[Traster]

This is a surprisingly reasonable article from Bloomberg and it's certainly true that Mortgage and 401k doesn't feel like saving excess money, but it does essentially map to savings.

I'm not sure it's really a useful conversation to have though. We live in a world where there are essentially an infinite number of things you cannot have. So feeling rich is pretty much a choice once you're beyond probably double the average household income for the area you're in.

[MuffinFlavored]

Making $10k/yr allows you to do very little.

Make $50k/yr allows you to do more, but still not a lot.

Making $100k/yr opens some doors you didn't have access to before.

Making $200k/yr puts you in pretty good comfort overall, but doesn't enable you to go get that supercar/yacht/private jet you wanted

Making $300k/yr-$500k/yr probably puts you in $1m home, $200k supercar territory depending on how badly you want to stretch it.

I think when you look at it as "income + wealth unlock levels", it makes more sense.

I can't really go on lavish vacations, but nobody making $30k/yr is going to feel bad for me.

I can't go reasonably buy $20k jewelry, but somebody making $500k/yr probably could.

Then you get to yacht / private jet level of wealth that I know very little about. :P

[atwebb]

In your experience, do people really inflate lifestyles like that? Doesn't 5 years at a high income level less mean "more stuff" and more mean "you can save to never work again".

You need to earn 500k for a handful of years, save vigorously, and you're done. Am I missing something?

I have seen both sides up close so I guess it's more a rhetorical question, but it's not pretty when you didn't save that 300k and approach retirement in a changing job market...

[MuffinFlavored]

> You need to earn 500k for a handful of years, save vigorously, and you're done. Am I missing something?

How many people make $500k/yr, but live like they make $80k/yr?

Lifestyle inflation is a real thing. Even if you aren't just accumulating junk, you aren't going to live in a bad neighborhood if you don't have to, right? Might want to start buying organic food, might want to drive a nicer car and wear nicer clothes?

The richer you get, the definition of "nicer" changes.

[granshaw]

I think often its both that wealth changes people, and its often a certain kind of personality that seeks and succeeds in obtaining high-powered, high-income positions.