{"id":574,"date":"2023-04-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T20:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T20:39:23","slug":"why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As a personal finance pundit, I spend (read: waste) a lot of time trolling the online watering holes where financial topics are debated, and I\u2019ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon ramp up over the last 12 months. (I\u2019m already fearful this piece is going to be dubbed the result of being \u201cchronically online,\u201d but alas, if the shoe fits…)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the way people in business, entrepreneurship, and finance circles fantasize about\u2014and project those fantasies upon\u2014what \u201cthe rich and successful\u201d do with their money, and the way it often culminates in a logical fallacy that \u201crich people\u201d don\u2019t have nice things (or, conversely, that only people who lack financial responsibility have nice things).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier to show than tell:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The tropes abound, and they\u2019re strangely specific.<\/p>\n

Rich people drive Camrys<\/span><\/a>! They make coffee at home! They wear secondhand clothes! They don\u2019t enjoy their money, they simply hoard it for ~generational wealth~. <\/p>\n

The most quintessential depiction of this phenomenon is the way people love pointing out that Warren Buffett still eats at McDonald\u2019s<\/span><\/a> and owns the same home<\/span><\/a> in Omaha he bought in 1958. Quirky fun facts, sure, but it would be a mistake to suggest these have literally any causal relationship<\/em> with his financial status. <\/p>\n

The sometimes implicit (but often explicit) suggestion is that this intense frugality and self-denial is what made someone rich in the first place<\/em>. Much of this myth-making is almost certainly derived from the book The Millionaire Next Door<\/em><\/span><\/a>, which minted this persistent generality.<\/p>\n

And hey, to be fair, I think there\u2019s something beautiful about a simple life\u2014I\u2019m not trying to suggest frugality is a bad thing, or that it should be avoided. Just that it usually has very little<\/em> to do with how people amass vast fortunes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The rich, they\u2019re\u2026just like us? Not quite.<\/h2>\n

Not to rely too heavily on anecdotal evidence, but this type of proselytizing has always<\/em> struck me as discordant because the (very few) wealthy people I know (as in, \u201cmulti-8-figure net worth\u201d) live in multimillion-dollar homes, drive luxury vehicles, and fly first class (or private) to their expensive vacations (a sentence that physically pains me to type). <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure where all these unassuming pauper zillionaires are, but they seem to exist only in the imaginations of the thinkboiz who use them as virality fodder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

A Rolex? A \u201cLambo\u201d? Have these people ever seen a single movie about investment bankers?! <\/p>\n

It all drives at this insidious implication that massive wealth should be achievable by anyone, if they\u2019re sufficiently able to just sleep a little less and make love to a 15-year-old Toyota regularly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

To be fair, I also<\/em> know a few people who became millionaires after 40 years of hard work and sacrifice. They accumulated $1 million in the same slow-and-steady way I\u2019d walk a marathon. But it\u2019s worth explicitly distinguishing between these types of people\u2014who genuinely did <\/em>scrimp and save for an entire lifetime\u2014and Warren Buffett. <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t even feel appropriate to use the same word to describe them. $1 million in retirement is enough to support a $40,000\/year lifestyle, assuming you ascribe to the 4% rule<\/span><\/a>. Warren Buffett earns more than that in two minutes<\/em><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think anyone would logically group these two levels of wealth together if pressed, but \u201cthe rich,\u201d \u201cmillionaires,\u201d and someone like Warren Buffett are used surprisingly interchangeably in this type of clickbait<\/strong>, and it\u2019s worth highlighting just how cosmic the gap is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

But who cares?<\/h2>\n

While it\u2019s not inherently harmful to suggest someone should be frugal, it does expressly miss the point, if its intention is to create a how-to manual for becoming wealthy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although there are certainly notable exceptions (like corner store owner Leonard Gigowski<\/span><\/a>, who supposedly left a $13 million endowment to his former school, assuming this story passes the fact check), most people don\u2019t become wealthy because they\u2019re driving an old car. <\/p>\n

None of this is to suggest that someone can\u2019t become independently wealthy through their own decisions\u2014just that much of our online fantasizing about morning routines, old beater cars, and coupon clipping is a sideshow. Here are a few more, for good measure:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Trying to project middle class habits onto<\/em> rich people and then extrapolate backwards (\u201cSee? Just live like this<\/em> and you\u2019ll get there, too\u2026\u201d) is a logical fallacy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The people who become really<\/em> wealthy do it through earning or inheriting a high income and investing it<\/h2>\n

Using your income to buy (or build) cash-producing assets over time is how people become wealthier, and yes, that\u2019s only possible if you\u2019re earning more than you\u2019re spending (or ahem<\/em>, inheriting money). The laser focus on frugality is ultimately a distraction from the truth, because it directs the lion\u2019s share of the attention to the less-important side of the wealth-building equation. <\/p>\n

