I dont know if you have heard but the economy is not doing well.

Salaries have been flat for years, the stock market took a fall last year, whole industries are on government-paid life support, and the un-employment rate (including the under-employment rate of people who want to work more but cannot) is higher than the great depression.

As I drive to work, I see all those BMW's and Lexus'.

As I look for a house to live in, I see all those incredible prices, so much higher than average incomes.

And I think to myself: Just how are all these people able to afford so much??

Then I see articles like this and I say: I thought so. A lot of people cannot afford that stuff - and its going to end badly for them.

This was a good article that is a reminder that things are often not what they seem. And if you have been unemployed before, it is also a reminder of just how bad that feels.

Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis

By MARY PILON

Wall Street Journal

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Paul Joegriner hasn't worked since March 2008, when he was laid off from his $200,000-a-year job as chief executive officer of a small bank. But you wouldn't know it by appearances.

His wife, Marzena, shuttles their two young children to private school every morning. The family recently vacationed in Virginia Beach, Va., and likes to dine on Porterhouse steaks. Since losing his job, Mr. Joegriner, 44 years old, has had several offers. He's turned each down in hopes of landing a position comparable to what he held before.

The family's lifestyle over the past year and a half has been propped up by a $200,000 severance package and another $100,000 in savings -- funds the family has burned through rapidly. By Mr. Joegriner's own calculations, the family will be out of money in six months if he doesn't find work.

"It will be D-Day," he says. "But on the outside, no one has any idea that we're in trouble."

Mr. Joegriner is a member of what might be called the severance economy -- unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles. Many lost their jobs in 2007 and 2008, and thought they'd soon find work. Now, they're getting desperate.