Mansions and Multimillion Dollar Incomes: Living in a World of Easy to Access Survivorship Bias

How many times have you driven through an upscale neighborhood–those with massive custom houses and high-end cars—and immediately felt stricken with anxiety about your own situation? Or perhaps you're walking through your own neighborhood, saw that one of your neighbors recently started a major renovation, and wondered why them and not you?

This happens to me all the time, and—despite the fact that I know what exactly I want—it always makes me think about how I'm falling behind. In fact, a few days back I went down a rabbit hole and was reading a Reddit thread about how people manage their lives when they're earning more than $5M/year. Needless to say, I immediately felt next to worthless and incapable when I realized that I've only ever flirted with 10% of that annual income once (so far) in my life!

Now obviously I know that I'm not worthless, and that there are a lot of different reasons why people have a lot of nice things (don't forget how easy it is for high earners to take on piles of debt!), but it's still something I struggle with on a regular basis (sometimes I feel like my desires are chameleon-like: I absorb what I see other people desiring, even when I don't want it).

Yesterday while lurking in the same subreddit as above, I came across a question that I liked so much, I had to comment and tell my story.

But the best-rated answer by far was from someone who pointed out how we're constantly bombarded by survivorship bias in online communities like the fatFIRE subreddit.

It went on to very perfectly answer the question, but the thing that most directly resonated with me was the topic of survivorship bias (i.e. we're only seeing the ones that "made it" and thinking that that's everyone who tried). I realized that the feelings of inferiority and anxiety that I feel—in expensive neighborhoods, near expensive cars, and when I see my neighbors' latest remodel in progress—is also textbook survivorship bias. My mind is making me think that everyone just got a new car/house/remodel and that I'm the only one who is lagging, when in fact I'm statistically miles ahead of the median household in nearly every measure.

So next time you start to feel any of these anxieties creep in, just take a deep breath and remember how lucky you really are to have what you do have compared to nearly everyone else in the world.