People spend every dime they get. I live in a metro area where, if you're making 100k a year, you're living pretty large. One of my co-workers, on he and his wife's salary of 130k combined, couldn't afford a modest house and had to move back to the in-law suite above the garage at her parent's place. The first thing he started talking about was all the money he was going to start spending on "improvements" and crap. We're all like well maybe you should put some money back since you pretty much failed at finance last week. Nope, not a dime to his name.