My aunt and I are taking a flight soon.

[Pacifist Patriot]

52. It is more nuanced than that.

It depends on a lot of things. First of all housing costs in the market where you live. Not everyone has the ability to just up and move to a lower COL area.

I live in a small town about an hour away from the next big city. Someone making $100K in that city who relocated to San Francisco for work would have to make $178K to maintain the same relative income to costs.

Student loan debt is way more of an impact on household finances than it was when I graduated from college. Saving for, or putting kids through college, is pricier these days.

People who buy older cheaper houses to stay within their means may have more maintenance costs as things wear out and need to be replaced.

People living within their means can have an accident or a medical expense that catapults them over their means, even if they are saving a little bit with each paycheck.

The point is that someone's gross wage alone is not nearly enough data to pass judgment on what they should or could do with their net pay.