The general sentiment is right though - person A continued to live well below their means and invested, while person B fell into lifestyle inflation big time.

The general sentiment is right though - person A continued to live well below their means and invested, while person B fell into lifestyle inflation big time. The key here is that both started out with a huge income for someone just starting out - $200k. If you are making $30k/year, this advice doesn’t really apply - you likely can’t even take advantage of 401k yet. This is for those that are lucky enough to have something to save.