<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Terry, I understand that for a significant portion of today's "wealthy,"  what you see doesn't indicate how much money is in the bank.  Sometimes they are so over-extended, having bought much more than they really could afford, that the least little unexpected expense throws them into a crisis. I heard a financial advisor tell the story of trying to help a client with $600,000 of consumer debt.  Through an unexpected turn of events, she now had to get by on an income of only a million per year.  Could *you* be debt-free if you made so little money?!  On the other hand, neighbors of mine keep their bills paid living on social security of $900/month. Some people definitely live in poverty, but for the rest of us, it's not how much we make; it's learning and applying good money management.  I understand the average household continuously pays interest on $7,000-$9,000 of credit card debt.  That's about $1,000 of after-tax money down the tube, year after year after year....  Yes, I was there, for a brief time many years ago, but not anymore.  You can escape. If my writing this response will help one piano technician get out of the credit trap, it will have been worth my time. Regards, Clyde Farrell wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><snip>  She said "child is only 4 yo, surely we can just put $200 into it so he can plunk on it to see if he takes to piano. If he does well, I'll be happy to buy him a new piano." I told her piano teachers tell me that the best way to make sure a child fails is to provide him a poor-performing piano. But OK, we can tune it at pitch and try and free up the keys/action for $200. I should mention that all this is occurring in a brand new $500K house in a brand new subdivision with a brand new Lexus SUV in driveway and piano is in toy room with about $5K worth of toy trains, planes and automobiles scattered about........  <snip></blockquote> </body> </html>