re: Feeling broke on a $665K salary

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I'm not surprised at all. There's an old say, "It's not how much you make that matters, but it's how much you keep that counts." My kids are grown now, but both of my children went to private schools their entire lives and I saw so many households where both parents were making a lot of money, but they lived paycheck to paycheck and some were worst off than that.

People with money often feel like they have to continue to outdo each other, so they're constantly buying stuff and it's never enough. If family X just purchased the new top-of-the-line Yukon, the others felt like they had to make another big purchase to keep their status in the group. Sometimes church felt more like a fashion show than a religious gathering.

I know one family personally that made a lot of money, owned one of the biggest houses in town and also had a beautiful beach house, but went through some financial difficultly, filed for bankruptcy and got divorced. Almost instantly, the "power group" they hung out with, vacationed with and did business dealings with vanished. The so-called close friends quit calling, texting, quit inviting them to social events and basically avoided them like the plague in public. For awhile, I felt sorry for the couple, but I then realized they knew the entire time what they were dealing with and chose to be a part of it.

As a parent, I told my children if it takes a piece of paper, which is probably the dirtiest thing you will ever touch in your life, to make you happy, you're never going to be happy. Fortunately, both of my children are happily married and have successful careers and haven't fallen victim to chasing money and I hope they never will. As a parent, I can only hope they will continue to follow the path they are on, but there no guarantees.