Do you know anyone where that threshold has been reached? Anyone with a family? Given the way inflation is going, I know maybe one person, and they're single with their mortgage paid off.
I recently just left my job for another because of inflation, if the price of things go up so should my salary. The value of my work did not get cheaper!
Not tying my job to expensive urban markets would help!
But I'm hesitant to describe my salary needs in terms of my household costs. I want to get paid by the value I bring first and foremost. And, similarly, what the market clearing rate for an engineer with my capabilities is. Not "market rate" unless I'm truly a median engineer, especially since companies tend to be underinformed about market rates.
If you're invested in a diversified portfolio then inflation shouldn't really make a big difference. So I think this is really some variation of FIRE 4% ... If you can live off 4% of your savings per year then the rest of it is just do you want to work more so you can buy more stuff ;)
I'm sort of in the same position as the parent. I've crossed the threshold, a little more money or a little less money makes no difference to me. I don't buy stuff I don't need. The amount of money that'll completely change my life is like x10 so likely won't happen (so moving from the "have enough" to the "mildly rich" category) and really I'm not sure that would mean anything to me anyways...
I want work that I can enjoy, with good people, that challenges me, and pretty much all the pay in the world won't make me go work for some sucky place (ofcourse everyone has their price, but my price would be higher than what they'd be willing to pay).
