Most people would rather keep working than give up some of the expensive, wasteful things they buy. We drive old cars with low miles and most people won’t do that.
Someone told me exactly that last month. He congratulated me on my retirement and said it sounded really nice, but it would be a long way away for him because he likes expensive things too much. The way he said it, it was like he had a disease or something -- like he has no control over his expensive tastes.
I had a patient yesterday go on and on and on about it.
I tell all of my patients that I'm mostly retired from practicing and I only work one day a week.
This 70ish guy just couldn't believe it and kept saying "but you look so young! How is that possible???"
To which I joked, "oh it's easy, you just have to be willing to accept only a fifth of your income and there you go, anyone can work one day a week."
He didn't even seem to find it funny, he just kept exclaiming
"How is that possible? I spend so much more now that I'm retired!!"
He went on to rant about how he upsized to a much bigger house, how he spends so much more on golf now, how he spends a fortune on paying for private school for his grandkids (in an area with extremely good public schools), how he is picky about cars, etc, etc
I just shrugged and said "I'm a minimalist who lives in an apartment that's probably smaller than your garage"
He said "my garage is a thousand square feet!!!"
I said "my apartment is 800 square feet, and there's two of us living there"
No matter what I said, he just could not fathom that I could possibly have chosen a life that wasn't incredibly expensive.
He barely even registered any answers I actually gave him, he was so preoccupied that his way of life is just normal.
There was absolutely no sense that he saw his life as the product of decisions he had made, just that that's what life is like and as you get older, you spend more, period.