It could be a lot of things. Family money, investments that paid off, they bought their house sooner than you did.

We are in a high(er) bracket (500k range) and I find that the people really living insane lives - like multiple houses, crazy vacations, etc. - are all family money. Most people I know in this bracket are actually pretty frugal and spend money on the big ticket stuff like a nice house in a good neighborhood, saving for retirement, and college savings for kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My father was a pretty renowned and successful doctor in the city where we grew up but we never lived in the wealthiest neighborhoods nor did he own any luxury cars because he basically put all his money into savings and me and my brother's education. Turning the clock several years forward, he was able to fully fund my and my brothers grad school education (law and medicine) and put down a healthy portion of the down payment for our houses for which we are eternally grateful. So the moral of the story, different priorities different lives. I'm sure he could have splurged more during his money earning years but I'm more than certain he wouldn't have had such a safety net during retirement.

Your father was not be as renowned, successful,or wealth as you may be imagining. Most "prominent" physicians I know earn well enough to live in the best neighborhoods, send kids to private schools, drive German cars, annual family vacations, AND loan free college education for kids, weddings paid for, and help with home purchase or starting a business, etc.

You have no idea what you're talking about and you're being unnecessarily mean.

Many prominent (world renowned) physicians don't actually make a ton of money because they work in research-based academic medical centers. I can think of a dozen physicians at Hopkins (who people travel from around the world for because they're literally the best in the world) and you'd be shocked at how little they make.
Making a "ton of money" in medicine has very little to do with "prominence" and everything to do with much the physician leverages their training (or not) into an end goal of making money. Some of the worst out there make the most cash and vice versa (and everything in between).

This.

Anonymous wrote:Different priorities. Totally felt like this growing up - engineer dad, working mom and we NEVER went on vacation and they were constantly looking at sales circulars, while their peers often with just 1 engineer salary and a stay home mom lived larger. Never understood why. Later I realized it was bc they were hell bent that both kids would go to Ivys/top private and they’d pay all/majority of it. Their peers mocked them with “waste of money, I went to no name u in Punjab and look how great I’m doing, I’m not spending $ on college when in America good grades get you free rides at whatever school.” That freed up a LOT of cash for these other families to take vacations, drive Mercedes, new cars for kids at age 18 etc.

Well...were their peers wrong?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's you not investing in the stock market.

Op - I invest a lot between a maxed out 401k (IRS max not co match) plus another brokerage acct but I never feel comfortable pulling $ out of brokerage to buy things.

It's called dividends, my dear. You don't touch the capital.
It's amazing to me how many supposedly intelligent and capable people earning decent salaries are out there, not knowing how to leverage their money.

You actually cash out dividends? I have been investing decades but I have never done that.

Same here. I don't think that PP knows what (s)he's talking about.

Yep -- very easy to make fun of the OP and tell her she's losing out by not investing, when OP says she IS investing and REinvesting dividends, while PP is cashing out her dividends to buy stuff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My father was a pretty renowned and successful doctor in the city where we grew up but we never lived in the wealthiest neighborhoods nor did he own any luxury cars because he basically put all his money into savings and me and my brother's education. Turning the clock several years forward, he was able to fully fund my and my brothers grad school education (law and medicine) and put down a healthy portion of the down payment for our houses for which we are eternally grateful. So the moral of the story, different priorities different lives. I'm sure he could have splurged more during his money earning years but I'm more than certain he wouldn't have had such a safety net during retirement.

Your father was not be as renowned, successful,or wealth as you may be imagining. Most "prominent" physicians I know earn well enough to live in the best neighborhoods, send kids to private schools, drive German cars, annual family vacations, AND loan free college education for kids, weddings paid for, and help with home purchase or starting a business, etc.

You have no idea what you're talking about and you're being unnecessarily mean.

