Paycheck to paycheck is relative. I’ve seen families bring in $500k/year and barely have any retirement savings. They go buy a home with a mortgage that’s $16k/month, a few fancy cars at $1000/mo each, childcare, maintenance on a home that expensive, and everything else that money is gone quick. They want to give the illusion of stupidly rich at the cost of spending every dime that comes in. Pretty common in every income bracket. Majority of people are terrible with money.

> barely have any retirement savings. They go buy a home with a mortgage that’s $16k/month,

That's a 3.X million dollar home. If you have a multimillion dollar asset like that, your retirement savings is the house.

House down the street from me sold for a 5k/month mortgage (I live in a duplex). Now pop two $1000 car payments on there and you maybe have enough left over for food and some bills.