Being in this bracket, I can see how easy it can be to live paycheck-to-paycheck at this income in a VHCOL with kids. $1M+ house (and not a fancy house either), $3k/mo on daycare, $800/mo car payment, $1000/mo student loans...it goes quickly.

That said, lifestyle inflation is the worst! There are folks making way more than this that are ALSO living check-to-check. As someone said on here, there are spenders, and there are savers!

FWIW, the folks that have plenty of money saved up at lower incomes are mostly homebodies and don't do much, which is fine, but that's not how everyone wants to live (myself included). Can't take it with you and all that.