re: How do people let themselves get into such dire straits financially?

quote:

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eat out too much, buy more car than they can afford, more house than they can afford, too many children, too many vacations!

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Just to give an alternate view-My dad's parents were great people, and I loved them, but they had seen hard times, and they were penny pinchers as a result. Never buy anything you can't pay cash for, etc. My dad didn't want to live that way, and when he got out on his own, he didn't mind spending money and going into debt, within reason. We lived in a nice house, had nice things, took vacations in the summer. At one point he had a private plane-a small one, not an OT Baller plane. And he put three kids through college at the same time.

Were we living beyond our means? Not really, but there wasn't much margin for error if something had gone wrong. OTOH, what good is arriving at retirement with a shitload of money and no great experiences to look back on with your family? Everybody has to strike their own balance and decide now much risk they're willing to assume in life.