Dis,

Yes, I have busted my ass to be reasonably successful in life. We are not wealthy but we have been fairly successful. We can be picky about how we spend our money but we have to work. At least until we win the lottery. }:)

As for how I grew up. Mom and Dad brought me home from the hospital to a travel trailer. My dad made $83/mo and my mom made $95/mo in military family benefits. This was the mid 60's so it was not quite as bad as it sounds but things were tight. (I just got the review of my parents going through their "remember when" stories last weekend so the numbers are right).

They bought a single wide trailer when I was 1.5. They did not buy their first site built home until I was 12yo. They bought their first color TV when I was 19 (1983). After they finished college things got a whole lot more prosperous for my family, just like it did for me when I finished college. Because of the nature and location of their employment my brother and I had to go to boarding school for HS. Their employer paid for most of the boarding school costs. They helped my little bro and I with college though we both had to work and take out school loans for undergrad. We both paid for grad school on our own. They just retired in Jan after working for 48 years. They did well but they earned it. They provided for their family and prospered by working hard, educating themselves and making their careers in places that had less than 200 miles of paved road in a country the size of Texas. They sacrificed, invested prospered. Neither of my grandfathers’s had more than an 8th grade education so my parents truly started from scratch. Though both sets of my grandparents worked hard and did pretty well.

So, you are correct. I have never worn rags but I was not raised in designer clothing either. At least not in my younger childhood years. JC Penney and Sears was the nice stuff when I was in my single digit and early double digit ages. There was no Wal-Mart back then so our wardrobes had some K-Mart labels also.

I know I won the parent lottery but I did not pick my parents well enough to be independently wealthy at birth. Not that I would trade my parents for any amount of money. They are awesome.

As for extravagance.... never happens. We have both (wife and I) finished grad school and have done well professionally. We invest a large percentage of our income. We have purchased three homes since we married and each time the real-estate agents and mortgage agents tell us that they are shocked that we are buying the home we are (at that time) because we could afford a home 3X more expensive than the homes we have purchased. Each time I have been presented with that proposal I respond with "You pay the mortgage payment and I will buy the more expensive home". So far I have no takers on that deal.

We drive nice but not extravagant cars, we live in nice but not extravagant homes, the nicest neighborhoods we can reasonably afford, live in the best school districts we can comfortably afford a home in so our son (my SS) can get the best education available where we lived, we wear nice but not extravagant clothes, and yes ... my son got the boarding school experience just like I did. He asked for it, we shopped and got a top 20 school for an extremely affordable cost. He failed to do the requisite work to stay so we brought him home half way through his second year (Sr year) and he graduated on time in our local HS ... the best public HS in the state that we lived in at the time.

I have no issue with anyone benefitting from their own efforts. However, in situations where CS is in play, I also have no problem obtaining equitable access to the NCPs income for my StepSon. Equitable being what ever the idiot family court judge will fleece the NCP for at the time. Yes the system is screwed but .... it is the system and those who can benefit from it have an obligation to their (S)kids to do so. Whether that income is from wages, gifts, tax returns, and lottery winnings, bank robbery proceeds, selling drugs, sexual services, prison wages or welfare benefits, the source of the NCPs money makes no difference to me.

Hell, if the NCP is on welfare I just consider CS as a tax return paid monthly since my taxes and those of every other participating tax payer provide that welfare money.

The NCP in our blended family has tried repeatedly to get his CS lowered due to the addition of another out of wedlock spawn, loss of employment, or just because he thinks my wife and I make too much money and he should not have to pay CS since "your mom and stepdad are rich" as he likes to tell our son (my SS). Each time he tries to lower it his CS goes up. Which is just fine with me. If he had won the lottery while my SS was still receiving CS, I would have nailed his ass to the wall for every possible penny my SS could get in CS.

And it would not have caused me one second of heart ache to do it.

But, since he is too f-in stupid to figure out how to support his own spawn he is also to stupid to realize that the lottery is nothing more than a tax for people who can't do math. Every penny he spends on a lottery ticket equates to one more rag his three younger out of wedlock spawn have to wear. That ..... breaks my heart. But ... his younger three are not my problem or my responsibility. Raising his oldest is my responsibility because I am his StepDad. If that means I fleece the SpermIdiot for more CS .... so be it. Besides .... if his CS went down his younger spawn would not have seen a dime of it. He would spend it on his low rider, snow boards, video games or an new goofy ass hair-do in an effort to try to convice the Crips or Bloods that he is black and should be allowed in to a gang. He is as just as black as Opie Cunningham (Think the Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days). Not that there is anything wrong with being black or of any other ethnic, religious or regional back ground. So, I have no problem giving at least one of his children the benefit of his meager income.

As for the lottery, when the jackpot gets really high I will buy a single ticket. The cost to potential benefit is too high to ignore. If I win, great. If I don't, we still have fun planning what we would have done had we won. Sure, some one wins every once in a while. And I would love for it to be me. But, I am much more interested in growing my investments the old fashioned way and the only guaranteed way to do it. Dollar Cost Averaging.

One final thought on the wearing of rags comment. I believe that the only people who wear rags in our country choose to wear rags. If they are truly needy (incapable of providing for themselves due to a physical or mental condition) they can get help from a variety of sources and have no need to wear rags. If they are capable of working and don't, their choice of wearing rags is their own. Of course there are exceptions. Vagrants who live under the over pass are most likely from the first category of people I mentioned.

One of my first cognizant experiences with welfare was when I was in my early teens. I was visiting my GPs for the summer. We went to check the mail at the PO which also had the welfare office in the same building. A woman pulled up in a Cadillac wearing a fur coat, went in side, and came out with a check. ???????? :? I have no problem with the needy getting help, I have a problem with the lazy getting anything….. ever ….. for any reason.

I am not sure what your issue is with my thoughts on the whole lottery/CS thing is. But, I do appreciate your perspective and participation. Truly ... I do.

All IMHO and in my experience of course.

Best regards,