Starting professors make less at my alma mater...a lot less.

Since it's a public school you can find out how much each one makes - https://www.newsobserver.com/news/databases/public-salaries/

I went to a highly ranked liberal arts college and in 4 years, I didn't have a single instructor that wasn't a PhD. I don't know what the salaries were like then, but even freshly minted PhDs can be over 30, meaning that from ages 22-30, they were making graduate/doctoral student stipend money at best.

$95k at age 32-35 honestly doesn't seem like a lot if your savings at that age doesn't even hit 5 figures.