The kind of person that would be a brand consultant would be required by the internal sense of price = quality = social status. For example: "I buy a purse for $200 and I'm like, 'Where am I going to make $500 tomorrow?'"

Personality-bashing aside, looking at the numbers:

$150k annual = $12.5k / month, budget = $4,100 / month, Travel of $15k annually = $1.25k / month. Overall this leaves ~$7k / month ($84k per year) as "everything else" money.

She could easily put away 50% to fund early retirement, but she obviously prioritises differently to you and I :)

She obviously works hard and she does plenty of charity work, so she's almost unquestionably an extrovert and therefore not comfortable 'living the quiet life'. Given the fact she's run the numbers and money is obviously important to her, I'd say she's much more likely to be actively making choices rather than just passively following societal norms.

So $150k at the top, and much less than that is possible. Who knows the frequency of how often it's $80k, and how often it's $150k.

I don't think your numbers include taxes, which if you're self employed, are higher than if you are working for a company (where they pay those payroll taxes for you). So there's federal taxes, social security (both parts) and medicare, and state taxes (for NY). There's also apparently an additional income tax for working in NYC.

https://smartasset.com/taxes/new-york-tax-calculator

This says $150k might be more like $100k after taxes. Then taking out the monthly expenses (let's just say $60k), and travel ($15k) and retirement ($15k) and there's only about $10k left over on the best of years, with no unexpected expenses.