“Money is a tool, not the goal. Financial freedom is the goal. Don’t forget that.” – Anonymous.
My great-uncle spent his career as an educator, starting in the classroom and eventually becoming the Superintendent of Schools in Nutley, New Jersey, where the renowned lifestyle guru Martha Stewart spent much of her childhood.
My great-aunt and uncle lived in a beautiful center-hall colonial home that exuded old-world charm and character, which had been meticulously maintained over the years, just like all the other sought-after houses on their tree-lined street.
Considering the value of their property and my great-uncle’s substantial salary as a superintendent, one might expect him and my great-aunt to drive around in a Mercedes, Cadillac, or another luxury car from the 1990s.
Instead, they drove around in mainstream car brands like Nissan and Volkswagen and rarely in the top-of-the-line models.
As a teenager beginning to understand how material possessions could help gain acceptance in a materialist-driven society, I recall asking my father why my great-uncle didn’t drive a car more suited to his affluent neighborhood and high-level career.
My father replied, “Sometimes the perception of wealth is more valuable to people than actually having money in the bank.”
When considering a car’s depreciation—20% in the first year—and the additional costs of insuring and repairing a luxury vehicle, my great-uncle concluded that spending as little as possible on a new car was a wise financial decision.
This point was further solidified after seeing a LinkedIn post by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, which I found pretty interesting as a person with a lifelong interest (and sometimes obsession) with cars.
I’m often keenly aware of and attentive to what other people are driving in any given situation, whether it be at work, in shopping mall parking lots, out to dinner, or even while on vacation.
Yes, I realize how creepy that might sound. Still, it’s nothing more than data gathering, as I often like to compare the real-world habits of society with the trends, sales, and reliability of the automotive news I digest. I also notice how the kinds of vehicles we drive can sometimes reflect their owners’ personality or insecurity.
Here’s Mr. Ramsey’s LinkedIn post.
The average millionaire isn’t driving a Lamborghini, wearing designer clothes, or living in a mansion. They’re driving a used Toyota, shopping at regular stores, and living below their means. Here’s the secret:
Millionaires act their wage.
They budget every month.
They avoid debt like it’s the plague.
They invest consistently over time.
The flashy lifestyle isn’t wealth—it’s a highlight reel. Real wealth is quiet, consistent, and intentional.
After the post, Ramsey added a list of the top five cars driven by millionaires. Prepare to be surprised.
- Toyota
- Honda
- Ford
- Lexus
- Subaru
For me, this information was highly suspect. After all, why would individuals who classify themselves as “millionaires” choose to drive around in a Toyota Highlander or a Subaru Outback (though each model has undoubtedly increased in cost over the last decade)?
The entire idea seemed somewhat backward to me, especially given that so many of us assume that if you’re driving around in a luxury vehicle from Mercedes or BMW, you are, in fact, a “millionaire” who has the disposable income necessary to afford to buy, lease, insure, and maintain such vehicles.
It’s crucial to understand that our assumptions about others’ wealth or status stem from our perceptions, not from actual facts. To shape how others view them, many individuals curate lifestyles designed to project an air of superiority but rarely represent their reality.
However, this facade often comes at a significant and sometimes detrimental cost to their mental health and financial well-being.
I offer the following information pulled from LendingTree.com in December of 2024 that will connect to the ultimate point I’m trying to make.
- Auto loan debt is the second-largest category of personal debt, only behind home mortgages. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York City, Americans hold a staggering $1.644 trillion in auto loan debt, which accounts for 9.2% of all American consumer debt.
- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York City reports that in the third quarter of 2024, auto loan delinquency rates were up 17.4% compared to the previous year, with 4.6% of outstanding auto debts at least 90 days past due.
I’m no financier, but I’ve learned a great deal of information from some amazing professionals over the years, and auto loan delinquency rates typically show one thing—that people are purchasing cars that are not within their means.
Yes, the average price of a new car today (around $48,000 at the end of 2024) is unimaginable to those of us who started driving back in 1992, when the average price of a new car was $16,000. What a difference 32 years makes.
But there are two kinds of purchasers in the market: practical shoppers who buy what they need regardless of their wealth, like my great uncle, and impractical shoppers who splurge on what they often want as a gateway into a materialist and shallow society.
Sadly, I’ve been guilty of the latter. More to come later.
According to an article on LendingTree.com, “Spending is driven far too often by fear. For example, we fear not doing enough and falling behind our neighbors, relatives, co-workers, or even those we’re only in touch with via social media. It’s a phenomenon called “keeping up with the Joneses,” and it causes many Americans to feel pressure to spend more and more and more. That spending then leads to overspending, which leads to debt, which can lead to real trouble.”
Here’s how the generations stack up when feeling pressure to overspend and compete in our materialistic society.
- 62% of Gen Zers, ages 18 to 27
- 44% of millennials, ages 28 to 43
- 25% of Gen Xers, ages 44 to 59
- 8% of baby boomers, ages 60 to 78
LendingTree did the math for me, and that equates to about 1 in 3 American adults feeling pressured to spend more on bigger and better items to keep competing for superiority in a materialistically driven society.
This misguided logic often forces many to have an unhealthy relationship with money and possessions, making it almost impossible to see financial freedom as the goal. They think happiness comes from accumulating “things,” spending valuable time chasing something unattainable in material goods or the status they may provide.
Opening Your Eyes to Financial Freedom
In a recent post titled Impress Others with Who You Are, Not What You Have, I spoke about my own inadequacies when it came to connecting my feelings of success and self-worth to a car (an Audi A4, to be exact, which had recently been totaled in a car accident).
Though my wife and I have always been responsible with our choices regarding the goal of financial freedom, I’ve always had a somewhat complicated relationship with cars.
Yes, I enjoy learning about new car designs and technologies and can watch car videos on YouTube for hours.
However, for me, a new car possessed the potential to increase my status in popular society while decreasing my internal insecurities. I wish this financially irresponsible way of thinking didn’t follow me into adulthood, but it did.
That irresponsibility seemed to culminate with purchasing my Audi A4 and giving me that sense of superiority I shamefully craved. It was just a car with four wheels and a steering wheel like every other vehicle on the road. Yet, the Audi logo elevated it to the status of brand snobbery.
In the early days of ownership, the car empowered me wherever I went. However, over time, I realized it was just a car. What once felt special gradually lost its appeal as I understood that my financial irresponsibility and misguided pursuit of material possessions made me feel like I had succumbed to societal pressures.
As Ramsey said in his post, “The flashy lifestyle isn’t wealth—it’s a highlight reel.”
As I write this post, currently sitting in my garage are two popular Honda vehicles: a CR-V Hybrid I purchased last year, and a Civic Sedan Hybrid I bought only a few weeks ago.
I did find myself looking into more premium luxury brands like Audi and Lexus, but I kept reminding myself that “real wealth is quiet, consistent, and intentional.”
I no longer drive around concerned with the perception others may have about my choice of vehicles. I’m proud of my financial responsibility, for my family and the environment, and I can clearly see the financial freedom goal not far off in the distance. And that feeling of responsibility, of doing the right thing at the right time, has even managed to make me feel better about myself.
Remember, financial freedom is the goal.
What does that mean, you ask?
It means having control over your finances rather than your finances having power over you. The only way to achieve that is to make smarter choices based on needs, not status.