We live a good life and want for nothing. I make a civil servants salary which aint shit. My wife does well but we live like we did when we did not have extra cash. We both max out out retirement accts. Also I get a pension that should pay a significant part of my salary when I retire.
We have no debt save our mortgage which is 8 years away from being paid in full. Great place to be. So many folk make good $$$ then spend every penny and live like paupers to the next paycheck like you said GF.
That is how my wife and did it. Young and enlisted in the military we made nothing and barely scraped by. When we finally started making money we lived off the same budget of when we barely scraped by and saved a lot of money. Sure, we don't have the savings that people who made hundreds of thousands a year may have, but I know plenty of those people who are broke as a a joke too.