Bro/Sis, whatever have you told and if you still manage to travel meanwhile work fell self content then you are living dream lifestyle of many middleclass people. Don't care about anybody money do matter but upto some extent after sometime only thing matter is value you invested in other people

but especially considering the rising costs of living and circumstances throughout the world, it has become really hard even for sustenance even for people working making the high pay check, a recent report from an American journal could be referenced.
what I'm saying is in the present time people are forced to work really harder for even lesser money, times have changed.
between money- work- sustenance and love-people-debt trap, its often a tough either or option

Spoken like a typical 22 year old

We'll see at 31, when you see your parents with labored uneasy breathing, and you'll look at them and realise that they have not decades, but mere years to live. That you could have created memories with them, instead you chose to create wealth.

That the MG Hector with the driver you gave them remains parked all day, taken out only to go to the DOCTOR.
And that they are happy to visit markets only when you visit.

That "Beta ab kitne hafte ya mahine baad mulakaat hogi?" and your response, dekho, Koshish karunga jaldi aane ki

It will kill you mentally. It will even make you bawl your heart out, the moment you are outside the housing society.

Enjoy your money mate. One day you'll realise it was all a waste.

Never seen such warm smiles in an luxury car.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws1XkcTHys

I think a lot of people (barring a few responses which does have nuance) do not get the point OP is trying to make. As someone earning a fair amount outside of India, every day I think I should say, 'Fuck this!' and go home to my parents. I plan to actually do that next year when my permit comes up for renewal.

What OP focuses on is not money per se but the pursuit of money for (1) the sake of money (2) foregoing time spent with family. For (1), I think what s/he wants to convey is that money as an ends is never justifiable because it is inherently a means to something else - its value is derived and not intrinsic. For (2), I think s/he chooses an example of an end as described in (1), which is family bonding and time, offering the suggestion that the pursuit of wealth beyond a certain level (of driving an Alto) becomes questionable when at the expense of the very end itself, reversing money as a means into money as an end.

True, but how to get out of this vicious circle of getting that message of salary credit every month only to see it vanish in a whisker to pay the credit card bills and the emis. How much do we need to survive and be happy? The thought of moving to a tier 2 or 3 city is something that crops up every other day in my mind, but what after that?

Tell that to the toxic bros in the placement committees of different law schools. Also to Kian Ganz and Legally India, who encouraged the obsession with Big 7 salaries on LI and did a placement ranking based on that, which all law schools used to fight against each other. LI ranked think tank and litigation jobs below Big 7 jobs. LI also refused to give marks to even Rhodes scholarships in his ranking.

Only if we can find love without money!

Due to my mental health issues, I have always worked with smaller firms (even after graduating from a tier 1 NLU). Gets no respect from parents, dad once said- why are you working and earning like a peon in these law firms (when I was earning around 80k per month) {sounded way harsh in Hindi}, why don't you work with me, I'll pay you this much. Mom also, once in a while, keeps taunting me. When go in dating scene, trust, people do see how "well off" you are. No one sees a long term relationship with a person who isn't earning competitively. I was told by one of my exes that I have no standards and I don't match their standards.

I can pay my bills, not into alcohol or drugs, able to save good amount of money. Travel once in three months. Living a pretty simple life.

Am I happy? Not sure.

Do I feel content? Yes. I am doing my best, try to improve daily, and happy to see how far I have come after being clinically depressed for around 5 years.

Am I happy because of someone else? No.

Am I happy because I have my loved ones near me? No.

Do I feel lonely? Yes.

Isiliye you buy a BMW when you have enough money for an Audi.
Sheer driving pleasure. The 330i Sport has a weight distribution of 50:50. Also, as always, it's a RWD car. It's engineered to put a smile on your face.
Love is overrated. Train yourself to be confident in your own skin and to enjoy your own company. Don't get me wrong, I am not against spending time with one’s family - Just that better finances will enable you to give your family confidence. Will give your parents the confidence to grow old - Unless they're sarkari babus with fixed pension or that they’ve saved up enough already.
My mom’s insurance costed me north of a lakh. No way I could have afforded that with a 50k job. Alto or not.

This is true. My Mom was having cancer and lived in a different city. My sister took care of her. I had to work to pay the bills. I couldn't get time to visit as often as I should have. I wasn't there the day she died cause I was working to help some company recover its blasted bills. Now my sister talks about all the time she spent watching TV with my mom before she died (cause cancer is slow, you get a lot of time where you do nothing) and I feel nothing but regret. I now hate my job. The people there. I hate everything. I am angry and I am devastated at the same time.

Choose people. You're career is not as important as time with people. You can't buy back time. You will soon get into the cycle where you work to earn so you can buy things for your family in order to apologise for not sharing the time you spent making that money with them. People want time. We owe it to give our people time.

People mean jack-shit without money. Try being broke and having good people around you. Everyone is selfish. They love you cause you give em something. If you can't take money with you when you die you also cannot take people with you when you die. Some people just prefer Audi over an Alto. Nothing shameful in that.