<p>That’s true milkandsugar, my income for many years was much lower than it is now (although it’s not “high” now by any means) and my husband’s only went up after a long awaited promotion. Most of our married life, our income was much lower when saving was essential. I know many familes that live check to check, they could never save enough to send multiple children to college.
I can’t have sympathy for new homes, boats, etc. but I do for families like ours that never took a real vacation, never had a new car, and did have things happen along the way that took a chunk out of savings.
My sister, never went to college, went to school at night for years and made very little, stayed home with her children to save money on daycare (only $$$daycare was available that was any good) and worked weekends. She finally got her degree and became a nurse, and her income was raised quite a bit. Her EFC was based on almost 40,000 more than she made most her life…she wouldn’t give that up but if she had the original combined income, her children probably would have went on pure grants. They told her it’s now that matters, not then.
Life is full of choices, but many people just can’t save and they aren’t squandering it doing other things.</p>