Money threads always bring out the "highrollers", religion threads bring out the "nutters" and wyhi threads bring out.....well they bring out everyone.
Most individuals in the US do not earn anywhere close to 100K a year. Most families of 5-6 live on less than half of that.
My household is extremely middle class. I work, wife works, kids in daycare. We both work professional jobs and we're both average earners, but collectively and compared to majority we earn a ton more than most. In that sense we are very, very wealthy (won't even talk about other countries). We've lived on far, far less and been very happy.....it is possible LOL.
No, you don't get lavish vacations each year, pockets of spending cash, meals out 5 days a week, constant shopping sprees.....you live with less. All that other stuff is just stuff.
We don't own a business, have employees and everything associated with that. We man cubes in large cube farms in big international corporations.
We put money away best we can and we live with less.
Every year friends go on vacations....we don't. Every 2 years friends buy new vehicles.....we don't. Every new gadget that is released our friends purchase......we buy something every 4-5 years. We live with less.
We tithe to our church, we give to the poor, we pass out money to those on street corners, we spoil our child a bit, we shop at discount stores like Target and Walmart for normal stuff, but if we need nicer things we go to nicer places and plan for things.
Getbig is a fantasy that everyone indulges in....what I just wrote is a taste of reality......nobody wants to read that though LOL.
We all know who the financial successes are on this board....they'll always let you know LOL. Hey, good for them. Me, I'm "Joe Average Middle Class".