Many of my friends have nice high five or six figure jobs and live with their parents into mid thirties. Not really sure why, but according to them rent is a co

Many of my friends have nice high five or six figure jobs and live with their parents into mid thirties. Not really sure why, but according to them rent is a complete waste of money. Partially true I guess, but also can lead to failure to launch. I was definitely more broke working as a pizza guy and then at a university, but I valued my freedom much more. Lived paycheck to paycheck with very finely tuned finances, no savings just student loan payments. I survived on a diet of library media, books, torrented video games and super cheap beer. The interesting part was I felt relatively happy. Threw crappy parties where we'd all chip in to buy a bunch of 40s, and someone would dj. I didn't really start to "have some money" until I was about 30~ from university job, and then I quit for industry where I 3x'd (I cried that day, as I made more money than anyone in my family!) I think now it's much easier to feel aspirational about money and hard to be happy with you lot when you're getting firehosed about how everyone is having a better time than you are and they have more money. Things are also much more expensive, especially after the pandemic. There is value in coming home to your own couch and knowing the space is yours, and yours alone. Maybe tastes have changed. I know that in my life, every time I tried to outsmart and skip a step I feel like life threw me a set back to learn the lesson I tried to not learn :D.