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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I can relate a bit. My husband and I both work, and both make very decent salaries. Not BigLaw, or anywhere in that neighborhood, but plenty by any standard. But unlike most of our friends, we don't have wealthy families; we both have student loans from graduate studies; we didn't have help with a down payment and we can't expect help for our kids' college tuitions. This shouldn't be unusual, but honestly every single one of our friends and colleagues (in a not lucrative profession!) is in a different situation. They are in $1m homes, private schools, multiple nice vacations per year, and so on and so forth. We have a small old house in a good school district and only leave town to see family. We will never trade up houses, and we do necessary repairs and modest, cash-only renovation work when we can afford it. Everything else is plowed into college funds and retirement funds.

I'm the envious type; I could resent this all day long. And sometimes I do. But my husband, despite many many faults, is not the envious type. He actually doesn't care what other people have. And having come from nothing (a lot less than me), he is genuinely thrilled that he can save so much money for a rainy day now. I tell my kids (who don't complain either) that we are lucky to have what we have, and (just as my parents told me) everyone spends their money differently, and our priority is on making sure you can be whomever you want to be and get the best education possible.

So my advice for you is to remember your priorities in life, and take genuine comfort in the fact that you can fulfill them. Everything else, while nice to have, isn't what really matters.[/quote]

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