Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
At the beginning it did make me feel better that I am worth more. As the years go by, that goes away as you just get more responsibilities and stress along with a higher salary. Going from driving a toyota to an Infiniti to a Mercedes and then realizing why am I paying for this when a toyota works just fine and I get less looks when I only tip the valet kid $5. I still remember the gas attendant always come up and washes my windows and gets a tip when I had the Mercedes. Now he never even steps close to my window anymore. Going from a poor college kid to having enough to basically know you can comfortably afford anything. I remember reading an article about after making $75-100k depending on where you live, any more money just really doesn't make a difference anymore unless if you are talking about moving up to the ultra rich status.
Increased feeling of financial security?
Yes, this definitely. Knowing that you can comfortably afford pretty much anything and not have to worry at all.
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Yes and what a mistake that was. There is always something better and better. Although I do miss the steering wheel warmer now once in a while.
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?
Less stress about the small things but more stress with the added responsibilities.
I was going to post the same thing. That after a certain point around 75k or so, the stress and hours increase more than the benefit of the extra money, as the bad stuff has a compounding effect, while the good is diminishing returns. I mean there really is only so much someone needs. How many steak and lobster dinners can you eat in one night? How many bikes can you ride at once? It just rapidly approaches a point of diminishing returns.
I managed to borderline fire by early 30s, but for about 7 years work was my life. The sort of job you're married to, and would be impossible to do as a parent, simply because your hours are all of them, and you're often getting calls at all hours to fly off somewhere for maybe a day, maybe a month with no predictability. "I'll let you know XMas eve if I'm going to be home for XMas" tends to strain relationships. But, it effected my current status and now only work when I want to so maybe it was worth it? For the folks who bought 80k vehicles they got to see a couple months per year maybe not...
I think the more telling thing is looking at happiness surveys, many poorer places are happier. I honestly believe that any problems you have after earning about 40k, at which point you'll have a full belly, roof over your head, and all necessitates aren't solved with more money. I lived over in Indonesia for a few years, and people are rated among the happiest on earth, despite being some of the poorest. Why the discrepancy with the west? Getting on a bit of a tangent, but honestly I think it's due to community. Often people at homestays where I go would just hang out with no real set hours, working when say a guest checks in, and otherwise just drinking rice wine and playing guitar, bullshitting with the guests. Owner often provides room and board, and then at the end of the month you take the few hundred dollars you earned for pocket moey. Is it possible that low stress, good friends, and having your basic physiological needs met is the ideal recipe for happiness?
A slight aside, read a neat book a year ago called stumbling on happiness
https://www.amazon.ca/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/0676978584Talks a lot about how the brain works, psychological stuff, and how the brain takes so many short cuts, that both make you remember things wrong, and poorly predict future emotional states. In short, the brain is horrible at predicting what will make you happy, or remembering what made you happy in the past.