$250k is only middle of the road for a senior engineer in places like The Bay where the majority of jobs are at big, successful public companies.

Outside of that, $250k is pretty much top of the like for a SWE.

It is a fairly common problem. We extrapolate our perceptions of the world from our peer groups. I had to suppress my urge for saying I am underpaid at $200k, because my non-tech (still STEM) MIT & Harvard grad-student room-mates would get annoyed at me. That's how messed up our circles can get, when STEM grad students MIT and Harvard are the poor ones. We live within many nested bubbles.

$250k still puts you in the top 2 Percentile of the US. So, while double the nurses would get to retire cuz of rich husbands, 98% would still be in the same pickle.

I feel like either you might be massively out of touch or this is a most not-so-subtle totally unverifiable flex ever.

I'm reminded of that episode of Arrested Development. "I mean it's just one banana Michael, how much could it possibly cost? $10?" "You've never actually set foot inside of a grocery store before, have you?"