Or work for a L-MCOL based company in a L-MCOL area. For software, I know of at least one local company in my area that pays 185k/year at senior level and 90k f

Or work for a L-MCOL based company in a L-MCOL area. For software, I know of at least one local company in my area that pays 185k/year at senior level and 90k for SDE1. I do happen to work for a remote company right now, but software is the more important factor there. I am high earning in a low CoL area now, though that wasn't luck. That was intentional. Of course not everyone can do software, so I pointed to something like electrical work with lower barriers to entry (and which is obviously local). The local program I'm looking at says a residential apprenticeship is 4000 on-the-job hours and commercial is 8000, so 2-4 years assuming 40 hours/week. Same as going to college, except you get paid during that time, starting at 33k and 38k respectively and increasing during the apprenticeship. If you lived with family and kept expenses low, that could easily represent $100k saved when others are graduating from school. Obviously not everyone can be an electrician either, but for example public school teachers here make 60k after 3 years of experience, going up by about 2k with each YOE. I'm sure there are other similar "normal" jobs that people would think of as middle class where it's doable. I don't know how many people have a support network. Certainly we should be shaming parents if they won't help their kids once they turn 18. Especially if the kid is on a responsible path and starting a career, and just wants to save before leaving home. Anyway, point is it's not that unattainable to be a single income household if it's important to you. Obviously it's easy for me, but the stats show it's not that rare: https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2021/home.htm#table6 https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2021/home.h... Married, spouse present women overall have a 74.5% labor force participation when they have children 6-17 and 65.4% when they have children under 6. i.e. 25.5% and 34.6% stay at home, respectively. Married, spouse present hispanic women have 36.8% and 47.5% respective homemaker rates. I doubt it's because they're all making 1.5x median. They just place a high priority on family. For some people, staying at home is even the economically optimal arrangement, and they can't afford to have a second income.