With all due respect, you're disconnected from reality.

- Earning 500k TC for 15 years equals financial independence and retiring at age 45 if you're careful (even if you lived in a HCOL)

- Earning 50k means working until you're 65 with a meanger 401k and spend the rest of your life depending on social security

Just because high earners aren't billionaires doesn't mean they can relate in any way to someone earning 50k or even 80k, that is absurd.