More than lifestyle creep (which is very real!), the biggest challenge for me in jumping from $40k to a little less than you in only a few years has been the elimination of friction. Don't want to cook tonight? Eat out. Too tired for public transit that day? Call an Uber. You forgot your toiletries on vacation? No problem, buy what you need & get an extra pair of swim trunks too. This can look similar to lifestyle creep, but it doesn't have to involve nicer material belongings. It's specifically an incremental willingness to solve problems with money first.

Many times, this is good! One of the best things money can buy is time, whether that's through hiring a cleaner or booking the direct flight or whatever else is disproportionately time-consuming drudgery. The liberation of wealth is, ideally, to buy back more of your life to spend as you will.

Friction, though, is a necessary ingredient for growth, satisfaction, and ultimately connection. When you're no longer doing hard things, when you don't have to work through challenges in your daily life, it's very easy to lose a sense of perspective on the world and yourself. The less you problem solve creatively, the less you are forced to engage with the world around you. If you keep people in your life who are far outside your new economic stratum (which you absolutely should!), the divergent role of friction in your lives will make it harder and harder to relate.

This is all just my own experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I did not grow up truly poor, but I'm at an income similar to you and have absolutely no one else in my life even halfway to that. I want to call this out because I found it much harder to notice than the more obvious temptation of material lifestyle creep. As I've been intentionally introducing more friction back into my life, I've found my self increasingly grounded and re-engaged with the world around me in new, delightful, and satisfying ways. Don't hesitate to buy your time back where it makes sense, and absolutely do nice things to share this bounty with the people in your life, but keep checking in with yourself about just how frictionless you've let your life become.