Graham Stephan<\/span><\/a>, who \u201csaves 99% of his income,\u201d comes to mind, as does Invest with Ace<\/span><\/a>, who enjoys \u201c8-figure frugality.\u201d Both make lifestyle choices that are right for them, and are careful to suggest these preferences for frugality are not why<\/em> they\u2019re rich (they both got rich from real estate investing and content creation). Graham in particular is often heralded for his ultra-frugal habits and his $7m net worth, but again, these two plot points are mostly uncorrelated: He reportedly<\/span><\/a> earns $120,000 per month<\/em> from his YouTube channel, affiliate links, and real estate classes alone. His income is the reason he\u2019s wealthy, not because he never orders takeout. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s much harder to create a YouTube channel that generates as much as $3m per year<\/span><\/a> in ad revenue than it is to buy generic brands at the grocery store, so we tend to focus on the latter when we talk about the \u201chabits of the rich and successful\u201d worth mimicking.<\/p>\n

Much like we\u2019ve all learned from the SBF-ad nauseam news cycle, being super frugal<\/span><\/a> is merely an eccentric personality trait that\u2014in the vast majority of cases\u2014is not causally linked at all to impressive wealth. <\/p>\n

This fantasy\u2014that only people without financial security have nice things\u2014is simply not grounded in objective reality, and it casts a shameful hue on anyone who does<\/em> choose to indulge in the fruits of their labor. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a lifestyle choice<\/em> that some rich people make. It\u2019s not the reason<\/em> wealthy people are wealthy. <\/p>\n

It\u2019d be like if LeBron James said he eats Pop-Tarts every morning for breakfast. Mimicking this choice will not improve your basketball proficiency, but that probably wouldn\u2019t stop Wealth With Chad from writing a thread about why bagels are trash. <\/p>\n

LeBron\u2019s car collection is reportedly worth $3 million<\/span><\/a>. He must\u2019ve missed the memo about Camrys. And sure, Buffett still owns the home he bought in 1958, but he also<\/em> has a private jet\u2014that tidbit is typically left out of the threads about his Big Mac habit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a personal finance pundit, I spend (read: waste) a lot of time trolling the online watering holes where financial topics are debated, and I\u2019ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon ramp up over the last 12 months. (I\u2019m already fearful this piece is going to be dubbed the result of being \u201cchronically online,\u201d but alas, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-big-purchases-cars-and-houses.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spending-and-saving","tag-big-purchases-cars-and-houses"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a personal finance pundit, I spend (read: waste) a lot of time trolling the online watering holes where financial topics are debated, and I\u2019ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon ramp up over the last 12 months. (I\u2019m already fearful this piece is going to be dubbed the result of being \u201cchronically online,\u201d but alas, if […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-03T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-29T20:39:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1001\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"757\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Gatti\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Gatti\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/\",\"name\":\"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-03T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-29T20:39:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51ab3e47f462d7af0d7d2b00ab153000\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png\",\"width\":1001,\"height\":757},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/\",\"name\":\"Money with Katie\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51ab3e47f462d7af0d7d2b00ab153000\",\"name\":\"Katie Gatti\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59c980f5acd370ecf7e985b2da3db33f1883bc4b53677d75e5b8f124f8e1ed74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59c980f5acd370ecf7e985b2da3db33f1883bc4b53677d75e5b8f124f8e1ed74?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Katie Gatti\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/author\/katiemoneywithkatie-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie","og_description":"As a personal finance pundit, I spend (read: waste) a lot of time trolling the online watering holes where financial topics are debated, and I\u2019ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon ramp up over the last 12 months. (I\u2019m already fearful this piece is going to be dubbed the result of being \u201cchronically online,\u201d but alas, if […]","og_url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/","og_site_name":"Money with Katie","article_published_time":"2023-04-03T12:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-29T20:39:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1001,"height":757,"url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Katie Gatti","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Katie Gatti","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/","url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/","name":"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars? - Money with Katie","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png","datePublished":"2023-04-03T12:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-29T20:39:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51ab3e47f462d7af0d7d2b00ab153000"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Highways_Green-Mint_Cropped.png","width":1001,"height":757},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-are-we-obsessed-with-rich-people-with-old-cars\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Are We Obsessed with Rich People Who Drive Old Cars?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/","name":"Money with Katie","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/51ab3e47f462d7af0d7d2b00ab153000","name":"Katie Gatti","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59c980f5acd370ecf7e985b2da3db33f1883bc4b53677d75e5b8f124f8e1ed74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/59c980f5acd370ecf7e985b2da3db33f1883bc4b53677d75e5b8f124f8e1ed74?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Katie Gatti"},"url":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/author\/katiemoneywithkatie-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178814"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}