And while plenty of people do make six figures in the trades, it's a much worse way to make it. That level of pay almost always comes from overtime, uneven demand tied either to seasonal or boom/bust cycles, or traveling away from home for work. Often some combination of these.

Almost no one in the trades is just working a 9-5 across town for $140k year after year after year that's for sure. You might have seasons where you make that much but at some point you have to stop pounding overtime, or the work just dries up and you have to coast on what you put away earlier.