...and today's game is called "How many problems can you find?"
A friend of a friend of mine, who is around 63, has a wife, 55, who was laid off a few months ago. For awhile, he was pretty worried, since he had refinanced his house and used the equity to renovate and buy toys. His initial retirement plan was his wife, who he said should work to pay off the mortgage after he retires himself (they both make great money by the way, probably $250k+ combined) but since a new head honcho joined his division around the time his wife got laid off and began restructuring the company, he was seriously worried for awhile that he wouldn't even make it to retirement age and might lose the house.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and his wife has a new job now. When asked how his weekend went, he talked about the nice getaway he had with her, how he spent lots of money buying expensive wine, and how much fun her new car was to drive.
No, it was not a company perk. Yes, she bought a new car. They decided that the current Mercedes with 100k miles was too old and that it only made sense to get a fully loaded X5, since she needed a more reliable car to make the 70 mile commute every day.
Quote: "Well, she's going to be working for another five years at LEAST, most likely 10. She can't do that with an old car!"