Morgan Housel

Even just looking at how people dress, I think is very interesting.

I always make this point of like, and this is true as a shade of gray.

There are exceptions to this.

But when I see like a middle-aged man driving a yellow Ferrari, I'm like, look, I don't judge, but I'm like, there's a story there.

Yeah.

and i bet most of the time not all the time but the story is that person was snubbed or doubted or doubted themselves at some previous point in their life and the yellow ferrari is a trophy to show to others and to show yourself of like i made it i overcame that's what it was and that's why i think in general too the yellow sports car so to speak tends to be a new fun a new money phenomenon

Not a lot of old money families with those or fewer of them.

Because I think the new money wealth feels vindicated over what they overcame.

I used to be poor and I'm not anymore.

And I want people to know it.

And I want to show myself.

It's a trophy to myself.

Whereas the old money family is probably closer to be like, look, we've always had this.

It's like we didn't have to overcome anything.

It's the expectation.

It's the expectation of it.

Yeah, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

It's not a criticism.

I have a family member, I wrote about this in The Art of Spending Money, who grew up extremely poor, homeless, foster system kind of poor, and then became a very successful businessman.

And he told his daughter, when his daughter was getting ready for college, he said, please pick the most expensive school that you can get into.