I would imagine that if most of us rated our hobby by how much we have invested into it, we would say something like holy bat you know what and pack everything into the back of a dark closet to collect dust. Also if we figured out how much we spend per year we would have the same results.

Now take these same figures and weigh them against how much pleasure we get out of building and flying these same models and for most of us, the pleasure wins. Yes, those of us that do build kits take and get a lot of pride from building a model, making it look as good as we can, and seeing if fly for the first time, as well as every other successful flight of that models life weather it is a trainer or a highly maneuverable tricked out warbird or civilian airplane.

To those that have never been behind the sticks and read this would probably say OMG that's expensive.
And those that have been behind the sticks say, I think i can fit that into my budget.

For most of us in the over 10k bracket, me included would have laughed if someone told us that we would have soo much tied up in this hobby.
For those that voted in at under 500, wait till next week.