In my previous role, there was a ~30 year old engineer reporting to me. From what I could tell, he was strictly in this job for the money and had little interest in anything we were doing. For example, I'd try to problem-solve with him - you know, so we'd get the benefit of two heads working on the problem and so he'd have buy-in to whatever solution made the most sense. I quickly discovered he had zero interest in exploring what was going on and just kind of passed the time with me. Then, after a while, irritated, he would ask me what I wanted him to do. So, I would pick a solution and tell him.
Anyway, one day I walked over to his desk to ask him where some docs were stored on the network, and I noticed a shiny glossy brochure of BMWs open on his desk. I said something like, "oh, what's this?" He got this far away look in his eyes and said, "this is what I'm saving up for."
Now, in the country I live in, foreign cars are CRAZY EXPENSIVE. A BMW that would cost $50k in the US would cost $100-$150k here. Add to that the fact that engineers here make 1/5 to 1/3 the salary of US engineers and you have one seriously long slog to what? A status mobile? Then what?
(this is supposed to be a gif of Homer backing away slowly into the hedge, but the animation doesn't seem to play... hmm).