Nicely put, my problem - and to be honest it was a problem - was that as a kid I had zero money as was largely the case with my family. Even my early 80's Satellite Bass was a stretch for my family, so I 'd look through gear mags and daydream about owning one of two basses, a MM Stingray or a Hagstrom Swede (I SO wanted a Hagstrom Swede....._
..and that 'life will be better if.....' thing takes hold in the same way as s many other habits of thought or action take hold. And then in my 40's when for the first time in my life my incomings exceeded my outgoings, that thing came back and tugged at my consciousness. Took me close to 15 years to get on top of it. A great if expensive journey, but one from which I'm glad to have got to my destination 👍