My first thought is "which rich family member can they coast off of when shit gets really bad" or "where's the rest of the money you haven't touched yet?"
So many of these "I've been funemployed for 5 years" articles NEVER talk about the hidden asterisk that, well, actually, they have plenty of money and are just fine; they're just conventionally broke.
Yea, I think a lot of it is this. In a lot of these discussions, nobody wants to admit that their family is loaded. Although they might have to swallow their pride a little, if things get bad they could just move back in with lawyer dad or doctor mom, and they'd be fine indefinitely. I think that's very different, stress-wise, than "I have $100K of savings and am willing to sacrifice years of future retirement to blow through it."
