Reply #17: I'm guessing she didn't start out making $100,000 a year

[laughingliberal]

We had just reached that income level between the 2 of us a couple of years before the world fell apart. Tightened up and saved a downpayment for a house which we thought was smarter than continuing to rent as prices were rising so fast here we thought (and were told) we'd be priced out if we waited any longer. We did not finance the amount we qualified for trying to keep the mortgage under the 25% of our income level. That bought us a nice, modest house in a rural area. The downpayment and getting some of what we needed for the new house took a good part of the savings but our income was enough to meet the expenses and start saving again. That, and the fact that we thought the house would gain some equity in the 15 years before I would be ready to retire seemed to put us in a decent position for being able to retire if we were careful. I increased my 401k contribution hoping we'd have something saved by the time we couldn't work anymore. First year in the house, the housing market cut husband's income in 1/2 and we were feeling the pinch. Year and half later I lost my job. With next to nothing coming in savings went damned fast. Oh, and my husband was diagnosed with cancer right before I lost my job so we had to scrape up the $1200 per month for my COBRA so he could be treated.

Not difficult at all for me to see how it can all be gone very quickly even with good income when disaster strikes.