Since I hate this culture of mystery and defensiveness built around personal income (another great way to pit people against each other, feed their insecurities, force them into fierce competition and make them measure themselves based on money only) I have never had any problem disclosing my earnings.
I know I am much more than what I earn so I never make a big deal out of discussing finances. With people from my own culture, I routinely ask them how much they make or how much this or that costed them (they do the same with me); with Americans I am much more diplomatic knowing how sensitive they are about earnings and how inappropriate it is in this culture to ask about money.
That being said husband and I together make 128,000 right now (in the South East). However, with the arrival of our second and last child soon our income will drop to about 108,000 as I plan to switch to a more flexible academic job that will allow me to "have a cake and eat it too", that is to bring home an income (granted, not great) and stay at home with the kids during the day, thus saving daycare money for two children.
Apparently though, cold figures are terribly relative. We happen to be surrounded by friends/acquaintances who ALL make more than we do at younger ages. So we kind of got used to regarding ourselves as the "poor" ones. Good thing I never based my self-respect on the amount of money I make...though I am not denying I could use a bit more than what we make now because we both started earning a reasonable income very late in life.
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