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[quote=Anonymous]Growing up we had a HHI of just under 12k for single mom with 3 kids from the time I was 6 until my freshman year in high school. After that the HHI bumped up to about 45 k when my mom landed a more professional job (after graduating from university, which she had to do part time! with loans! did I mention she also had three kids at the time!!) She is still paying off the 85k house she bought when we were younger (refuses to let us contribute to it!), which had 3 bedrooms; we ended up shutting the garage and adding insulation, new walls and flooring to make it into a room (it was my high school project; I saved for it and learned how to install wooden floors! My drafting teacher and classmates in high school helped), and turned the laundry room into a mini office (senior year project). I can't recall shopping at Wal-Mart regularly; sometimes we would go for school supplies if the annual summer drive for kids didn't give out everything we needed (it was put on by the local radio station and was open to all kids, no income restrictions). We only ate out for special occasions, and that includes chain/fast foods (anyone remember Fazoli's?). REALLY special dinner was Carabbas or Olive Garden back then. We received hand me down clothes from family and church donations; shopped for furniture items exclusively at garage sales or Ross. My mom cooked a lot - which saves money. I learned how to make small meals from a very early age, and was baking on my own by age 9 (adult supervision of course).  It was genius on the part of my mom because it meant I was fed AND entertained. She was BIG on coupons for anything free. I loved spending time at the library, and at the time they had this campaign with Pizza Hut where if you read something like 10 books and your teacher signed off on it, you got a free personal pizza! We did that frequently throughout the school year. We also grew up loving music, so my brother and I would fashion instruments out of anything, and then when we received hand me downs started playing together at home. Again, free entertainment. Local parks and playgrounds are free; city pool was free, walking around the mall window shopping was free. I knew we were poor in comparison to friends who got new clothes every school year and had all the latest gadgets, but I didn't ever show up to school in anything tattered, and definitely never dirty. My mom was meticulous about that - and still is to this day. Everything is relative, so I get that some people on here are saying they are poor at an HHI of 70k. But the deepest poverty is poverty of spirit. h - almost forgot the question about vacations. We grew up in central florida. I remember going to the beach and to Disney (schools gave away free tickets annually), and as we made friends in middle school we would go together with other families on fishing trips. My mom also threw fun sleepovers (tea party themed, baking themed), and let my brother and I stay with very close family friends, which always felt like mini vacations. I remember that my  mom did several surprise trips when we were kids. She woke us up at 4 am, had already packed our bags, and we drove to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale or wherever it was, and did a special overnight trip. Those were really rare, but it was so wonderful to have our mom to ourselves, since usually she was spread thin and so busy. Our biggest family vacation was a road trip to Washington DC that we planned for like 2 years. To this day my mom loves to tell me about how I promised her I would find a job and move to DC one day; technically I'm in Alexandria, so not quite DC, mom! Anyway, in comparison to how I lived then, I feel we are less active as a family now. It's just myself, my spouse, and our baby boy. We have a much higher HHI than either of us had growing up, and find that now we indulge in fast foods when we are in a bind. Still don't shop at wal-mart regularly.

Separate question for OP - I am fascinated by how people maintain family wealth. Do you guys invest a lot (in properties or stock), or just do serious savings? Funny but fun thread you started :)[/quote]

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