In my experience, which I suspect is not unique, the issue is that I gained experience in one career which led to me being paid a decent salary.

Using that salary (which I have been able to maintain across employers in the same career), I took on financial obligations: house, kids, car, etc.

When I consider changing career (which happens fairly often), it seems unlikely that I'd be able to get an equivalent salary immediately, or even within say 3 years: there's a level of remuneration available for someone with 20 years experience that's hard to get with 3 years experience in a field, and that's assuming I didn't need to take time off work to retrain.

So .. I'm kinda trapped. I could downsize my life, but that's disruptive especially for kids. And it's disruptive to my retirement savings as well. So far that tradeoff hasn't seemed worth it. And then every year you stay, the more solidly trapped you get.