[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.