I have this question throbbing my brain for a while now. Sure, I am making all this money by working but I am not sure what to spend it on. I have this strange feeling of emptiness when I try to buy expensive electronics and somehow get levelled down into where I was before.
Read "Your money or your life". There is an interesting exercise there where you work out what your time is worth to you and what your employer is paying you for it (after expenses). That helped me answer this question for myself and I started investing and took time off work. The answer for you will be different. But that's how I got past the "I have cash and that new gadget is shiny, wait why am I not content?" stage of life.
Charity is always nice. It doesn't have to be starving orphans. Sometimes just give a tip to the food delivery guy, especially when it rains. A tiny tip can practically double their earnings for that round.
The bar for charity is also remarkably low. You can probably get a charity dinner with VIPs for something like $100 in some places. Education might be a little too expensive in the US, but here, you can also sponsor someone for a semester for a little money. If you want more fun, there are several events which give out a shoutout to donors for only about $50, and you can go in with an anonymous troll name.
These numbers are all third world and that's part of the fun - look at poorer countries and see how much impact you can do with a little money.
Many things that can make you happy don't need that much money: spending time with friends & family, getting regular exercise by walking around outside, borrowing books from the library etc.
My big realisation during my late 20s was that I'd grown jaded from working on other people's commercial software projects, and it'd sure be nice to have enough financial independence to quit that career for good at some point so I could spend more of my time doing things with more self direction & creative freedom.
Money is useful for paying baseline living expenses, and also useful to use as "fuel" to help get you where you want to go. Where do you want to go? What are your long term goals/hopes/dreams? Is your job helping you progress toward those dreams or goals? If not, worth having a hard think about what you want from life and considering changing a few things.
With a relatively well paying software job, relatively low expense ratio & enough luck (no surprises with large financial costs) it's possible to funnel surplus income into investments until investment income covers annual living expenses. Then you can wave the day job goodbye and do whatever or switch to a new career that's more lifestyle focused and less of a grind, or have a solid foundation for taking a lot more risk (let investments pay you a basic income while you start a business that might take a few years to grow before it can generate you a decent wage).
Consider buying free time rather than stuff, and enjoying things that don’t cost money.
After essentials, I use money to buy time from having to work. I spend as little as possible. No electronics, clothing, etc. unless it must be replaced. I’m still using a 2013 MacBook Pro I got at a previous job. I only own two pairs of shorts, a few T-shirts, and a pair of flip flops. No video game console, smart speakers, microwave, Apple TV, or whatever.
My free time is spent on things that mostly don’t cost money. E-books are free, so are TV, movies, and music as they are easily pirated. I don’t spend money on games, as there are thousands of old games available for free using emulators.
Walking is free, biking is free, gardening and many sports can be free, spending time with friends and loved ones is free.
I'm generally incredibly cheap. I live in NYC, however I never eat out, own a minimal set of clothing etc. I spend on devices or items that I can learn from, especially computers. Money spent on computers that are fast and work is always worth it. I also always take uber black to the airport - it's fast, efficient and very low stress.
Ironically enough, I take uber black to get on my bargain barrel Southwest airlines flight. Also, services or upgrades that charge $20-30 to automatically assign you a decent boarding number are also totally worth it.
I trade my (extra)money(after bills etc) for more free time where I can pursue my interests and hobbies. So I outsource a lot of work. This past year, I have been reading a lot. I also had to scale down farming this year due to covid. And for what needed to be done(because it’s never zero work in a farm), I hired someone else to do it. People needed jobs this year. So win-win.
I buy stocks. For me, seeing my money increase in value is as fun psychologically as actually spending it on things. It's like a game for me, "how rich can I get?"
