For all that they claim “anyone can do it”, it takes a lot of work and self-discipline to accomplish that, and a lot of privilege (including money in the bank and no kids or parents to care for) to have the choice to try it at all as a deliberate lifestyle.
The most concise and entertaining explanation was put forth by Terry Pratchett. He prefaces the famous Vimes “Boots” Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness by noting:
The very very rich could afford to be poor. Sybil Ramkin lived in the kind of poverty that was only available to the very rich, a poverty approached from the other side. Women who were merely well-off saved up and bought dresses made of silk edged with lace and pearls, but Lady Ramkin was so rich she could afford to stomp around the place in rubber boots and a tweed skirt that had belonged to her mother. She was so rich she could afford to live on biscuits and cheese sandwiches.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
