I think he worked at google right?
That would make for it yeah. Also probably he is older than he looks like (in fact in recent pictures he does).
A million dollars isnt that much in the scheme of things. Thats half a house in Vancouver, Canada. Probably a third of a house in Silicon Valley. Its not even a downpayment in London unless you are an hour from the City.
It's not that much if you need to be in one of those places you listed. Where, if you are, you will be paid well enough to be able to afford it (out of necessity) but will still only have a lifestyle on par with someone making 1/5th of your salary elsewhere. A really comfortable retirement starting at age 30 only requires about 2 million though. So it's not that a million is a small amount of money so much as it's that the particular examples you gave are WAY overpriced. For reference you need about 7 million dollars in assets to be in the american 1% and about 3 million to be in the global 1% (those figures assume that you have only assets and no income).
But yea there is a sense in which you are absolutely right. A lot of very financially illiterate people have very bad misconceptions about what a million dollars means. They will play a lottery that promises to pay out a million dollars and think if they could just win than they could live like an elite and never have to work again, which of course is not even close to accurate. It's also why everyone who wins the lottery blows through it all in a couple years, they think they won WAY more than they actually did.
Still, having a net worth over 1 million with less than 30 years is a great start. And not something that usual even if there are places where $X00.000 salaries are frequent.
The other day I was reading some article that states that there are many people making those salaries and living from paycheck to paycheck with almost no savings beyond 401k. Here is the article:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/06/budget-breakdown-of-a-couple-that-makes-500000-a-year-but-cant-save.htmlI supposse there must be a lot of exaggeration and sensationalism in it, but still..... The biggest joke in that "budget" is buying the car with credit....
If their only investment is their house and their 401k, they seem to have considerable room for savings and investment in other things such as bitcoin. They are in no fucking way struggling with 3 vacations a year at $18k, for example, and also each of them is maximizing their 401k, which seems to be pretty smart and a decent set up for continued prosperity, too. They would be able to do quite well with even 1/3 of that salary, between two peeps.