10 Reasons Why “Looking Poor” Is the Key to Wealth

It happens all too frequently — lifestyle creep and the hedonic treadmill snowball until you’re only happy with the most expensive clothing, the flashiest cars, and other outward signifiers of success. It’s easy to justify these flashy items when you work hard for your money and want to show off all that you’ve accomplished — but living well within your means and opting for practical items over flashy things is one of the biggest keys to wealth. 

There’s a reason that the most commonly driven car among millionaires is the humble Toyota and not a Porsche or Ferrari. The truly wealthy don’t feel the need to flaunt their wealth outwardly and instead put their dollars to work behind the scenes. 

It can be tempting to purchase designer brands or splurge on that dream luxury car — but looking and living humbly is, in fact, the key to wealth. Here are ten reasons why you should consider “looking poor” if you want your money mindset and wealth to grow. 

A designer wardrobe, mid-tier car lease payment, and mortgage in a luxury neighborhood can easily eat into most of your budget. Looking and living more humbly means your overall budget will be much lower with money to go into things like investments or paying off consumer debt instead of on flashy items that, when you think about it, don’t matter. 

Lifestyle creep happens to the best of us — you get a raise and suddenly spend more on all aspects of your life. Deciding to live humbly and “look poor” can help prevent lifestyle inflation from creeping in altogether and instead makes it easier to save more and work toward building wealth. 

Deciding not to give in to flashy items will help you feel more at peace with what you have to offer as an individual rather than depending on designer goods to carry your worth. This mindset switch will help you move away from needing to keep up with the Joneses and will change the way you see your value. 

Living more humbly doesn’t mean you have to give up everything you love in favor of a strict austere lifestyle. But committing to a more humble lifestyle means you’ll have more room to really reflect on why you were buying more than you needed. Looking “poor” and living well within your means will help you better understand your personal preferences and the things you like because you like them, rather than things you only think you like because it’s expected of you. 

Once you start living within your means and no longer feel the need to buy items just to show off or prove your success, you’ll notice that your priorities will shift from spending to saving. The truly wealthy aren’t spending their money on designer t-shirts but instead are putting their dollars back into the market to work for them and make them even more wealthy. 

If you’ve been feeling guilty about how much you’ve spent on flashy goods and wants rather than needs in the past, don’t beat yourself up too much. The hedonic treadmill phenomenon can happen to the best of us — but putting an end to chasing dopamine hits in the form of impulse buying will allow you to break the cycle once and for all and instead use your money to create long-term wealth.  

Once you’re no longer spending on things like expensive car loans or designer clothing, you could end up needing to work less, or at least stress less about coming up with the money to pay the bills. Requiring less in general is the easiest way to work toward financial freedom and can be the difference between retiring at 65 or retiring in your fifties. 

Living humbly means you’re not overinflating your self-worth — and not being too proud to do the hard work is an excellent character trait to hold onto. Staying humble can snowball into your financial life in many ways, from taking on a side hustle to bump up your investment accounts to selling your car in favor of taking the subway to the office. Once you decide to live humbly instead of flashily, your mindset will likely shift even further to the point where you’re not afraid of getting your hands dirty. 

Subscribing to a flashy lifestyle can feel like the most obvious way to collect assets, but designer handbags and cars are not the investment that media can sometimes make them out to be. You’ll still have assets once you commit to living more humbly, but if you’re smart, they just won’t be on display. Instead of treating yourself to a fancy watch or pair of shoes, you will likely want to put that money into your investment accounts. Once you no longer require external validation, watching your accounts grow will be a bigger dopamine hit than any designer accessory could have offered. 

Being happy with “looking poor” and living humbly means you won’t always search for the next big thing. Instead, you’ll start to notice that you feel grateful for the little things in your life. Maybe it’ll be the cozy sweater you’ve had since college or the boots that keep your feet warm in the cold and rain. You’ll be surprised by just how much gratitude you can have for the everyday little things in your life once you stop chasing the latest trends and instead focus on what you already have.