[joncrane]

I'm not rich, but I'm comfortable.

Most of my choices, and certainly all of my major life choices (like where to live, what car to drive, what job to take) are still based around money.

Edit: good points in the responses. I don't worry about eating out, what to order, what brand of sundry to buy. I do try to optimize but as others have said, that's more of a desire than a requirement.

Having said that, I think the only people who truly never worry about money are children. I've heard stories about international students at universities whose parents buy them luxury car after luxury car when they crash them, that kind of thing. But I suspect it's pretty rare.

[zookeeprr]

That's definitely true up until a pretty obscene level of wealth, but there's definitely a difference between basing all choices around money, and basing major choices around money.

For example, I no longer scour the grocery store for the cheapest available option for every item I select. I no longer have to spend months finding the best value for a pair of shoes, a piece of furniture, etc.

Basically, if I spend a couple hundred dollars too much on stuff one month, I'll hardly notice it. Whereas, when I was poor, that was the difference between making rent or not.

[brudgers]

The poor stand in the paper products aisle calculating the relative value of one multi-pack of toilet paper versus another. While a person with money might look and decide one is too expensive, it's not an optimization problem. There's not pressure to get it right. The cost of a mistake is rounding error not a meal.

[Broken_Hippo]

Or buy the 4-pack because they literally can't afford 12 rolls - even though they know it is more expensive.

[foxdev]

Kids have to worry about money up to a point. I heard "we can't afford it" a lot growing up.

[lotsofpulp]

I remember being 8 knowing my parents were poor and rarely asking for anything I wanted because of it, even food. If I did ask, I felt guilty afterwards and would debate if I should have.

I played cautiously knowing that an injury could upend my family and my little sister’s future, and I didn’t partake in school sports or anything that could disturb my parents as they were already busy working 24/7 and it would have stressed them even more to have to pick me up or pay for equipment.