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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I swear, I just don't get this.

I am in grad school and dh makes 60k.  We live in a moderate income 1 bedroom apartment in a luxury building.  We save at least 1k a month in addition to his retirement plan and some money in an IRA.  We have a one year old dd.  I don't feel poor, I actually don't feel any financial stress at all.  We mostly cook our own food and I just don't buy things I can't afford.  Soon we'll have more money, and I don't think I'll even change much about our lifestyle other than move to a slightly bigger place.  I see my friends with more money and I don't really feel "oh I wish I had all that stuff" because I don't really see that they have anything that I want.  I have a good dh and a healthy dd and I live in a clean, attractive home.  My parents are in the top 1% and they're very much the same.[/quote]

yes, but the feeling also has to do with how old you are.  Are you 25?
Fantastic!  Lots more time to save, move in the future, vacation, change careers you name it.
Or are you 45?  Totally different feeling financially!!![/quote]

and btw I bet you are closer to 25 of course.  Also you have your 1% parents to fall back on - and either case that will be your family's one day, too.  Others have to take care of their parents financially at some point.
So it's not that hard to feel no stress in your situation at age 25.

Now imagine just 2 changes: you are 45 with same salary living in the same place, and your parents have just gambled away their house and everything else. How would you feel now?[/quote]

If my parents were poor (and btw, they were poor within my memory), their lifestyles would change very, very little.  They are hard-core.  They think shoes for $60 are extravagant and tasteless.  They buy non-luxury vehicles and then drive them until there is no life left in them.  My mother sews her own outfits if she does not like what is in season.  She and my aunt are the crazy immigrant ladies who hold up the line at Macy's as they calculate the maximum value they can get with their coupons and clearance items.  My aunt sewed a christening outfit for my daughter using fabric from an unused wedding dress from her broken engagement (she called it her "lucky" dress).  It was actually quite pretty, but yes, weird.  They don't eat out, or vacation.  Ever.  They grow their own vegetables in the summer.  All of their vegetables, and some fruits from their trees too.  They bake their own bread.  They could be on one of those tv shows about extreme cheapness or something, so no, they are a special case.  I am not quite that extreme, but honestly, I can see myself turning into something similar.  Even poor DH has caught our disease.[/quote]

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