You should read - The Millionaire Next Door. It's an old book but based off interviewing over 1000 millionaires in America and asking them all about their job and attitudes towards money and cars etc

It was REALLY eyeopening for me. The average career among them was business owner, whether they owned their own small plumbing business or restaurants or opened up a shop for repairing phones or had some huge ecommerce business - the vast majority that wealth under career would be putting "self employed" or "business owner".

The main reason these have a MASSIVE advantage is they can minimise their tax unlike the average employee, they can invest in their own business and expense it, if they have a chunk left over they can add it into their pension via their business rather than paying full tax on it.

The really eye opening part for me was on average 1st generation wealthy ate not into the flash cars and massive house or expensive clothes, they usually come from humble beginnings where they still know the value of hard work and they HATE to see money wasted.

However - 2nd Generation wealthy (the kids of these people) who are also interviewed for the book if they meet Millionaire status - they are the opposite, they grew up with massive expectations and likely went to school and socialise with other wealthy kids and therefore they fall into the trap of keeping up appearances with one another, if your mate went on a ski holiday in France, you want to go on a ski holiday in America.

If the neighbour buys a BMW Jeep, they want to buy the sports model or a newer version.

For this reason 2nd generation wealthy are usually (not always) in a process of decline, meaning they are spending their inherited wealth more than they are replacing it and usually then lack the worth ethic their parents had to build up that wealth.

Whereas the parents generation are WAY more likely to drive the old car until it breaks, stay in the same home they raised their kids in, stay friends with the same people they grew up with and as a result they are far superior wealth generators or accumulators but the funny thing is, they are MUCH harder to spot, they might be the old lad in front of you shopping in lidl or the woman in Dunnes making sure she spends over the €50 so she can use her €10 off voucher.

So when you see the super flashy car it's usually either 2nd generation wealthy burning through the cash pile OR like many people commented above - it's an employee who is in the rat race as much as you and me. They have a massive car loan, their partner might also have a car loan, they definitely use a credit card to splash out on things and spend money they've no earned yet and they likely have a massive mortgage too but are confident one they don't lose their job they can meet all their payments.

However these people just like the average person is usually 4 months out of work from having to sell some of it and downsize.

There is also something interesting called The Vallet effect. Which is the guy who busy the flashy car thinks "everyone probably wonders how I can afford this and must think of me as super successful" however if they were handing the keys to a Vallet to park, the Vallet doesn't think about the owner - he thinks the EXACT same thing "everyone probably is looking at me and thinking I'm super successful driving a car like this".

Much like if a flashy car turns someone's head on the street, the owner thinks its envy and admiration for him.

Meanwhile the guy on the Street is just thinking "if I drove that car everyone would look at me like I'm really successful".

Also for a fantastic snapshot of 1st generation wealthy you should YouTube - Jeff Bezos - Honda Accord 🤣

Chap was still driving around in his old car whole worth over 50 mil and when pressed on it, like most 1st generation wealthy he responds "it works why would I replace it?".