We hear this a lot also...mainly from younger people. We hear how "lucky" we are that we can drive nice cars, take vacations to Germany, go out to dinner on occasion at steakhouses, buy a fine bottle of wine sometimes, and attend comedy shows and concert-type events. I realize we spend more than most...but we also make a lot more...and we save nearly 35% of our gross income annually...so we don't mind doing so.
What they fail to realize is that I attended college for 11 years (yes, I did all my schooling at nights while working full-time, letting my company reimburse me for an undergrad engineering degree and an MBA...resulting in zero student loans).
Sometimes people look at the result, and ignore the process...very sad indeed.
We're now in our early '50s and within a "few years" of being able to never earn another dollar again (although I'll probably still do something to stay engaged).
If you note my current avatar, you'll learn the way I think. Right now I'm renovating rental house #2. Each day, after my 8-5 day at a "regular" job...I drive straight to the rental, change into work clothes, and proceed with plumbing, electrical, gutter fixes, cabinet re-staining, pulling up old carpet, fixing drywall repairs, changing light fixtures, installing ceramic tile floors, and a myriad other things...until about 10:30 pm. Then I go home and sleep, to repeat again the next day.
It takes me anywhere from 6-10 weeks of this to "turn around" a given house....so this is not an everlasting schedule...but it sure is tough for that time. But 2-3 years from now, when the big repairs are done and we have 4-5 properties pushing $30k/year into our bank account...those youngsters will still be wondering how we can afford to do all these things. I just smile and tell them I'm "lucky".