>You can make more than that working at McDonald's near me, and nobody would claim that is a living wage.

Hey, good for you. But 30k per year is a very good salary in European countries such as Spain, where the median salary is just a bit over half that.

30k gross, not net, so it's about equal to the median salary.

I would count moving to a significantly poorer country that you have no connections to in order to get your cost of living down a "frugal" way to stretch out your retirement fund.