[McLovin]

I live in an area where a lot of people “live large.”

Things like $300-400k backyard redos, $100+ cars, designer this and that, are common.

Some just have a lot of money, but a lot have been living behind their means, for years.

A few of our friends are like that. I know roughly what the husbands make, and also some idea of their debts.

Even going back 20 years, it didn’t seem sustainable to me. But, they DID sustain it, for decades. I’d tell my wife (who would see her friend show up with a $5,000 purse, etc) that they were on a road to ruin, but she never fully believed me. I don’t really blame her, the party never seemed to end.

But I could see what they were doing. Basically, the husband would have have a good job and decent income (say, $300k range), but they’d live like someone making $1 million. So to do that, basically every penny that came in the door was spent on mindless consumption. Literally nothing towards savings, no 401k, no accumulating of income producing assets, nothing.

It actually works. As long as the work income keeps coming in.

But what it neglects, of course, is that some day you’re gonna have to stop working.

One of our friends is finally hitting the wall. Pushing late 60s now, business is ending in the next 3 years, huge house payment with no equity, no cash and no assets.

His job will continue for a relatively short time (6 months to 3 years, during which he still works 50 hours a week), but after that he’s unemployed.

Now the panic is setting in.

The question that fascinates me is this: What the hell did you think was going to happen? I seriously can’t come up with any answer for that.

Anyone know someone in that position? What were they thinking? What eventually happened to them?