Yeah, I did OK through the 90s but it was certainly not a high-paying job by current coastal software standards. (I actually looked at a few west coast jobs in that period and, frankly, they'd have been a downgrade because of CoL. Stocks were hit pretty hard, including my shares in my employer, and for various reasons my job during the next decade I generally liked (and it set me up for my current job well) but it didn't pay that well.

It was only really my current job and associated stock which took savings from just OK to pretty decent. I could retire now if I wanted to but not really in a big hurry assuming business travel comes back post-COVID.