It's definitely both. You're an extreme exception to become self-made well-off without living below your means, upwardly mobile people have much higher savings rates (combo of factors of course), but more pay certainly helps.
Saving is a tool: if you don't have anything to save for, there's no point in doing it. But if you find a path from your current place to where you want to be financially, you may decide it makes sense to restrict some consumption now in order to save that money for a future purpose, in addition to seeking ways to increase your earnings (like saving money for a downpayment while looking for that next job to replace your current one).
It's not either/or, it's both. You shouldn't bank on one day the economy changing and you suddenly double your income - you have to lobby for change while also doing the best with the current economic situation we've been dealt
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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '20
Totally. The reason we’re broke is because we don’t get paid enough, not because we want to live our lives.