The thing is though that higher pay, at least where I live, entails considerably higher taxes. "Fuck you" money is never going to be a possibility, outside of winning a lottery ticket or coming into an inheritance. Friends/relations I know who have at least a slim possibility of a comfortable retirement aren't necessarily those with high salaries - they've just been able to play the property market with sufficient skill/luck over the past couple decades juggling buy-to-rent mortgages & inheriting houses at the right time.

So I could jump ship for a 10-15% raise, my take-home after taxes would be maybe an extra few hundred a month. Nice, yes, maybe I can have a slightly nicer HDTV or slightly bigger apartment or stay in a nicer hotel when I go on holiday, but I'm still chained to a laptop for the foreseeable future, even if I save every penny instead of buying nicer things.