As far as I know, a nice car and a big house does very little to increase your happiness. Once you meet nominal needs of living, all the 'extra' stuff does very little to make you 'more' happy. It also usually comes in balance with the work or other parts of your existence you have to perform which usually comes with a higher price, offsetting the 'extra' stuff you think you have, because you don't just get 'extra' of the 'nice' parts of life, also 'extra' of the bad parts.