In this case I would say very much thriving. This person could easily handle a $5,000 unexpected expense. When I moved to NYC, I was able to get a very comfor

In this case I would say very much thriving. This person could easily handle a $5,000 unexpected expense. When I moved to NYC, I was able to get a very comfortable apartment outside Manhattan but still very convenient to subway lines, and my rent (by far my largest recurring expense) was lower than I had been paying in my first job out of college 7 years earlier. Sure I had a roommate, but 7 years earlier I had was living with my S.O. Why do we automatically assume that a roommate == lower comfort of daily life than living with an SO? In my case, I was unquestionably more comfortable in my 30s in NYC than in my 20s in the suburbs in a single family home.