Surewhitey
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I think it is as much about what you keep as it is about what your earn.
Our income level (one income family) increased significantly in the 13 years leading up to our early retirement at age 59. We did not greatly alter our spending habits or our lifestyle habits. None of this replacing the car every three or four years to keep up with the Jone's. Not sure if we did this intentionally or if it was just our style of living. In event, we went to retire we found out that we in a very good position financially and can now travel anytime we want and anywhere we want.
I worry about my children, I do not think that they will end up at the same place as we did from a financial perspective.
I agree on the children. Ours is doing fine now, but I don't have high hopes for her in the future. The good thing is, she's smart. She'll figure out "how" to do fine.
The other good thing is you really can live simple if need be. My mom lives on my stepfather's SS & $200 / mo pension. In other words, about $1500/mo. They do live simple, but they're happy where they are. I think we're programmed to think we need $50k / yr to just live...untrue in many places. We'll just have to move away from Cali some day...