When you talk about the line between finances, goals and ego, I think it relates to the “Keeping Up With the Joneses” mentality.
We surrounded ourselves in a community where people are constantly showing off high end cards and trophies. Our ‘breaking news’ is when we see influencers spending $200K+ on sealed boxes or a there’s a new record shattering auction price. You can go to the What’s Your Most Recent Purchase thread and see 3,000 replies of what other people have recently bought.
For my analogy - imagine you own a 2,000 square foot house, drive a 2019 Ford Escape and wear name brand clothes from your local mall. By all means you are doing pretty well and you should feel content and proud. However, you feel poor and defeated because everyone else on your block has a 5,000 square foot house, drives a Ferrari and only wear Gucci and SUPREME clothes. You get the feeling that you need to step your game up and buy more, compete with everyone else in your neighborhood, all the while ignoring that 2 streets away there is a mobile home park where the average person is driving a 2002 Toyota Camry and buying clothes at Wal-Mart.