A poster up thread mentioned having lots of money but still feeling worried about money and being from a background where saving was a big issue/burden and that she always worries she's not saving enough.
I think a key part of feeling comfortable is about not feeling worried about money. Different people need a different buffer to feel like that. Those whove talked about previously not having enough for food and who now feel like they are living as royals because they can cover all their bills and perhaps have a small pot of savings show it's not all about how much you've got.
As mentioned before, your income can be vast but your expenditure bigger or you might have historic debts that make you feel uncomfortable even with lots of money.
Lots of people have really good incomes but their massive mortgages plus other monthly payments for things bought on credit mean most of it is gone on pay-day. They are living a good lifestyle but don't feel very secure because a small set-back coukd be financially ruinous if there is no slack in the system.
Some people need to having savings which are not dedicated to anything else to enable them to live their current luxurious lifestyle for 2 or 3 years to feel comfortable. Others need to know they can mend their car or buy a new freezer if it breaks down. Others feel comfortable if they reach the end of the month without running out of cash and a final group are so attuned to being in debt, that thry can actually feel comfortable with significant debt and uncertainty levels as lomg as they stay at that level.
People who ask why they feel hard-up with even good incomes, I think have a number of scenarios going on. The obvious ones are large childcare and large housing costs. The others are not so obvious, but having signicant monthly payments for things bought in credit can take a big chunk - I'm surprised by people mentioning £4-600 a month in cars...that's quite a chunk and very different to the amounts spent per month by those buying cars outright. Paying off credit cards can take hundreds or thousands of some peoples decent incomes each month. Then there are differing levels of expenditure which can leave people feeling comfortable or hard-up. Some will easily spend £200 per month in takeaways and another household nothing. Likewise eating out or new clothes etc. We all get into patterns of expenditure which feel normal to us and so we don't really question and if not much is left at the end of the month after that expenditure we can feel hard up, whether that is £5 on a treat coffee and cake or a £15k holiday. We often forget exactly what we have had with our money,ss well as how much is left.
And we do tend to compare. We compare with friends we were at schoo with or uni friends or work colleagues or those in the playground on the school run. When we hear what others have or don't have we can feel comfortable or hard-up, but it's a surface level comparison because we often don't know if the lifestyle is fully paid for or funded with debt or how those people feel about their finances either.
Being comfortable does require minimum levels of income but beyond that is pretty subjective and also a state of mind. If you feel comfortable it's great, especially if you could sustain some kind of crisis and still feel like that. It doesn't matter if others think they couldn't feel comfortable with what you have....if they have enough for themselves to feel comfortable, well that's good for them and if their state of mind stops them feeling comfortable then that's a big loss for them but doesn't imago the you. Enjoy feeling comfortable...it's a great place to be, especially if you haven't felt that way in the past.