Shedding the wire

One of our next door neighbors is a college student. His parents bought the house two years ago and he has recently graduated. Today it looks as if they are readying the house for sale with bags of mulch and a Uhaul truck in front. I'm trying to imagine what their lives are like. What do his parents do? They must be absolutely loaded if they themselves drive a Lexus and over the past month the kid has been parking a Cadillac Escalade where he previously parked a Honda Pilot. Maybe I'm envious because of that financial freedom when I find it unfathomable to be able to spend so much money on a vehicle - and even moreso to have such an expensive vehicle when you haven't even started working for a living yet. The vehicles cost the same as my house! (But perhaps if I ask them nicely they will sell it to someone who can be my friend!)

Whenever we buy something of any value - ie more than $50 - there is often a lot of thought that goes into it. Our finances are such that spending money is not to be done on a whim by any means. I can honestly say that learning to live within our means over the past 5 years has brought me a lot of satisfaction and I am happier. But there are days when I am envious of those who don't have to do this.

One thing I'm excited about is that we have decided to join the wireless world and get a netbook. At first I thought we'd get a full size laptop but then realized that a netbook will give me what I want - to be able to go online while my daughter is watching tv. That's all. Simple. It will be the first computer I ever put out money for and I'm so excited to have this one little item that feels like a bit of an 'extra'. Now to figure out what I will get - any suggestions?

5 minutes later ....

I did a reverse address search and then googled that name and the city where he comes from and realized that my neighbor's dad is an optometrist. For some reason i'm almost relieved to find that as his profession rather than a field of work where money is the only goal.