Not to be obnoxiously judgemental here (and this is partly meant to be advice to any younger reader and not just address you specifically), but if you are upper

Not to be obnoxiously judgemental here (and this is partly meant to be advice to any younger reader and not just address you specifically), but if you are upper middle class and the expense of buying fancy things limits you from having children, why not not do that? I've got two kids, we might still have more, and we live in a median (for the US) house and drive a basic 2017 Subaru that we bought used. We're saving to buy that really nice house in an upper class area, and our existing mortgage is already fully covered by our assets (not paying it off because of the interest rate). If I lost my job, it means we'd stop making progress toward upgrading, but we are always secure in our current position. Pretty much the first thing we did while younger and still renting was to establish a year of runway, and we've only grown that over time. We save like 2/3 of my income. Taxes are probably over half of our expenses. I realize it's annoying and preachy and privileged and all that, but if you're high income, the comfort and confidence you get from never overextending yourself is priceless, and you can still be quite comfortable.