In my view, a cell phone isn't worth that for simple bragging rights. I've also known some people before who did have a fair amount of money, and unlike the person who just won $10 million in the lottery and has spent it all in a year, they're much more apt to invest the bulk of it in many cases.
On the other hand, I've heard from some people who have spent most of their life without, who are thinking if they ever came into money, spend, spend, spend... But as some who have had money most of their life would sometimes say, people who do that won't have it very long...
That's not to say that if after building up a career, I got a nice fat paycheck, I wouldn't be interested in living comfortably
But that said, I'd also like to be financially secure, and that wouldn't be likely if one were to, and in my view this would be a squandering of one's money...
As one person I had spoken with many years back, who graduated from college and got a fairly decent pay check as a computer engineer put it wrt the original suggested retail for the GeForce 3 (before nVidia lowered it); I'd rather not spend $500 on a card I'll only have for 6 months or so. On the other hand, I have no problem spending $3,000-$4,000 on a new sofa I'll have for many years. Same went for that new car, even though his older car wasn't yet 2 years old... Some people were like "well if you don't have the money", at which he was like "having the money isn't the issue. The return I will get for this, is..."
Never did say what his pay actually was, but it was enough to think new car right off the bat...
In the end, he did get a GF3, but only after nVidia lowered the price, and he was then able to get a further discount and a mail in rebate through Best Buy...