I’ll venture a guess: I’d personally define it as so called “gainful employment”, as in, if you’re not blowing all your money frivelously, you should be making enough to reasonably sandbag against disaster or improve your own circumstances by saving.

But everything sure is upside down. Assuming somebody makes enough to get by comfortably, savings accounts don’t outpace inflation, so if you don’t want your hard earned money decaying year over year (and faster, lately!) this forces you to put your money into the stock market, which is a whole complicated game with esoteric rules and a high possibility that your deposit might be worth way less if you need to pull that money.

So I guess “getting ahead” can be: “Still coming out relatively positive after various powerful and interested parties have coerced our funds into their pockets.”