Originally Posted by
skidder
Back in the early 2000s I was a car salesman for a while, and this statement was as far from reality as you can imagine. We had folks coming in who were "dressed-to-impress" whose credit rating was so poor it 'wouldn't buy them the steam off a hot dog' (as the NYC-bred sales manager called it). We also had folks coming in who were casual dressed in a t-shirt and shorts who could write a check for $30,000 for a vehicle without any worry. Interesting customer we had was a casually dressed big guy with a beat-up 4WD Toyota 4-runner (or Landcruiser? cant remember) and bought a $50,000 loaded 4WD Chevy Tahoe for cash; turned out he was a member of the Anaheim Ducks ice hockey team.
Have a good friend that is a retired CPA who did corporate and some individual taxes. She commented once how some people living in mansions (heavily mortgaged), with leased high-end European cars, with massive credit card debt, with zero real assets were one paycheck away from financial disaster. You just never know.