Money might make the world go around, but you shouldn't let it make your individual world go around

We need money to live in the modern world, to pay for food, rent/mortgage, travel, clothing, entertainment, etc.  It is easy for the subconscious to identify the need for money as a core piece of our identity.  Rich people are often given higher social ranking, while poor people often are lower in the ranks, and this segregation of people by how much money they have dismisses the individual value of the particular person.  Is the rich person truly better quality person than the poor person?  The answer is actually quite complex because examples and counter examples are all over the map on these distinctions.  But this and other issues can drive the subconscious of an individual to seek money as the source of stability and self worth.

This may turn into seeking to buy brand name whatevers of prominent brand names, because wearing Gucci shoes (for example) makes ones wealth more obvious.   But buying the prominent brand names means you spend more to buy your things, than if you simply bought the inexpensive generically branded items.  The question is whether that prominently branded item has a real qualitative advantage over the inexpensive generically branded item.

There are a few issues here: 

1. The more money you spend requires you spending more of your life energy earning that money.
2. Quality, well built, useful items, makes better use of your money than if you seek out the cheapest flimsiest item to save a few dollars.
3. Feeling good inside yourself about the stuff you own

That is, what's the proper balance about owning stuff that makes sense to you, the time you spend to earn that money, and efficiently using the money you gather with the time you spend earning money.