Yep, all money is money and can make a difference to anyone. I live in the bay area, and though my rent is a lot more than $500/mo, if I put $500/mo more towar

Yep, all money is money and can make a difference to anyone. I live in the bay area, and though my rent is a lot more than $500/mo, if I put $500/mo more toward rent I really could have a much nicer apartment, for example. Or it could be the monthly payment for an EV. $500/mo can be a nice quality of life boost even in the most expensive parts of the world even if it's not enough to live on just that. Back when I was doing my PhD, on a $2300/mo research assistantship salary in Boston, I also built a webapp that got me ~$200-300/mo for several years and close to $900/mo for one of those years. That alone allowed me to do lots of things I wanted to do at the time (e.g. ~2 overseas vacations a year and several self-supported long distance bike trips). Savings wasn't a huge concern at the time because I knew I could get a decent-paying job post-graduation.