It is totally normal and necessary to compare yourself to others, or else you don’t have a reference point to measure progress in anything and take steps to grind your way upwards and avoid going downwards at all costs.

I still believe with absolute conviction that I’ve been totally incompetent with living life itself because I haven’t broken the £25000 a year pay bracket before age 35. I have a friend who says he isn’t making enough money even though he’s younger than me (below 40) and was making £30000 as a starting pay in his current job. I’m astounded at his discontent because the jobs that pay that much are something I can only fantasize about since I don’t have the ability to perform them.

If I didn’t research how well others are doing, I’ll end up not being aware that making £18000 at age 30 was way behind the regular expected standard (£26000) of people living in UK. Then I’ll end up having a lot less savings by the time I reach retirement age.