I would attempt to explain the "living paycheck to paycheck" issue for higher earners by saying that many of them are putting most of their excess monthly pay i

I would attempt to explain the "living paycheck to paycheck" issue for higher earners by saying that many of them are putting most of their excess monthly pay into retirement savings. If they had instead put that excess monthly pay into a regular savings account that they could easily withdraw from without penalty, they'd have a lot less paper wealth, but would also technically no longer be "living paycheck to paycheck". To avoid this distortion voluntary retirement savings should be treated as regular savings in the "paycheck to paycheck" calculation. As an aside: $100k+ has been used as a benchmark for higher earners for years now. It's probably time to bump it to $150k or so.