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There’s also a difference in the way people handle money once they improve their financial situation. They tend to be cautious, and save money instead of spending it. There are exceptions, of course.



I've heard just as many people express the opposite. That because they were used to "having extra money to spend" being a fleeting thing, they threw caution to the wind and overspent after attaining a substantially higher income. That they had never learned about saving before (because they didn't consistently have extra to save), so it never became a habit.

It'd be interesting to see real data on which outcome is actually more common.


Anecdotally it seems to depend a lot on how they got the money. Based purely on people I've known; people who become rich after working long hours for 20+ years building up company or similar tended to be very frugal for the rest of their lives despite retiring millionaires. People who 'lucked' into a lot of money tended to wildly overspend and never achieve financial stability.




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