thanks for clarifying. I ready it the other way in that you make 8x but you feel you were doing no better at keeping up with the costs of living (e.g. you were on the same track before)
I read it that way because of this:
>my income has gone up 8x in 10 years and I'm still barely keeping up with the cost of things, barely any real savings, etc.
I made those sorts of wages, and at least for me what happened initially as income went up is I went from drowning to treading water. Instead of having a car that doesn't run or a suspended license from being unable to pay a speeding ticket, or a dentist visit many years deferred, those issues get taken care of.
Salary that low and you're not keeping up, you're falling behind. It's entirely possible to make 8X as much and feel you're barely advancing. While this is progress, it's not very satisfying progress because it feels that falling back into the previous pit is not really ever very far away.
