dstark, your kids are very lucky.
As does education. I’ve always told my kids that if they want to work construction or wait tables it’s fine by me, but that if they then decide they want to do something different a college degree make it much more possible.
As does having supportive parents, stable household to grow up, or a broad social network… Some that may be more valuable than money.
I think this illustrates just how different the definition of what one “needs” to cover basic living expenses can be.
I don’t the exact circumstances of the couple noted above, but if she got a fair settlement in the divorce, I’m not too sympathetic that she and her kids may have to give up $460K a month for vacation travel/accommodations.
Give me a break. I’m sure they can survive by taking first class on a commercial air line.
But he only gave her $45,000 for the spring break vacation to St. Barts instead of the $450,000 she requested. Cheapskate!
http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/24/luxury/griffin-billionaire-divorce/index.html
Ken Griffin is worth several billion. If I was in his shoes, 
I would just give my ex wife another $240 million and tell her not to bug me for 20 years. 
You are a good man @dstark!
Relative Wealth -maybe this has been discussed before. The key word here is RELATIVE.
In order to give our kids the best chance, we moved into one of the most expensive area so they could attend an excellent HS. While most other kids in that HS have cell phone and drive their own cars, we gave DD a phone someone was about to throw away - because only the speaker works. Both our kids did not learn to drive a car until their college graduation.
Yes, I was making a decent salary then but had some unique family situations. Compared to others in the area, we were among the poorer because of our lack of purchasing abiliy. We were not on public assistant nor do we have a pet and uses the latest Iphones.
Till this day, I still felt bad that we could not provide more to our kids. DD ran cross country back then. her shoes were complete worn out - I mean the bottom were total flat and we could not get her new shoes. Now I ran marathon and know how she must have suffered running in those shoes. I felt really bad.
I guess if we compare the some third world people where they could not even afford shoes, we were better off.
What I am saying is that everything has to be considered with a reference, including time. Today, I could have the option to buy new shoes. However, comparing to the people around us, I still do not feel well off.
Didn’t she graduate in 2012? Wasn’t she going to be driving for some , summer job maybe? In 2009, and she needed a CA drivers license instead of a learners permit from your home state? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/7899707/#Comment_7899707
DadII just do the best you can. You are not others. You are You. Don’t compare yourself to others. Everybody ends up in the same place.
Eons ago when I was in college we went to Chicago on a class trip. During a tour the bus driver drove us to the section of town with 300K houses (a fortune back then). He talked about how large they were. We were expecting to see mansions! Instead they were small red brick homes that were of the same size we all grew up in which where we lived were about 30K. Good lesson in relativity.
I like to watch HGTV. A lot of the shows are filmed in Toronto, where small, narrow, attached townhouses seem to be the norm. I got some major sticker shock at the prices of these little homes-many of them start at 700K, not even remodeled. Because a lot of them are so old, they come with some very expensive to fix problems.
Again, it’s location, location, location.
ITT: people who don’t understand housing cost discrepancies between different parts of the country.
250k is NOT middle class by any stretch of the definition–the company that this girl is choosing to keep is making her feel that way. If anyone with that sort of income claims they’re struggling to make ends meet, then he or she is living * way* beyond their means.
edit: a word
The title of this thread keeps confusing me, I think it is about wealthy relatives. Now that can generate some fun discussions.
@Coriander23
Not so. Everyone seeks at least a basic house in a safe neighborhood. In some cases that is $100k and in some it is $700k. A person making $250k is not necessarily living beyond their means; they could be required by location to pay a higher cost for the same things. And mortgage payments can truly be less than rent in the same neighborhood so don’t go thinking that one should just rent to save money. I can understand how my same house costs far less somewhere else. Can’t understand why people cannot think about the reverse. Further, diversity is diversity. Everyone seems to accept that we need poor people in college. I just wish they could wrap their heads around why we need the middle class and yes even the upper middle class there too.
No one is required to live in area w a high cost of living. You can move to a different neighborhood, city, state, country.
The difference between people who earn $250k and those earning the median income (something like $50k, isn’t it?) is that those making $250k have more options. If you earn $250k/year you can CHOOSE to buy a house in a more expensive area, you can CHOOSE to send your kids to private school, or move to a neighborhood with a really great public school. If you think you don’t have options, please feel free to write me a check and for $200k and go live on the remaining $50k.
However, if you choose to move to that lower cost of living area, your salary could plummet or you might be unemployable in your field. If you move locally, way down in house, you may end up in a one bedroom house surrounded by gang activity, with terrible schools. Pretending that everyone will keep the exact same salary and the exact same housing situation is just incorrect. This doesn’t all happen in a vacuum.
Of course it’s better to have a higher salary, but generally you have to make trade offs to get that. Most people can’t commute to any possible place, unless they work from home or are flight crew.