Many prominent (world renowned) physicians don't actually make a ton of money because they work in research-based academic medical centers. I can think of a dozen physicians at Hopkins (who people travel from around the world for because they're literally the best in the world) and you'd be shocked at how little they make.
Making a "ton of money" in medicine has very little to do with "prominence" and everything to do with much the physician leverages their training (or not) into an end goal of making money. Some of the worst out there make the most cash and vice versa (and everything in between).

Anonymous wrote:My father was a pretty renowned and successful doctor in the city where we grew up but we never lived in the wealthiest neighborhoods nor did he own any luxury cars because he basically put all his money into savings and me and my brother's education. Turning the clock several years forward, he was able to fully fund my and my brothers grad school education (law and medicine) and put down a healthy portion of the down payment for our houses for which we are eternally grateful. So the moral of the story, different priorities different lives. I'm sure he could have splurged more during his money earning years but I'm more than certain he wouldn't have had such a safety net during retirement.

Your father was not be as renowned, successful,or wealth as you may be imagining. Most "prominent" physicians I know earn well enough to live in the best neighborhoods, send kids to private schools, drive German cars, annual family vacations, AND loan free college education for kids, weddings paid for, and help with home purchase or starting a business, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's you not investing in the stock market.

Op - I invest a lot between a maxed out 401k (IRS max not co match) plus another brokerage acct but I never feel comfortable pulling $ out of brokerage to buy things.

It's called dividends, my dear. You don't touch the capital.
It's amazing to me how many supposedly intelligent and capable people earning decent salaries are out there, not knowing how to leverage their money.

You actually cash out dividends? I have been investing decades but I have never done that.

Same here. I don't think that PP knows what (s)he's talking about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's you not investing in the stock market.

Op - I invest a lot between a maxed out 401k (IRS max not co match) plus another brokerage acct but I never feel comfortable pulling $ out of brokerage to buy things.

It's called dividends, my dear. You don't touch the capital.
It's amazing to me how many supposedly intelligent and capable people earning decent salaries are out there, not knowing how to leverage their money.

You actually cash out dividends? I have been investing decades but I have never done that.

My best friends parents parents fully funded their grandkids education at birth. If I didn't have to save for college, I would have hundreds of thousands of more dollars.

Anonymous wrote:Imagine how much extra money you would have if you didn't save for retirement or your children's college. A lot of people don't save anything, ever.

&/or don't worry about racking up huge credit card bills then only making the minimum payment every month, having a huge morgage, taking out large loans when buying cars, etc.

Also, many benefit quite a bit from their own cheapness. They give horrifically small tips, calculate every last penny when splitting resteraunt bills (even with friends/relatives they know are a lot worse off than they are financially), con or guilt friends/neighbors/relatives into watching their kids for free so they never have to pay for a babysitter yet expect other parents to pay them even for supervising the other parents' kids for 3 minutes at the park while the parents run & get something from the car or go to the bathroom, set up (or manipulate others into setting up) absurd Go Fund Me campaigns to pay for their vacations, kids' camps & activities, etc, finding a way to make it seem like what they are asking for is not at all a luxury & they really can't afford to pay for it themselves & embellishing/selectively telling their stories as to tug on people's heartsrings so that they donate ("I am an unemployed single mom!" With a huge trust fund, one self supporting son who is 46, & an ex who still pays me large amounts of child support each month...."My baby was premature!" Two and a half decades ago & only if one considers a baby born at 39 weeks & 6 days
to be "premature"...."My child was born with a terrible birth defect!" Really? A minuscule birth mark on her toe is a terrible birth defect??).

All these things can really add up over the years!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget some people also may have started with no debt, inherited money, or sold their first house for a big profit - all of that matters when comparing lifestyles, even when income is the same.

Yup. I'm 40. I bought my first house in 2000, at age 22. I made $225k off that, then bought another, made another 150k, and another made only 50k and now live in a very nice home well above what most people in our income level might afford. Having a $2,300/mo mortgage in a. Neighborhood with homes worth 7 figures allows for a lot of flexibility. I was done having kids at age 28, which has left me in my prime earning years with nearly no childcare costs with my prime earning years in full swing. Many of my colleagues and friends the same age have small children and are facing down the need to move due to schools and are squeezed by housing and daycare, neither of which are financial concerns of mine.

