I lived overseas for 15+ years and moved back to Oz recently. While my friends overseas were earning much more in after-tax terms than my Australian-based friends, it is the friends in Oz who spend like there is no tomorrow. Middle-aged professional types here on around $180k-$200k in Oz spend like they are seriously rich. People here also seem to like boasting about how much they spent - e.g. "I paid $10k for that dining table" (when it looks no better than a $800 table and they know it was a foolish purchase). Or "I always fly business class, I hate economy". I try and take pride in how little I spent - e.g. "I searched and searched until I finally found this $5 bottle of wine",  whereas friends here will say things like "my wine collection is worth more than my car" (he owns an Audi). We need to learn to take pride in how little we spent, not how much. If you want to boast, boast how cheap you are not how rich you are. As a nation, money that we don't save is money that we don't invest. If you want to know why foreigners seem to own everything and housing seems unaffordable, this is a primary reason.