Opulence is relative.
To those living in a crowded Brooklyn 2-3 bedroom apartment paying 3500per month in rent, my large home in small town Connecticut may seem opulent. But it was bought at a small price decades ago and built onto by us, doing much of the physical labor ourselves. 15 Rooms owned for the cost of taxes and insurance for less than $1800per month. Maintenance done by the family, not a super or paid help.
You send your kids to camp. Our grandchildren (and great nieces and nephews) all come and spent the summer at Camp CTL (imagine an upscale bungalow colony where all the summer residents are relatives and communal meals), swimming in our swimming pool, playing on our BB court and ball field, growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables in our gardens. Most important being with family. I trust our family a lot more than camp staff and the reported scandals about behavior, cleanliness, bad camp food, etc.
It doesn’t cost me 1/4 per child what camp costs and the piece of mind and joy of generations of the family together, is our true wealth, not opulence.
Only the nouveau riche need to show off money and possessions, building McMansions, driving cars that cost more than I paid for my first couple of houses, etc. But, as they say: There’s no there, there. It is all for show with no substance for lasting value.
Oma taught me, buy the absolute best you can afford and it will last, cheap is dear and you are constantly replacing it.