It's all subjective and relative.
Someone may rent a big place with a swimming pool and feel that's normal .
Whereas someone else might look at it and think, "woahhh, that's so luxurious."
And I think we all fall somewhere around what we personally feel is a normal to comfortable lifestyle.
For most of us we think being able to eat out is considered comfortable. Heck, for most of us, I think we should have the ability to eat out daily. Even though we might not eat out every day. That's fairly comfortable. It's the option to be able to do it.
Whereas a low income person or even a fresh grad may feel that's a luxurious lifestyle.
I feel that owning a vehicle in SG is luxurious. It's expensive and unnecessary. Even though we can afford it. But maybe to someone else, it's just basic comfort. Ya, even though some folks will acknowledge that it's not necessary. They may acknowledge that it's expensive. But to them, it's not particularly luxurious. Just a comfort.
I think that there are certain tiers of perceived lifestyle.
Tier 0, things are not good, you feel that you are struggling.
Tier 1, normal lifestyle. Things are ok. You feel you aren't really comfortable but no real struggles.
Tier 2, a comfortable lifestyle. Things are getting better, you can enjoy some comforts, eating out, taking Grab/taxi, etc.
Tier 3, living in luxury. You have no worries about finances, you can afford most of the things you want.
(Note, I even took it that eating out, taking Grab/taxi is only considered comfortable in my view. Although this could be perceived by someone else as a normal lifestyle OR a luxurious lifestyle depending on their own personal situation.)
The thing about this is... it's all relative and subjective.
It's relative to what you see others do. Also relative to how you compare against other people. Or when you compare your past vs your current, etc.
Subjective is... what you yourself feel. So different people feel differently about each situation.
It may or may not be related to hedonic adaptation/treadmill.
Like for me, even though I take Grab/Uber or drive, I still feel it's luxurious. Even though I'm able to afford it.
Whereas for some people, they may start off by thinking Grab is luxurious, then after using it for sometime, they get used to it and feel that it's just comfortable, and maybe even after an even longer time, they feel that it's just a normal lifestyle. And that if they lost this ability to take Grab, they may feel that it's struggling already.
When I discussed this with my friend, it felt pretty enlightening.
Cos... suffering or not, struggling or not, luxurious or not... is really in the mind.
Most of us are not struggling. Yes, there are some folks who are really low income and are having difficulty. But I think for most readers... they are doing pretty well.
But how they themselves define their lifestyle, it's up to them.
You can live a life of "luxury" or a life of "struggling" depending on how you define it in your own mentality.
For me... personally I think I'm living quite a life of luxury. Cos my baseline is quite low.
My perceived normal lifestyle is a small place to stay, cheap and fairly good food, to me economic rice everyday is fine, I don't mind taking public transport and I don't mind having to work. Wearing old clothes is ok with me. I don't really like/need to travel so I'm ok without it.
That's my perceived normal lifestyle.
So now that I pretty much don't need to work, stay overseas, have the ability to eat out, or take personal transport, etc... Woah really nothing to complain.
Even in SG I already felt I was having a great life already. Hmm... maybe it's cos I don't really want much...
How about you?
Have you thought about your own lifestyle recently?
Do you feel you're just normal? Or do you feel that you're bathing in luxury?
You're probably doing a lot better than many in SG but what do you personally feel about it?
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