The only thing that matters is your annual income and your expenditures. If you earn 1x as much as you spend, you're staying afloat. If you earn 30x as much

The only thing that matters is your annual income and your expenditures. If you earn 1x as much as you spend, you're staying afloat. If you earn 30x as much, then a year of work covers 30 years of retirement. The CEO of Kroger earned $13 million in his last year there, and called his own compensation "ludicrously high". I doubt he's spending a million a year, but even if he is, the ratio is indeed ludicrous. And he's nowhere near the high end for executive compensation. Are you suggesting that the average top-tier executive lives a lifestyle in the same proportion of their income as the average software developer, or blue collar worker, or...? Really?