You should catch up on my life then...bitch. ;-D I was just having a similar conversation with a family friend who's ~55 years old. She did something similar in the town I grew up in. She was a bartender and her husband (they've been married 34 years!) was working construction. They bought their house. My parents did the same (although my dad ended up becoming pretty damn successful, when he bought the house he wasn't). Today, in the town I grew up in, you can't buy a 1/16th lot (basically 1/32 acre?) for under $1m. Most are $4-$10m+. We were talking about - no matter what kind of successful career I have - how it's possible that I could buy a house around here. Even if I work and make decent money, the fact that I'm not a star athlete, movie director, etc. means that I'm no where close to having enough money to afford a $1m house. Even on a 100k salary (which is what, 62k after taxes?), that's still only 8,333/month before taxes / 5,100/month after taxes. Here's a nice house - not too big but big enough for a family, not on a busy street, nice area, etc.. That's about $5000/month for mortgage (assuming I have amazing credit, get the best mortgage available, and have already saved enough to actually put 20% down.) Let's not forget the $1,200/month in property taxes. And all the other shit that comes along with buying a house. Let's hope I have a hubby (hubski - bahahahah sorry I'm kinda tipsy - apparently this is a thing to call your husband on twitter) that makes 100k too. K. I read the rest. But I'm too tipsy to keep fucking around. I have to code more. This deadline is going to kick my ass. At least its going to kick my ass for 4x my old salary, though.I'm going to ramble and bitch and talk about my life for a bit all here because it's going to be fucking cathartic and if any place or people in the world deserve to know about me, it's Hubski.
(Side note: boy the times have changed. They worked as a cashier and a car mechanic and bought a house and built a pool and fountain for it, then had a kid and lived... okay. Try that today.