DIYbanter - View Single Post

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 20:27:13 GMT, wrote:

On 29-Jul-2003, (D. Gerasimatos) wrote:

They live below their
means, which is still a very good standard of living compared to most
people.

Why would anyone choose to live below their means? Fear of bad times ahead?
They don't believe they deserve it? Their reward will come in Heaven?

My husband and I bought this house on the basis of his salary, not our
combined salary (in 1972). Since we're both engineers, we bought
substantially below our means. (Back then, the guideline was 2.5
times yearly gross.)

We did so for a couple of reasons. It's a pretty nice house, for one
thing. More importantly, many of our friends and co-workers were
buying in this tract (second kid, equity in first house, previous NASA
hiring surge) and we wanted to live near them, if only to make car
pooling more convenient.

We don't drive luxury cars or wear designer clothes or anything. We
have traveled a lot, but we've also invested and saved. Our income
has always exceeded our outgo. Frequently substantially.

Now we're retired and we're financially secure. We may be rewarded in
Heaven, but we're going to live it up in retirement first.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

"A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all."
Anonymous US fighter pilot