3. Taxes - his take home salary was probably not 975,000 or even 475,000.
4. Living within means and saving well meant something different back then. Even if he had the foresight to realize the bubble would burst, which most educated people did, no one realized how bad it would get.
Los Angeles is a big place, but I don't think San Marino was ever cheap:
"In 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked the city as the 63rd most expensive area to live in the United States, with the median list price of a single family home at US$1,987,500."
2. 8 kids. Eight.
3. Taxes - his take home salary was probably not 975,000 or even 475,000.
4. Living within means and saving well meant something different back then. Even if he had the foresight to realize the bubble would burst, which most educated people did, no one realized how bad it would get.