Not to apologize for the spendy hugh earners, but i see you are 26 and i think some of this is an age thing. At 26, it is hard to really contextualize the application of mustacian principles and what you end up with at 50.
Most of these folks have worked hard to grow their stash and often the income is coming from both decades of good career development choices and investing wisely. Even MMM is in that income range now due to his blog, the markets, etc.
The challenge is how to live wisely and low impact even when your strategies end up accumulating surplus wealth. The forum dialog can help, though not every thread will be for everyone. We can be inclusive and respectful, and avoid annoying phrases, i agree. But at the same time, we should not demonize people for their success at saving and investing either. No one should reject a pay raise, for example. No one should begrudge a mustacian who gained 10% growth of their stash. If a side hustle is a huge success and they are not needing to spend down their stash at 4%, i am happy for a forum member.
Anyway, it is a tough issue to deal with that perhaps 20 somethings cant resonate with...i get it. Hang in there. With good support and effort, i bet you will be able to achieve your dreams too.
I don't think it's just an age thing (I'm early 30s, fyi). There are lots of younger and older super high income people here and in real life. I know lots of couples who hit the $150k and up mark in their 20s.
I know your response wasn't directly to me, but I don't think ketchup or I were demonizing people for their success. I'm always psyched to read about people doing amazing things, and it was largely high earners who helped me when I started here and was asking REALLY basic questions (like, what's an IRA?) I mean, those were some patient people! I love that this community gives me access to people who are farther along and smarter than I am. I don't think the issue is a youthful jealousy thing, like, "there are too many evil high earners here!", it's "there are a lot of totally unaware high earners who don't even realize they're high earners or high spenders, so conversations are getting weird".
I mean, MMM was a high earner, and when I started reading here I was 22 and had about -$2,000 to my name and a minimum wage job, and he was already retired, so I have zero problem taking advice from higher earners who are older and more accomplished. If you make smart decisions you should be better off at 40 than at 20, I think that's part of why we're all here! At the same time, I think it's good to stay grounded in why we have success. It simply isn't possible for all people to amass $500k (or whatever) after just a few years of working, and that's ok. Living an optimized life still works for lower earners, it just isn't quite as fast or dramatic.
I honestly consider myself to be a pretty high earner. I'm now netting $75k (two person family), which feels like a lot to me. I never want to forget about how I made things work on $7.50 an hour or take our income for granted. I want to be grateful and realize that while, yes, DH and I have worked very hard, we've also been extremely fortunate. Especially when so many people in the country and world are struggling, I think it's vital for those of us with resources to realize that we have them not only because we are motivated and hard working, but also because we are fortunate, fortunate to be smart, or able bodied, or white, or living in a certain area of the world, or given education, or with supportive spouses, etc.
Just my two cents, I don't think this particular issue is an inability for young people to contextualize how finances change through different stages of life. I'm a big fan of many of the high earners here, but there has definitely been an influx of a different type of high earner and it has changed the conversations a bit. All in all it's no huge tragedy, I've gotten so much from this community and will always be grateful to the people here. I'll continue to stick around, especially in the journals, I just wonder if the overall attitude shift will scare away and discourage newcomers who are lower earners, which would be a shame. This place saved my financial life.