members and their systems

Thanks @mitch2. Much tougher for her - I just had to write checks. She probably will have to take care of me at some point (hopefully later than sooner). She has another year+ in her residency and then a 2 year fellowship, (after 4 yrs of med school and almost 2 years of residency) and all the hypochondriacs in the family are already bugging the crap out of her.

@glupson - Porsches are actually more reliable than you think (watch .... I'm probably jinxing myself and my 10 year old one will have a problem next week) but MC could still get a flat tire. With those low profile sticky tires unfortunately we get lots of flats. I guess he carries a portable tire inflator. He could have some other type of emergency. He is the only person I have heard of that has no cell phone. No texting....wow. Just cause the non-data flip phones are meant for the tech deficient doesn't mean that thrifty people can't use them.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable question and there are many reasonable answers in the thread about who saved up how.  
I suggest next time someone posts a question for "what speakers should I buy, my budget is 10K - and I got the money from my uncle, I knew where he hid the cash for the speakers he was planning to buy, so I don't have in on my W2"
:)

You can afford decent audio from the money you save by not buying a boat.

Since I don’t have any kids I feel it’s fair to spend their college fund on audio gear. And since I’m very potent, I reckon I could’ve knocked out at least six of them before I killed myself.

I'm not sure why I would ever buy anything new except for a phono cartridge. Having said that, for my office system, I bought a Schitt Mani new, but that was $107. Not exactly hi-fi prices. Everything else - speakers, amps, tonearms, turntables, cables - I can buy used or demo and not worry about depreciation.