Someone who makes 400k a year in these areas absolutely lives very well, but you're not going to be able to transition into the ownership class from this income alone beyond like retirement savings and homeownership. Maybe you can send kids to private school but depending on how many kids you have that's a stretch (although this depends on if we're talking 400k pre or post tax).
Making 4 times that is no longer about living a life of luxury as much as you've just reached the point where you can live life as a capitalist. You can buy up rental properties, you can start all sorts of businesses you never actively touch and so on, you can become an important donor for a political party of your choosing.
Also lastly, there is a substantial disparity between the top brackets of income and the top brackets of wealth. A person who works for a 400k salary is still worse off than a person who got a gift of 5 million on their 21st birthday which is how a huge portion of available wealth is reallocated.
Someone who makes 400k a year in these areas absolutely lives very well, but you're not going to be able to transition into the ownership class from this income alone beyond like retirement savings and homeownership. Maybe you can send kids to private school but depending on how many kids you have that's a stretch (although this depends on if we're talking 400k pre or post tax).
Making 4 times that is no longer about living a life of luxury as much as you've just reached the point where you can live life as a capitalist. You can buy up rental properties, you can start all sorts of businesses you never actively touch and so on, you can become an important donor for a political party of your choosing.
Also lastly, there is a substantial disparity between the top brackets of income and the top brackets of wealth. A person who works for a 400k salary is still worse off than a person who got a gift of 5 million on their 21st birthday which is how a huge portion of available wealth is reallocated.