happiness is rarely derived from spending money but from other things. money only provides freedom, sitting in first class will only give your 2 legs freedom and some extra helpings of airline food. Is it worth the value? For many small business owners who took their business from 0 to -> large They did it cent by cent , dollar by dollar, every cent watched every dollar investigated before spending. Money is spent much quicker then it is earned. Expenses add up , Bills add up. Margins @ 5-30% is quite low. So you may find, spending money and recieving your moneys worth is quite satisifying. Sort of like driving your car for 100,000 miles for 10 years, thats getting your moneys worth. Thats satisfying.
Also... For me, money is just a proxy for sex. If you're an interesting person, then winning over hot people is just about face time. And money simply makes that possible. my 2 cents.
"IKEA has some good stuff like cheap quality curtains..." I bet Walmart would beat IKEA anyday, anytime.....hands down!
Few people will. They complain about the rich being "tight", but they never understand that if the rich weren't at least frugal, they wouldn't be rich. Which is why lottery winners rarely hang on to their winnings.
"Who cares if he is cheap? The bottom line is the guy only has the wealth that he has BECAUSE of his frugality." I agree, in corporate US, it should become a law that any company not producing profits i.e. in red, will have even its top executives travel in economy class and stay in BestWestern/HolidayInn type dwellings..........until the company comes back into profit territory. PS: Holiday Inn is not cheap at $99/night.
"Frugality is the necessary condition for anyone trying to build something out of nothing." On the otherhand, Frugality also has potential of killing ambition. You learn how to live on little so why bother earning more....no wonder capitalism did not succeed, so far, in Eastern European nations.
you know - there are billionaires who have several luxury homes and a private jet, etc. and still will consider themselves frugal. they live a luxury life by any meanings but they do not waste anything. if there are opportunities to save money - they will seize them - just like anyone should do. so what's the point here? should you waste money just because you have a lot of it? should you spend money for expensive things that you simply are not interested in? why should you - just because you could? ridiculous...
A surprising number of people waste money because they can (some are just faking it) to impress their desired peer group. If man is a parading animal then perhaps thats not so ridiculous - just an evolutionary throwback that they can't overcome.
Maverick, i dont agree with you. the founder of ikea is not rich because he is frugal. he is rich because he is innovative and actually acted on an idea instead of just thinking about it like most others. frugal has nothing to do with being rich. there are many poor people who also are frugal--- squirlling away their meager incomes due to psychological issues regarding loss and fear of not having. surfer
I don't know much about IKEA, I've only met with their admin (US) people a few times and only regarding four things: 1. Use of UD. 2. Demonstrating IKEA in UD applications. 3. Orienting stores to UD clients. 4. Orienting Catalogue to UD. All turned out to be of mutual interest and we each were interested in what the other was doing. For 1. they requested I consider Germany as a highest priority outside of US. For 2. they would break with tradition and do build out of 1 out of 40 homes at their cost. Before their NEXT store opened, they set up UD shopping pathways (including maps) and 100% of products were approved (UD basis). They pledged to break with tradition and produce separate freestanding catalogue. I regard this as the same effort that was made to sell local items to buy transportation (bicycle). And the garden for vegitable growing, too. First meeting was on my turf and they had tapes and calculators. They were most impressed as to how we dropped elevators into small homes and how property values in nearby community had extrodinary increases, how we fast tracked PUD approvals, how we located relative to planned mass trans and how we demo'ed local substandard PUD's. They commented on our UD university support (3) and our "buzzsaw" electronic roientation. They spewed Germany stats right after they decided to "go" with our four corps (during the meeting). All other meeting were on their turf to forward improvements in their SOP for UD clients. The top down approach of IKEA's owner and boss goes all the way down to how a UD client could feel about the clear if the person wanted another spoon to set a table (whose elevation can be changed with the touch of a hand). One thing ET people can learn is to give regard to success and how that success is maintained. IKEA maintains it with very superior staffing and protocols. Furnishing are important to everyday life. IKEA grew from an idea and persuasion that can be used for a lot of other things. Imagine H for H building flat out in Katrina land and IKEA flat shipping all the build out. The example of UD is a specific example of how this top guy has embued the ranks with the need to emphasize the UD client poulation.