How much you spend is obviously so personal, but I think “figuring out” how much to spend swings along a pendulum. If you spend time cutting out unnecessary costs, the pendulum swings left. If you spend time leaning into spending more on things you love, the pendulum swings right. It may take time to figure out what’s useless and what’s useful. Like you, I was bred into a family with a scarcity mindset (Holocaust Survivors). It was easier for me to keep costs low than to spend on myself. This ultimately helped me in my finances. But I find it can be just as hard to release oneself from the grip’s of a scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset, as much as it can be for someone who has scaled up their lifestyle and needs to scale back. I find for the most part, people in the EA community seem to share the low-cost mindset more-so than those that overspend (perhaps that’s self selecting though based on the work I do!).
How much you spend is obviously so personal, but I think “figuring out” how much to spend swings along a pendulum. If you spend time cutting out unnecessary costs, the pendulum swings left. If you spend time leaning into spending more on things you love, the pendulum swings right. It may take time to figure out what’s useless and what’s useful. Like you, I was bred into a family with a scarcity mindset (Holocaust Survivors). It was easier for me to keep costs low than to spend on myself. This ultimately helped me in my finances. But I find it can be just as hard to release oneself from the grip’s of a scarcity mindset into an abundance mindset, as much as it can be for someone who has scaled up their lifestyle and needs to scale back. I find for the most part, people in the EA community seem to share the low-cost mindset more-so than those that overspend (perhaps that’s self selecting though based on the work I do!).