If you are 40, weren't you a new college grad or just a year or so out of college in 2000? Where did you get enough money to buy a house (even at 2000 real estate prices) at the age???

Did you inherit money/have a trust fund? Marry someone older & more established who paid for the bulk of the costs involved in buying then owning a house? Get a large cash gift from your parents or another relative when you graduated/turned 21/whatever? Get an interest free, no credit check required loan from a parent or other relative?

Or did you skip or put off going to college after high school so that, while most of your DCUM peers were in college making little to no money (&, in some cases, aquiring large amounts of debt in the form of student loans), you were working full time & saving a lot of your salary by living very frugally (or living with your parents )?

I never finished college, just wasted my parents money I graduated HS in 1996. Met my DH in college ( local public), he's a year older. His parents also paid for school, but he worked nearly full time and saved. By 2000 i had a salaried job paying 55k/yr, he had graduated, and made 65k and we put 3% down using a FHA loan at 7% interest on a SFH in Vienna Woods for 275k. We lived in that tiny house until 2003, and rented it out and sold it just before the crash in early 2006 for just over 500k. In 2003, we purchased another home in Vienna, this time doing an 80/10/10...one other house jump and we are now in McLean and fully settled in for the long haul. Half of our "mortgage" is taxes.

OP, you'd be shocked how many people walk around in debt. It's crazy!!! I joined a group with acquaintances focused on money and I couldn't believe single people making 80k could actually have credit card debt. I was pretty disgusted. I mean, it's so psychological. They are dealing with issues from their youth and their parents taught them nothing or the wrong things about money. The fact that people actually spend money they DONT HAVE makes me crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't forget some people also may have started with no debt, inherited money, or sold their first house for a big profit - all of that matters when comparing lifestyles, even when income is the same.

Yup. I'm 40. I bought my first house in 2000, at age 22. I made $225k off that, then bought another, made another 150k, and another made only 50k and now live in a very nice home well above what most people in our income level might afford. Having a $2,300/mo mortgage in a. Neighborhood with homes worth 7 figures allows for a lot of flexibility. I was done having kids at age 28, which has left me in my prime earning years with nearly no childcare costs with my prime earning years in full swing. Many of my colleagues and friends the same age have small children and are facing down the need to move due to schools and are squeezed by housing and daycare, neither of which are financial concerns of mine.

If you are 40, weren't you a new college grad or just a year or so out of college in 2000? Where did you get enough money to buy a house (even at 2000 real estate prices) at the age???

Did you inherit money/have a trust fund? Marry someone older & more established who paid for the bulk of the costs involved in buying then owning a house? Get a large cash gift from your parents or another relative when you graduated/turned 21/whatever? Get an interest free, no credit check required loan from a parent or other relative?

Or did you skip or put off going to college after high school so that, while most of your DCUM peers were in college making little to no money (&, in some cases, aquiring large amounts of debt in the form of student loans), you were working full time & saving a lot of your salary by living very frugally (or living with your parents )?

Anonymous wrote:My father was a pretty renowned and successful doctor in the city where we grew up but we never lived in the wealthiest neighborhoods nor did he own any luxury cars because he basically put all his money into savings and me and my brother's education. Turning the clock several years forward, he was able to fully fund my and my brothers grad school education (law and medicine) and put down a healthy portion of the down payment for our houses for which we are eternally grateful. So the moral of the story, different priorities different lives. I'm sure he could have splurged more during his money earning years but I'm more than certain he wouldn't have had such a safety net during retirement.

Same with us! My Dad was very successful but we never lived in the nicest areas but we live comfortably. They saved a ton and there was never an issue about college costs or medical school as it was always there for us and we graduated with no debt - what a gift! Now they are funding 529's for our kids and have funded bridge loans when we've need them. They now live very well but definitely not what they could but they will never have money problems nor will we thanks to them.