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> Other methods, whether they involve quantity of free time or already-available money, are intrinsically tied to the quality of your job or, failing that, the quality of your parents' or partner's jobs.

For a lot of educated types, the best chance of really climbing the wealth ladder is early involvement in a startup. The startup founders I know have a single unifying factor, they come from the sort of wealth that allows them to go completely bankrupt and still live comfortably.

We have good incomes and live pretty frugally, and for us that translates to a decent amount saved for retirement and college funds. I would never knock that, that we are incredibly lucky and a lot of people work very hard for less. But it doesn't move us up a class such that we have a house overlooking the beach and kids in 20k/year private schools. I know people who have those, and they didn't work their way up a ladder. Their ladder started on the 10th floor.