How can you possibly rack up $10K a month expenses?
Is it really so difficult to imagine? My wife and my monthly expenses are $8K/month.
Granted, the couple in the article are utterly oblivious to their own idiocy. They've made their bed and will lie in it.
But for middle-class DINKs, $8K-$10K/month isn't that hard.
$2,100 - Mortgage
$2,000 - Retirement savings
$400 - Property taxes
$700 - Groceries
$600 - Car payment, maintenance fund
$500 - Natural gas, electricity, water, phone, cable, internet
$1,000 - Discretionary spending ($500/each)
$300 - Insurance - car, home, life, disability (this is Canada, hence no medical insurance)
$400 - Gas for car, bus pass, house maintenance
That, in fact, is pretty much our exact budget. It's not as hard as you think. Keep in mind, that's all *after* tax money. Neither my wife nor I have 6-figure incomes.
Note that that doesn't include a gardner or a housemaid, no country club dues or fancy sports cars, no boats or private planes. Note that there isn't even an item in there for clothing, dining out, gifts, hobbies, or vacations (that all comes out of our "discretionary" money). I don't have a cell phone, I won't even pay for "caller ID" on our landline. We don't get the movie channels. I take the bus to work and brownbag my lunch every single weekday. We actually live quite frugally.