12-28-2021, 09:18 PM
(12-28-2021, 07:36 PM)Christinebitg Wrote:(12-25-2021, 09:16 AM)ken-do-nim Wrote: You never know who is living paycheck to paycheck. Whether you have a $50,000 portfolio, a $250,000 portfolio, or higher, we are way, way ahead of most people.
That's a discussion I had with my Significant Other a few years ago. I kept hearing "How does So-And-So afford that?" (Typically a new luxury car.)
My response evolved to: All we can see is their spending. We have no idea how much money they're making, or where the money is coming from to buy that car. They have inherited it, or more likely, they borrowed it. We don't know if they're making ends meet or not.
I was once at a dinner party at a fairly upscale condominium in Brookline. There was no way I could have afforded it on my software engineer salary, and the hostess had some job that paid less. So I just outright asked her how she managed to buy it. It turns out that she'd been in a car accident, sent right through the windshield of her car and landed on the street, and the settlement in her favor was massive.