Never been rich but .. who's richer, the one who has more stuff / buying power or the one who has less material needs? Anyway, I was always pretty frugal and lucked out on passive income 6 years ago but even before that I never had full time jobs and all my life I basically worked just enough to get by, never cared much about saving.

From my experience childhood felt like grinding my way to max level in an MMO. Had to be done to start playing the game but didn't really care for it. I had more freedom since I was 18 than before so I cherish those memories more.

The MMO is a really great example because “working life” is often compared to raiding end-game dungeons (or vice versa).

Some really enjoy that, but the journey to max level was always more interesting to me.

There is a way to reroll; at least vicariously.