I never really had this problem until recently when I started wishing I could refinance to magically have piles of money for renovating my not-quite-big-enough house. But of course it's not magic; I would lose my low payments and/or the certainty of having my house paid off in six years. So I'll just keep saving.

On the other hand, when my boyfriend had blue collar jobs, we twice got a good opportunity to visit Europe: once when my sister lived there for a while with her military husband and one when a friend got a postdoc there. With free lodging and free tour guides, we used our savings to visit. However, my boyfriend's blue collar co-workers suddenly started treating him very differently, like he was too special to hang with them. "Oh, you get to go to Europe!" He tried to explain that they could also go to Europe if they wanted to, but they couldn't even imagine such a thing. It's very sad when you compare their shiny new vehicles to our sturdy old ones, etc.--they don't even see that they have made a choice.

Most of my friends are richer, and I know they have fancier toys because they work more hours and have more stress. I mostly have no trouble feeling happy with how rich I am compared to, say, my student years or my parents' early married years, not to mention folks in third-world countries. I've also managed to train myself not to even want some of the fancy toys. Partly it's because electronics always break. Partly my living room is way too small to be able to sit far enough away from some of these big-screen TVs. Partly it's because I fear video game addiction. But also it's because I really don't like most TV or care about having a fancy car, etc.