I don't know how popular this will be, but yes. I've made $1M - $1.5M the last few years. As someone who grew up poor, that feels like a major accomplishment.

I don't know how popular this will be, but yes. I've made $1M - $1.5M the last few years. As someone who grew up poor, that feels like a major accomplishment. Even if I can't talk about it with most people (only my mom & wife know), it's still a source of internal pride. We have small children & I've fully funded their 529s. Knowing they won't have to worry about that, even if things go south for me, makes me feel like a good father/provider. My mom is getting on her age. She doesn't have a lot saved, as it was hard being a single mom raising a large family alone, let alone saving for retirement. She used to tell me she'll just work until she dies & she was determined to never be a burden. The only reason I've shown her my W2s is not to brag, but to tell her, emphatically, she can (should!) retire and I will take care of her. Oddly, the first years I made that much, I found it very stressful. I kept thinking "I'm going to fuck this up & regret it for the rest of my life. Tomorrow they're going to realize I'm an idiot & fire me. I just know it." And not like a every so often thing, every month or two. Like every day or two. It's still there, but not as bad. We've kept our lifestyle & expenses the same. We've been saving as aggressively as I can. Taxes suck, but on the upside, we're not that far from being financially independent. The only exception is at Christmas, I buy my wife something expensive jewelry wise. She's low maintenance, puts up with me, is a wonderful wife, and it's nice to spoil her. Even knowing that's close is a change psychologically. Even if full independence isn't far off, even closer is theoretically being able to take a 9-5 job, or something much lower level. What's weird is knowing you could walk away from your job, changes the mental stress on you. In fact, knowing that, I think I'm much more likely to stay in my current job. I think you could debate if it's money itself that is making me happy, or what it lets me do for others I love dearly, but for me it's basically the same thing. I couldn't do the latter without the former.