> Wealthy people often retire early, and if you’ve spent three decades at Microsoft

Eh, it really depends on whether your wealth has creeped into your lifestyle, as well as if you have a family and have set roots into an expensive city.

I live a decently frugal life and would not mind much going back to eating beans+rice on even days and rice+beans on the odd ones, but a lot of people get into very expensive habits and interests as soon as they start earning a bit more.

The hedonic treadmill as well documented. If you can't help yourself by flying privates and having a yacht, I'm sorry, but that's on you. If you need to work more, you need to work more but with stock price appreciation, you may not need to go back quite to rice and beans level, just don't develop a habit for eating at Michelin star, restaurants.