On Being Rich-ish: Lessons I learned becoming suddenly middle-class

It really depends. In some, neighbors will assume you're going through a rough spot and cut it for you. It probably depends on how many generations removed your neighbors are from abject poverty. Too many and they lose touch with how easy it is to end up on one side or another of the line.

> Food is huge here

Typically, this is how I measured my success as well: when I stopped looking at the prices of things and just shopped or ordered what I wanted without too much concern. (Within reason of course, because as a former cook when I want splurge it can easily hit 4 digits.)

Everything else never felt as a re-assuring,; I've bought lots of cars and motorcycles, signed leases, traveled etc... over the years, but nothing made me more comfortable than knowing that the food bill wasn't going to ruin my finances for the month(s) as it used to before.

I used to live on $100/month for food during university, it's partly why I decided to work in kitchens and I know I can stretch out a meal quite a lot and not lose on quality. And if it's just me, I tend to like simple meals that I can iterate upon: a ragu can turn into about 5 different dishes and all uses cheap(er) cuts of meat.

But I still remember having to wait to buy things from grocery stores like yogurts or juice or pasta only when they were on special (loss leaders) and it's actually how I got a pretty good at understanding the market dynamics of a food supply's value chain, which helped when I ran kitchens and when I got into supply chain.

It ultimately culminates in focusing my cuisine on farm to tables because eating in-season not only tastes the best, is more environmental, but when you're in charge of food costs in menu development you can achieve ROIs and ARRs to justify larger expenses by buying and sourcing from farms who you can count on for price breaks for other items/prioritization for other items by buying their entire harvest ahead of planting.

As both a former farmer and chef, this was a huge relief and allows you to utilize capital where it's needed most without taking as many loans for repairs, labour, training, expansion etc...

Yes.

I struggled with this as well and then I started asking people about it, I grew up lower middle class and there were some very rough stretches of time during my childhood.

What I've observed:

1) They're not saving for retirement. $0.

2) They spend a lot using credit. New vehicles with 2k down and high monthly payments. High monthly credit card bills.

3) They have a lot of stuff but are essentially living pay cheque to pay cheque. One thing that surprised me was working at a company that got acquired and payroll got moved to the parent company which had a pay schedule that was 1 week later, so they told us we would get paid one week later than we had historically. Inconvenient, but no problem for me. Out of an office of about 40 people 15 said they wouldn't be able to pay their bills. These were all people who made over 6 figures.

Another thing I've noticed is that many people don't look at absolute price but instead look at monthly payment, I think raising interest rates are going to hurt a lot of people that from the outside seem to have a dream life.

Women may, overall, tend to have a different relationship to security and success than men tend to. Simplifying it to "they are attracted to those things" doesn't align with my experiences though.

This worldview is limiting, even insulting, to both men and women though and you should try not having it.