My family is high earning, about 4-5x the threshold they are talking about, and our budget is tight enough that it feels like it's paycheck to paycheck. We max out the 401k and IRA and invest as well, but I don't see our savings growing. High rent, taking care of my parents, and home child care almost as high as rent are the big outlays, I know these are just choices we made, we're super lucky to be in this situation, but I kind of get it. Your life starts to take the shape of the container it's in, and when you raise the cost of everything 5% a month but the income doesn't change, it does weigh on things.

Add this to the cost of homes where I live have almost doubled, from a small 1000sq foot home being priced around 1.3M now selling for over 2M and we feel like we're priced out of home ownership without doubling our salaries.

I remember being abjectly poor, and while I don't worry about money for rent or food now, I never cared about retirement back then and just had to look at what is in front of me, make rent, buy ramen, etc. I know this isn't worse, but it sure feels similar.