<prompt> Human: Ive occasionally glanced through this subreddit a few times and I cant seem to understand some of the hard and fast rules that many of you seem to give out without regard to ones personal financial status. These include: Dont spend money on a car, youre losing money immediately Cable is a waste of money. Your money is in a checking account, that is so stupid because youre losing money etc, etcLets give an example situation. A redditor ask PF Should I buy a new BMW? I am 24 years old and I make 80,000 a year. I also have no debt. The car is 50,000. The standard answer I seem to read is That is so stupid that you would spend that much money on a car. Now, arguably, a 24 year old making 80,000 is quite a good salary. Had he not brought up the fact that he was buying a BMW, many would say hes at a good income for his age.Now what if I told you the exact same scenario, but now instead, the 24 year old makes 130,000. In fact, he could buy a 50,000 car, and be at the exact same place as he would have been had he been making 80,000. Now, disregard the assumptions of expensive car maintenance, premium gas, etc for the purpose of this discussion.You can have a frugal 24 year old making 80,000 or an unfrugal 24 year old making 130,000 buying a 50,000 car, both end up in the same place. At the end of the day, it doesnt matter how your money is spent as long as 1 you have an emergency fund 2 you are saving adequately for retirement.My last point is: For those that say, well you could have put more money into a house, you could have saved more into retirement. Refer to the fact that I stated 80,000 is already a great salary for a 24 year old. After spending 50,000 on the bmw, hes still at 80,000. Would you Agree or Disagree that this subreddit gives the same advice to people regardless of their financial situation?Assistant: The take-home for a single, childless person on a 130k salary is 94k. So his take-home minus the car is 44k, meaning hes really in the same position as someone making about 60k. This is why dont buy an expensive car is standard advice; when you correctly calculate the impact it has, all but the most car-loving people realize its not worth the cost.I almost never see people here see that cable is a waste of money in the abstract. Its just that, if youre trying to figure out how to cut expenses, cable should be one of the first on the chopping block.Keeping money in a checking account in excess of your expenses just has no benefits. Youre paying a premium for liquidity you arent using.Human: I definitely agree with your math. However, the assumptions I laid out were just hypothetical purposes. It wasnt necessarily to show the math was accurate, but I was trying to reflect the point that if someone is financially capable of making that decision, and afterwards, they were at a place that was good for their age, that we cant necessarily give out the same advice. Some people take off a month and go on a eurotrip. Others love going out to eat. People spend money in different ways.  <response>: but I was trying to reflect the point that if someone is financially capable of making that decision, and afterwards, they were at a place that was good for their ageThe reason you arent understanding this is because you are focusing too much on the present. Being good for their age is likely irrelevant to most PFers, who would rather focus on tangible or long-term goals. 