[qchris]

I'm sorry, I think we definitely have a "pot meet kettle" situation here. You're (pretty patronizingly) describing noting selection bias, then basing things on your own situation.

The median income for mechanical engineers in the US is around $88k, with many (especially early-career) people making meaningfully less than that. I'm glad your income is high enough that thousands of dollars in equipment, and far more importantly, extra space in your living quarters, is a blip. I really am. But statistically, your situation is not representational of the hundreds of thousands of other workers.