Fair enough and apologies for saying that I didn't think you read it - I wasn't trolling, I was genuinely surprised by that reading. I don't think it is clear

Fair enough and apologies for saying that I didn't think you read it - I wasn't trolling, I was genuinely surprised by that reading. I don't think it is clear that Rick had money for the majority of his life, he looks like someone who grew up in modest circumstances (his mother was housekeeper!), enlisted at the age of 16, ended up eventually joining the US army, was eventually selected for OCS, and then used military benefits to go the University of Oklahoma to study literature and law. He taught for a while, then moved to do corporate security in his 40s. That sounds to me like a relatively clever working class boy who eventually worked his way up to a pretty good professional job. Susan is obviously from a higher social class - note in the article, the contrast is between Rick's friend and her, not between Rick and his friend - but by the time of the article she is essentially working a non-career track pink collar job. That's not unusual for an upper middle class divorced woman of her generation of course but it's a big economic step down from her previous life.