> Ms. Voigt, 27, paid off her student loans and bought a car in cash. She maxed out her 401(k) and socked $500,000 away in a brokerage account. She easily covered twice-weekly therapy sessions and costly visits to the hair salon every few months. When she felt burned out by the pandemic, she took a year off from work.

> “I used to be able to kind of spend whatever, and it would be fine,” Ms. Voigt said. “Now I’m having to think about it a lot more.”

> She recently started using Mint to track spending and is making small lifestyle changes such as bathing her dog herself instead of relying on groomer. The group chat discussion has turned to talk of whose company is doing layoffs.

This is wonderful privilege on display, lol. The average 27 year old in America and Europe doesn’t make anything near enough to stash $500k in their brokerage account.

She got a job with a higher base salary, and now has to adjust her spending by, among other things, bathing her dog herself…The average worker would kill for a life like this.