I wouldn't say 65k per year is doable for _most people_. It's easy to forget how privileged we are with developer salaries. Most people end school with student loan amounts roughly to one year's salary. Assuming you pay 25% of your income towards the loans, that's still a 3-5 year payoff assuming raises and low inflation.

Congratulations on your achievement though! Being debt free is not normal anymore and it comes with a surprising amount benefits in other areas of your life.

The average starting salary for a college graduate in the USA is less than that, and most graduates have non-negative other costs, so, no, your outlier description is not representative of what is doable generally in the USA.