it takes substantial money to accumulate wealth.

Yeah, this is huge.

Right now you need a half mil cash invested and stable investments to start seeing a measurable return. A mil before you might think investing is worth it. Two mil and retirement might be something you could realistically consider and have a life. 3 and now you can have a real retirement.* This doesn’t include a CoL increase starting now until when you retire, $3 mil today will get you $150k before taxes and any major expenses like mortgage or medical. In 20 years who knows, it might take 5 mil to retire if everything hasn’t turned into a shitshow otherwise.

(*With a conservative 5% estimate on return and not touching the principal).