I'm in my 20's and all of my friend circle, including us, is beginning some lifestyle creep. Creep from only owning things to live in a dorm room, to an apartment or starter home. Creep from beater car from high school, to 0-2 year old car now that they are young professionals, etc. I usually tell myself that they either make much more than we do, or that they have parental help we don't know about. Heck, even we have parental help-they like to buy us big Christmas gifts, so we can save $2,000 or so of spending per year just by asking for something for Christmas like an electric fence or gps dog collar, etc. Friends have parents who let them live at home for years to save money, or gift them a house down payment, or divide their lot so their kids can build a house on it, or give kids their old cars as they buy new ones, or give furniture. Ijust assume I'm not seeing all the help. Or an inheritance from an older relative, I actually know someone currently burning through one and his friends just think he makes a lot of money.
Or there's my SIL, with oodles of credit card debt and no health insurance because she "can't afford it". Although she goes to the bar every weekend with friends, sometimes in a different city. Her friends probably mostly don't know about the lack of insurance and credit cards. While I would never wish that on anyone, I often remind myself that we often don't know the whole picture.
