Not necessarily. The bean counting becomes an issue during transactions. Sometimes it is important (like Jgsugden's levels 1 and 2 above); but, when we have plenty of wealth at later levels, abstraction becomes more appealing.
I mean, in a typical wealth system, no, you don't do bean counting.
At a given wealth rank, you can buy anything of lower cost than your rank. Anything a rank above that, you effectively make a Wealth Save - if you fail, you don't get the item. If you make it, you get the item, but your wealth drops by one rank. If it is two or more ransk above, you just can't purchase the item. There is no bean-counting at the transaction.