Rich, poor, or middle class, there are millions stacked on millions of people who live right up to their means. It's easy to look at his salary and call him out, but think about his frame of reference. He was on top of the world with a shitload of money and a stellar career with one of the hottest shows. It was not an unreasonable expectation that he could find another gig in his scene at half his current salary or even worse, and still be ok. He is solely responsible for the situation he found himself in, but in the way he handled it in the lead up to his downfall, it isn't clear to me whether he was the exception or the rule. Plenty to be learned here, but is he exceptional? The answer to that is what should scare us.
I live in one of the cheaper (livable) areas of Los Angeles and a $500k "nest egg" would last me, my wife and my daughter 7 years at our current burn rate. My daughter is not in school, there are not eight of her, and none of us are keeping up with the Joneses next to the Huntington Gardens. Lemme just throw a Street View on this sucka real quick. That's some Greene & Greene shit up in that place. The Joneses be light speed, yo. It was the decision to stay the fuck in LA that crippled him in the long run. I know a guy who wrote on Veronica Mars. He didn't get staffed one year when it got canceled, and he took a long look, knew that statistically he wasn't likely to get staffed for 3+ years after that (if at all) and went back to investment banking. A dispassionate eye on the problem would reveal that our friend was in LA because of Tom Arnold. That's bad mojo. With a clear eye, one would think "Well, I had my fun. Time to hie my family back to Paramus where our burn rate shall drop by seventy percent and remember my stories while they're still pleasant." That's why I'm still here - I keep getting hired. As soon as I have no financial ties to this place I'm a fuckin' fart in the wind.
That's about 3 years longer than I would have guessed given where you live and your penchant for the drink.
Ha! Was thinking about it in the hot tub (don't start - yesterday involved lots of stairs and lots of Simon Cowell) and I realized it isn't that bad. a half mil would last us ten years at our current burn rate, or twelve or so if we cut back to the bone. But, again, no Greene'n'Greene in my zip code. San Marino is where people in Beverly Hills wished they could afford to live.
Yeah, by the sounds of it, he was actually a little ahead of the game compared to most people with his savings-to-costs ratio, -again, I don't think most people in his position would have predicted not being able to even get hired at Trader Joe's. Still, the blame rests squarely on his shoulders in every way imaginable.