I think the underlying assumption, which wasn't spelled out in the parent, is that any amount of money under $super-rich is similar amounts of worthless. If you genuinely believe that, then high-risk swings at a big payday make more logical sense than a low-risk gradual growth strategy.

I've heard friends express this - if you don't have $1 million +, you're just varying degrees of poor - so there's no point at gradual growth from 20k to 50k and etc when you're just as miserable. Might as well risk it all to try to get to the big time, since they don't see a reasonable path to growing gradually to anywhere worth living.

They're wrong though. I'm not worth much at all, but slowly (and thanks mainly to YNAB) I've managed to build up 5 digits of cash (savings, not folding), rather than living paycheck to paycheck. This is a huge load of daily stress I used to have that I no longer do. My credit card is for convenience and frequent flyer points, not something I might not eat without. I bought the missus a (6-year-old, boring) car recently, and I did so with a personal loan not because I had to but because I chose to keep the money on hand, and the world is a little shaky right now. I didn't have to accept a lien on the car, and if there were a crunch on my cashflow I can make minimum payments for a while.

I don't have "fuck you money", and probably never will, but even this much peace of mind has helped my mental health significantly.

Even 25k is a huge amount of stress gone compared to 3k in the bank. With 25k I can ride out some emergencies. If I lose my job I’m not at risk of being on the street. If I total my car I can still get to work.

I’ve lived pay cheque to pay cheque, it wasn’t fun. Even though I was young and could theoretically move back with my parents if shit really hit the fan I was constantly worried about money. Soon as I paid off my student loans and had a bit of emergency fund, things were a lot better.