Poll of the Day > Is frugality an absolute or a relative measure?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Can you spend above the median and still be frugal?

I heard someones frugality praised recently who owns at least four houses, ones they dont rent but vacation homes.

Does it depend on what you make? If you make 5MM a year and spend 500k are you frugal? Are you frugal if you make 100k and spend 50k? Make 20k and spend 20k? Make 10k and spend 11k?

Does it depend on your peer group? Does it depend on what your your fellow citymen spend? Fellow countrymen?

I guess its sorta both.

Yes

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Owning 4 homes that are barely used that generate no revenue isn't frugal.

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I would consider frugality relative to what you make, but under no circumstances is anyone who owns four homes frugal.

Broadly, frugality is a matter of trying to avoid spending money whenever it's feasible to do so. There's a certain amount of relativity in there in that those with more money can take a more generous approach to defining "need," but it definitely does not scale linearly (i.e. only spending 500 when you make 10k is more frugal than spending 500,000 when you make 10m) due to the substantial diminishing returns you encounter in trying to define more expensive things as "necessary."

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