This is why I invest in rental property and have a side job. I earn around 50-55k, with less than 40k coming from my FT job. I have never had the desire to climb the corporate ladder. In fact I actively avoid promotions, despite having been courted early on at every single job I have ever had, including the part time job. I am not white, or a man, or exceptionally more competent than others qualified for promotions. I do have a college degree, am fairly young, and speaking frankly am relatively attractive (which studies show makes an impact on hiring decisions by both men and women in the workplace), personable, with the solid middle class cultural upbringing. 6 months after beginning at the company I am with now, I actually had a supervisor, who is now a director, ask me to represent our team in a roundtable with a CEO. When I blatantly asked "why me" she openly admitted she didn't want to put another candidate in bc "can you imagine sitting her down in front of a CEO". This shocked me because the person in question had been there for years, loved and gave her life to the company, participated in team building exercises, was a SME and popular POC with other departments, and a go-getter; endlessly more competent than myself, especially with being so new. But she didn't have the look, the upbringing, the right accent or vocabulary. it confirmed what I already knew about corporate culture, but still left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth.
The one time I agreed (yes, I had to agree after being practically begged to take on a leadership promotion, after which I submitted a formal application to go along with the guise of a fair hiring process; by the way, they always know who they are going to hire before they even post a position), was the most stressful period of my life. The company was getting what they needed out of me so my work didn't suffer. But I was giving all I had, despite evidently making it all look effortless, because the duties of that type of role did not come naturally to me. Folks were shocked when after 5 years I ended up quitting the company, left the country, and took a six-month break from work. My rental property helped fund this endeavor by the way. When I returned I vowed that I would only work on my terms, which is minimal stress.
When a job isn't your only option for earning money, these things become less important. At least it did for me. Now I like my full-time job at a different company I have been with for 2 years now, and in 2 weeks I will get to work from home permanently on a four-day 10 hour schedule, which gives me more free time and allows me more mental energy to direct towards other moneymaking schemes. I am doing just fine without the promotions, my house will be paid off within two years before the age of 35, and I'll be buying another rental property soon.