I've had the experience of both worlds. Up until the age of 14 we were pretty well off.
We owned a house in the south of france
I had 4 horses
I went to private school
Then the recession came,my mum got ill (she's the earner) my parents went bankrupt and we lost everything.
We had no heating, we all just had to sit round a fire to keep warm
We lived on tomato soup
We went through a stage of hiding whenever someone knocked on the door.
When I was 17 it all got better and my parents got back on their feet, we got a nice house, i got a mulberry handbag for christmas and we were back to our original financial state
However my dad left 7 months ago and took my mum to the cleaners and ditched me and my sister so now we're heading back in the bad direction. My mum got ill again so had to sell everything and now my sister and I are in a bit of a state because she can't afford to have us at home and both of us are students so have no money.
I guess I'm lucky though that I did experience what it felt like to have everything. It's taught me aswell alot of things about money and to avoid my parents mistakes.