You know you make too much money when...

[InDebtInDC]

Devil's Advocate here. Let's say you make $10 million/year. A $100,000 car costs 1% of your income. If you are a mere mortal and earn $50,000/year, a $15,000 car costs 30% of your income. Which is more frivolous?

Is percentage of income an accurate metric of frivolity?

[Broken Arrow]

Is percentage of income an accurate metric of frivolity?

Good question!

I would think part of the answer lies in making smart purchases, regardless of price or percentage, eh?

[disneysteve]

Is percentage of income an accurate metric of frivolity?

I don't know, but I also don't know if price alone makes something a frivolous purchase. If you have more money than you could possibly spend in a dozen lifetimes, is there anything wrong with buying yourself or someone else an extravagant gift?

The CEO of Yahoo, Terry Semel, earned $230 million last year. That's $26,255 an hour, 24/7, 365 days/year. He could buy that car with 4 hours worth of income.

[InDebtInDC]

I don't know, but I also don't know if price alone makes something a frivolous purchase. If you have more money than you could possibly spend in a dozen lifetimes, is there anything wrong with buying yourself or someone else an extravagant gift?

The CEO of Yahoo, Terry Semel, earned $230 million last year. That's $26,255 an hour, 24/7, 365 days/year. He could buy that car with 4 hours worth of income.

Do you know what I can buy with 4 hours worth of income?


A Ford Pinto from a junkyard.


That would probably be a frivolous purchase for me as I have no use for it, and I can't make any money off of it.


His $100k gift got him a headline. I think he can afford it for the publicity. I could argue that my $100 car is more frivolous than his.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Actually Mike Comrie the hockey player/BF, is loaded. His dad own's the Brick, an electronics store in Canada. My DH is a hockey buff, and the guy is a terrible hockey player, but he's got a ton of family money to make up for it.

[ginene]

That is pennies compared to their income. I remember when they said Oprah brought Stedman an island one year for his birthday and gave him 5 million dollars. Now that is alot.

[nanamom]

That car is worth more than I am, by a great deal. I can't imagine having so much money that you give that away. I hope if I had that to give I'd give it to someone who needed it, that was a college education for a impoverished person. They say money follows money I guess they're right.

[krayziebone33]

Personally, I don't know why people pay so much attention to celebrity lives. They make ridiculous amounts of money and they can spend it however they want to spend it.

With that said, I can only speak for myself when I say I don't believe I would ever approach spending
$100,000 on a car if I had that kind of money to spend. I would be way more interested in buying a nice house somewhere quiet and somewhat secluded. That's just me, though. To each his/her own.

[disneysteve]

Personally, I don't know why people pay so much attention to celebrity lives.

Couldn't agree more!! All I hear people talk about at work - employees and patients - is what so-and-so is doing or who got arrested or who is getting divorced. WHO CARES! Pay attention to your own lives. Talk to your family and friends. Get involved in their lives. Turn off Entertainment Tonight and all those other gossip shows. And I feel the same way about pseudo-celebrities and "famous" legal cases like Scott Peterson or OJ. Those people and their situations have absolutely nothing to do with my life. I don't care at all about them and don't want to waste my time reading about them or hearing about them on TV.

[krayziebone33]

Couldn't agree more!! All I hear people talk about at work - employees and patients - is what so-and-so is doing or who got arrested or who is getting divorced. WHO CARES! Pay attention to your own lives. Talk to your family and friends. Get involved in their lives. Turn off Entertainment Tonight and all those other gossip shows. And I feel the same way about pseudo-celebrities and "famous" legal cases like Scott Peterson or OJ. Those people and their situations have absolutely nothing to do with my life. I don't care at all about them and don't want to waste my time reading about them or hearing about them on TV.

We are in complete agreement here. I'm forced to listen to the same conversations at my job. Unfortunately, these are the same people who I hear moaning about how they can barely afford their lifestyles among all their other problems. Maybe if they focus more of fixing these problems and less on what's on ET, MTV, VH1, etc., then maybe they would be in a better situation. They even laugh at me when they find out that I don't know the latest stupid thing that Britney Spears did or how the Lohan girl was arrested again and all that nonsense. They say things like, "Where have you been lately?"

Now, I'm certainly not proclaiming to be perfect or anything, but I think I do a pretty decent job focusing on me and what I need to get done. Pop culture is addictive, I guess.