Taking Stock: Luxury brands and happiness

This guy is a clinical professor for marketing in NYU Stern School of Business. I was watching a talk by him where he said the following:

“Rich people are the most boring people in the world. They smell, look, and feel alike. They all fly British Airways, wear Hermès, and party in St. Barths… Luxury brands are able to go global faster because rich people aspire to the same things.”

Its such a simple yet true concept that most people do not realise. Everyday we work and use hours of our lives, cells of our brains and energy from our body to pay for a _____________. (insert name of the brand followed by its item. e.g.: LV bag, Gucci wallet)

Where to strike a balance?
Frugality is a lifestyle, it can be taught, it can be demonstrated but it can never be practised efficiently unless the practitioner is inbuilt or strongly believes in the concept. It is frugal to eat $2.50 chicken rice from Ananas cafe everyday, never put on anything branded and not watch movies in cinema. But do you believe in it? (Personally, I enjoy watching movies in cinema because I am a firm believer in the entire experience of watching the 'talkies' in the cinema.)

I myself admit, frugality is a discipline I will never fully understand or realise. Everyone who is investing like Warren Buffett wants to follow his level of frugality, his thriftiness. But in doing so, it affects themselves and everyone around them. Lets be honest. We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway.

I say again: We cannot never be Warren Buffett in anyway!

You can replicate his portfolio, buy whatever shares he buys, drink coke all day long. But you will never be like him. Because for the simplest reason, you are not him. He felt that he started investing at 11 years old and wasted the first 11 years of his live not doing so. Without being a parrot, do you deep down feel the same?

Wasted or Earned
In a recent debate with my girlfriend, I told her money is never saved. It is either wasted or earned.

When we purchase any packages for any service or jewelry, one thing I notice the sales people like to repeat:

"You see this _________(extra service/product) costs so much and I throw it in, save you the money already."

Regardless whether we require said extra services/product or not, the fact that this is said, this is a sign of a complete polished piece of turd thrown at your face and you are suppose to like it. I get that if you are going to buy it, it is indeed a saving. But if something can be transacted at a price so much below its value, it is not worth much anyways.

Remember, not wasted or earned. If it is that crucial to get the extra service/product, why isn't it included into the original package? Hence, despite being cynical, generally for these added services or products given for free, we can assume 2 things:
1) the cost of these services/products have already been factored into the price of the item they are selling for.
2) since it is not required in the original purchase, it is, more often than not, useless.