jallison's Journal: Money money money money

How do people do it? How do people live in giant homes, drive expensive cars, buy every gadget known to man, and not go bankrupt?

I have a good income, I make low six figures. I think that's a good salary, but maybe I'm showing my age. My wife works, but she teaches, an occupation that is not financially rewarding. Nevertheless we do have two incomes. We live in a very nice home, but half of it was paid for by a chunk of Sun stock I sold when it was still worth something (that stock was obtained when the little company I was working for got sucked into the Sun borg). I drive a Toyota Tacoma (cost about $18K). My wife drives a 2000 Acura TL (cost about $30K). Nice cars both, but not extravagent. We have a 27" TV. We have a 3 year old PC at home. Standard stuff.

I look around and see people buying $700K homes (this is Southern California). They drive $50K SUVs or BMWs. They have 60" plasma TVs, three computers, a couple of TiVOs, a new cell phone every three months. How do they do it? I'm not jealous, really, just curious. Are they in debt up to their eyeballs? Or are salaries just a lot higher than I'm thinking they are?