<prompt> Human: A few years ago when I was in high school and college, I used to think one day ill have a 100k salary and ill be rich. Unfortunately reality is a little different. I am finding it quite depressing that what I thought was a lot of money ends up being almost nothing living in NYC. I can barely afford a 1 bedroom apartment and when moving this week my dreams of a doorman or even an apartment larger than 600 square feet arent remotely possible unless I live in a bad area. What does it take to be middle class in Manhattan 150k, 200k???  <response>: You remind me of a friend of mine. He makes roughly 125k a year, his monthly rent is 2k. He was complaining to me that he feels poor because he cannot do the things he wants to do. Believe it or not, plenty of people make half of what you guys make and are just fine. They contribute more money to their retirement and save more money monthly, than those making 100k. The issue is that you dont look at your expenditure and you dont review your budget. I asked him to itemize his monthly expenses and he couldnt. Hes acting as if he makes 500k a year - but hes not. TLDR: You dont make enough money to not pay attention to your budget. 