My brother-in-law Ben drove the same Acura Integra for well over a decade ...

and used to get all kinds of grief about it from his law partners. His response invariably was: Sure, $25,000 would put me in a new car ... but if I take that same $25,000 and put it in the market it'll turn into $500,000 by the time I retire, and I think it's silly to spend half a million bucks on an asset that'll lose a quarter of its value as soon as I drive it off the lot.

Problem with Ben's reasoning is, it doesn't work very well in a bear market. With the Dow routinely dropping 300 points a day, spending money on depreciating assets such as shoes or Nars cosmetics seems perfectly reasonable, while spending money on assets that won't depreciate or may even increase in value, such as jewelry or first editions, sounds positively smart.

Le sigh.