In my first job out of college, I was in field service engineering in power plants. We had a generous living allowance, so we could bank most of our income if we were inclined. I learned a lot about human nature and thrift:
* I saved about 75% of my income for five years and bought a house.
* A colleague bought race cars, exquisite leather jackets, fine cars and lived high on the hog. He left without a dime of savings.
* Another colleague bought Saltine crackers and peanut butter by the caseload and probably saved over 95% of his income for quite a few years. He could easily hold a dime between his butt cheeks. I’m not sure what happened to him.
Ditto that. I've done similar...