You may have missed this part:

It has never been a problem for me to live in an inexpensive home, drive an inexpensive car, keep a simple wardrobe and cook my meals from scratch.

I have never once in my entire life had a money issue come from making an unwise luxury splurge.

Every financial issue I’ve ever had has come from something I had no choice but to spend money on. Not one. It’s always been something like a dead furnace, car repair or broken bone.

So the old “just don’t spend money you don’t have!” advice freely offered by people in comfortable financial circumstances is insensitive and frankly insulting.

Also? If you were a federal employee, that helps quite a damned bit. You don't need enormous amounts of savings because you have an actual pension. Six figure savings will not be enough for those of us without a pension, so our situation is different.