  It can be a pricey hobby, pursuit, endeavor....that 'music thing' we chase, each in our own.....
I quit chasing the peaks when the cost of the climb grew too steep to attain, at least for me.  The spec'd numbers grew or shrank, adding zeros or numbers before or behind the decimal point that I couldn't hear.....

"Fine wine", expensive cars, the trappings or traps of habit....fun to sample, easy to avoid...

I've not spent a fortune on the new, used, and vintage of my stuff.
It pleases my ears for the most part, allows for the esoteric part....

Semi-retired....until CEO/spouse finds a stand-in, no need to hold breath there...*s*  

Meanwhile, logged in on a laptop in the hospital after having the little toe of my right foot amputated.....

I have no short stories....;)

Miller, you failed to mention the reason for not having cell phone, so I can't process that.  However, millions of Americans don't have it. And millions of Americans are actually doing quite well financially. Very expensive audiophile stuff is one thing but something modest worth, say, $50k is another. Again, millions can afford it if they really want it.