This thread reminded me of a conversation I had with a newer, lower-level, coworker several years ago. We were doing maintenance on a transformer, and I was acting as the watch while another coworker was hanging grounds on the line. Anyway, newer coworker strikes up a conversation with "I hear you are rich". I asked him where he heard that, and he said several people had told him that. I explained that I just lived cheap, saved a lot, maxed my retirement, and prioritized with the rest. But he kept insisting that I had to be rich, so I asked him what he thought "rich" was. He said something like "you have $30k in the bank". I said, well, it's not all in the bank, but...
Anyway, it's funny that that was the perception. Not only did I make the same exact amount as 90% of my coworkers, across the fields, but I was the only single mom. Several of the guys had working spouses. Apparently, I was one of the few to max my tsp, and the fact that I took awesome vacations meant I was rich (meanwhile, I was driving a rust bucket, didn't go out to eat, don't drink/smoke, etc). I know we made exactly the same money because all trades are tied to a letter wage, and all of the people have a certain letter. So, all "A"s make the same, all, "I"s make the same, and all journeymen, no matter the trade, were the same letter, etc. There were only a few people who made more, with a higher letter, and I wasn't one of those people yet.
Over the years, after talking to people about tsp accounts, etc, I've learned that I have one of the higher balances, especially considering my age/years of service. I've since lowered my contribution so that I can save more money for immediate use (like helping DS with college), but will bump it back up when I no longer have him as a tax deduction and have to go from HOH+1 to Single.
This guy wasn't journeyman yet, so he wasn't making as much as we were, but he kept explaining that he could never save that much because he was "into cars". I explained that it was all about priority, and he would earn enough to save the money and still blow a bunch on cars. I think he quit after a year or so, not sure what he is doing now, but man, that conversation...