Overheard at the LFGSS golf club bar

Unless you have literally insane mortgage

Only came into a decent income in my 40s, only available mortgage once I'd saved a deposit was a 22yr one due to when I'd retire at and my lack of pension (no proof of income beyond 65 - too much time on the streets or then in dead end jobs grinding to get off the streets to have any pension beyond legal minimum in the last 4 years).

So yes, mortgage is ~50% of my insane salary.

The assumption that salary equates to rich also assumes normative middle class lives, or at least a consistency in income over a long period of time prior. If one takes a homeless person and gives them a top 1% salary they aren't suddenly rich, only when it's sustained over such a period of time that assets can be acquired does it really translate to wealth.

I'll end my life more comfortably than I began, but nothing else. I may have earned slightly more than most people in an average working life, but I am earning more of it at the end of my working life and far less in the first two decades of working (and this is not the tax efficient way to earn money!). I am unlikely to retire early, will probably need to retire late just to ensure I'm not totally broke after 80 (if I get that far).