I agree with all of that, and would add that it's a recipe for disaster. I have been preaching this for 20 years at least. Still, I don't know where people making that $185k fit in to this picture. My suspicion is that most of them live in very expensive places like Silicon Valley where that kind of money just keeps you in the local middle class...able perhaps to buy a house and put a kid or two through college, not necessarily accumulating much more than the appreciation on your property.