members and their systems

Started working at 16. We had no kids. Wife made me us save a lot each year. Let it just ride and now retired with no debt high net worth so I tell her what did we save for all those years if we cannot enjoy it now...! So I got back into high end stereo a couple of years ago....!

I bought and sold some audio gear between 1983 and 85 in the process of putting together a system I lived with for 26 years. During that time I continued my education, worked full time, raised 3 kids and put them through college. Over the last 10 years of retirement I have been buying and selling many components in the process of gaining a personal education towards a hobby I enjoy and a system to enjoy it through. 

I thank many on this forum for their help in this endeavor. Truly miss AL.

Priorities.... I live in a tent on the streets of LA, but you should see my system. I walk around Beverly Hills on garbage day hoping to find GIF panels that have been thrown away. The vinyl tarp has poor acoustic qualities.

Birdscantrow, that's a good question about where some site members get the money to be purchasing this high end "stuff" when it takes most of us all we have to deal with normal living expenses and bills. Like you, I wished for ages when younger to be able to afford high end equipment.

Now there are obviously rich guys or gals around for whom this presents no problem. For many of the rest of us we've had to manage our finances
over many years in such a way that we finally can buy some high end equipment in our dotage. You can, if you work at it, pay off your mortgage before you retire. Medicare takes care of most medical type bills then. Likewise you can pay off your car. If you're fortunate enough to have picked a profession that pays a pension that helps enormously also.

Now unless you hit the Lotto, you're not going to get to this point in your life any time soon. So the answer to your question about how a regular person with bills affords this kind of high end equipment is, they don't. Not until later in life only, with planning, maybe investment, retirement IRA's you pay into while you're working, or other strategies.

 It can be done by regular working folk, but not easily, or without a great deal of patience while you take care of your regular bills and expenses. Finally that day may arrive when your planning and perseverance pays off and you can dip your toes into the high end market. I'm only speaking for myself here, others surely get their money for high end equipment by other means, nefarious like oregonpapa and jjss, or otherwise. 

Mike