[ummabdullah]

Originally Posted by funnyvalentine

I live just outside affluent Bergen County, NJ, where my business is located. I live in the smallest house in my neighborhood (if not the state) and when I drive by these 5000 (and up) square monsters, I really wonder what the motivation is for anyone to live there. Does your average family need a family room, great room, eat in kitchen, living room, library, and a four car garage? Especially when most of the families here spend an inordinate amount of time shuffling their kids to soccer and other activities that would make the "family" room an embarrassing testament to how little tiime those families are actually together....

The temptation to have that new car every two years, to have each latest gadget, for every kid to have a cell phone, to eat out four times a week, for every room to have a plasma tv; this is the stuff that drives us out of the realm of 'living within our means'. I doubt whether most of my neighbors have any idea what their means are.

Lest you think I'm a sandle wearing, plastic bag recycling, aesetic nut; no. But this relentless pursuit of status ownership at the expense of personal fiscal comfort just strikes me as crazy and anxiety producing.

I really like what you said.. I am going to send my kids to privates school and someone suggested I don't because I don't have a large estate While I like the idea of having 2 seperate receptions (one for the women and one for the men).. I find that people with more than you (or appears to be more) like to stick their noses up... Yet they are up to their noses in debt..