EOQ,

The full routine is...

A woman walked up to me and said, "Mister, you look like a million bucks."
I responded, "Lady, I ain't never seen a million bucks."
She replied, "That's what I mean, you look like something I've never seen!"

The Kankakee Lady and I are living quite comfortably on $3,500 per month. Roughly half of that amount is currently coming from our savings, the other half from a modest pension and Social Security (she took SS early while I'm waiting until 70 for mine, which is a typical strategy). We're debt free, and have simple tastes. I've become a reasonably good cook, and we rarely eat out. Neither one of us ever had a desire to own a cottage up north, or a garage full of toys. We both enjoy traveling, but have limited our excursions to car trips around the country since our sole trip to Europe in 2007. So our modest assets (about $600,000 not counting the house) will outlive us unless we have serious health issues or some other catastrophic event. We haven't met a financial planner yet who thinks it can be done for less than $1.4 million, which just shows how out of touch that industry is. How many households will EVER reach that number??

You're right, though, it's all relative. We know people who earn $200,000 per year and can't make ends meet. It's a consumer society, but you don't have to subscribe to it.

--Z