[nerdponx]

This, bigtime.

I have gone through frugal periods and embarrassingly not-frugal periods in my life. In the former, I could always afford to pay for what I needed, and that knowledge felt great.

The allure of ultra-wealth for me is not the prospect of a mansion, yacht, or household staff, but the knowledge that I could acquire those things if I wanted them.

I can't imagine ever owning a gaudy estate, of course. But what if I didn't have to care about house/land prices, and I could just buy or build whatever I thought was best for my family? What if I could go to a fancy organic grocery store and know that I could afford literally any grocery bill? What if I could cover my friend's $10k vet bill? What if I could sponsor research into homelessness prevention and addiction recovery? What if I could donate Linux computers and tech support services to local schools? What if I could start my own PAC to fund political candidates I believed in[^]? And so on.

[^]: consider that maybe nobody ought to have this power...