SK
Move to a tiny town in the midwest and you can live that life right now. Heck you could live it in Temecula right now. Buy a small house for $200K, eschew new cars every 3 to 5 years, no Flat panel TVs, multiple computers in the house and ipods for the whole family, payoff the house in 10 to 15 years. Heck, i bet you could even save for the retirement your Grand dad never could afford to. Sorry but I still dont see it.
fwiw, my grandfathers both fled czarist russia also. One had a fruit pushcart in NYC and lived on the poverty level. His duaghter (my mom) never went to college but got married and built a simple but successful life. my other grandafther had a storte on Coney island and loan shark business on the side (though he lent lots of money and never even tried to collect much of it as he liked helping people in need). His son went to college and built a successful life. Their children (myself and my siblings) have suceeded well beyond them with all possessing college degrees and graduate degrees. Generation by generation we have improved our standard of living also.
