How much do you make?

[Redraidernurse]

DH is a mechanical engineer with 5 years experience. He makes 120-140k yearly, depending on overtime. I am a SAHM.

I should add, his first job right out of college as an engineer (5 years ago) he was only making 30k/year.

[widget86]

I make 84k as a CPA in the tax industry, and my wife makes 64k in insurance. We also have a side gig that brings in about 6-8K net.

[Barclay]

I make 125k and my DH makes 90k and another 45k retirement from military. He has a side business that makes about 10k and I'm trying to start a side business myself for extra money. We do live in Ohio so cola is fairly low. I don't want to work forever tho so we are trying to earn what we can and then retire early.

[Dvoll]

I make 154K base + 30K bonus [Petroleum Engineer (chemical eng undergrad) with 8 years experience]. My wife is SAHM. Wasn't always the case. Started making ~$52K in 2004 and worked twice as much, i guess in this business that what they call paying your dues...

[feh]

If people want to compare apples to apples, we really need to define "income". There is, of course, your paycheck. But, some other forms of compensation you may be receiving include bonuses, 401K matches, payment of health insurance premiums, pension, vacation time, etc.

And then there is income other than what you receive from your employer - interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.

[Goldy]

If people want to compare apples to apples, we really need to define "income". There is, of course, your paycheck. But, some other forms of compensation you may be receiving include bonuses, 401K matches, payment of health insurance premiums, pension, vacation time, etc.

And then there is income other than what you receive from your employer - interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.

That is a great point. I work for a major company that historically pays less of a base salary than smaller companies but I think the benefits and job security make up for it.

Base 90k with bonus, stock program, 6% 401k match and a 6% 401k "pension" brings the total up to about 120-130k with room to grow. Geologist with MSc and 7yrs exp with a wife that has the same job.

[disneysteve]

If people want to compare apples to apples, we really need to define "income". There is, of course, your paycheck. But, some other forms of compensation you may be receiving include bonuses, 401K matches, payment of health insurance premiums, pension, vacation time, etc.

And then there is income other than what you receive from your employer - interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.

It's really kind of a worthless question anyway. Knowing what I make as a family physician has no bearing on what you make as a school teacher or an engineer or an IT professional. Even knowing what I make as a doc doesn't tell you much of anything if you are also a family doctor because your practice is different than my practice. I may work more hours, or not. I may do more procedures, or not. I may do hospital and nursing home work, or not. I may own my practice or be an employee. I may earn less in NJ than you earn in NYC but more than you earn in South Carolina.

[cypher1]

It's really kind of a worthless question anyway. Knowing what I make as a family physician has no bearing on what you make as a school teacher or an engineer or an IT professional. Even knowing what I make as a doc doesn't tell you much of anything if you are also a family doctor because your practice is different than my practice. I may work more hours, or not. I may do more procedures, or not. I may do hospital and nursing home work, or not. I may own my practice or be an employee. I may earn less in NJ than you earn in NYC but more than you earn in South Carolina.

I was just going to add that I think geography also plays a huge factor, being HCOL locations. Besides age, and how long we've worked in our field.

For example my annual gross income is 80K, not including bonuses, as a storage engineer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Otherwise I've worked in IT for roughly 12 years now, starting in my 20s. But I agree that giving this info out of my salary really doesn't change anything for the other person reading this. Unless they're in the similair field looking at salary ranges by geographic locations.

[riverwed070707]

It's really kind of a worthless question anyway. Knowing what I make as a family physician has no bearing on what you make as a school teacher or an engineer or an IT professional. Even knowing what I make as a doc doesn't tell you much of anything if you are also a family doctor because your practice is different than my practice. I may work more hours, or not. I may do more procedures, or not. I may do hospital and nursing home work, or not. I may own my practice or be an employee. I may earn less in NJ than you earn in NYC but more than you earn in South Carolina.

I agree there is no "comparison" to be made, but it is interesting hearing what people make now vs where they started and in what profession.

[ua_guy]

Incomes are disparate in general. I agree that wide comparisons like this are meaningless, but it is interesting to read what some job titles are worth in different parts of the country.

[dawnwes]

DH took a huge pay cut moving from Los Angeles to Charlotte, NC.

I stopped working completely.

However, we do live easier here financially.

Dawn

It's really kind of a worthless question anyway. Knowing what I make as a family physician has no bearing on what you make as a school teacher or an engineer or an IT professional. Even knowing what I make as a doc doesn't tell you much of anything if you are also a family doctor because your practice is different than my practice. I may work more hours, or not. I may do more procedures, or not. I may do hospital and nursing home work, or not. I may own my practice or be an employee. I may earn less in NJ than you earn in NYC but more than you earn in South Carolina.

[ProjectDebtRelief]

Currently making $80/k at my financial services day job. Hoping to replace that with an online income.

[phantom]

I agree there is no "comparison" to be made, but it is interesting hearing what people make now vs where they started and in what profession.

I couldn't see a point to posting in this thread originally, but I can see how that would be interesting. So, I'll post my starting numbers vs. my current numbers.

In 2004, fresh out of college, I got a job making 26k/year. I wasn't entirely happy with my salary, but I got paid every other week, and I thought it was cool that my paychecks were exactly $1000 before tax and other deductions. My job title was Data Tabulation Specialist, but I called myself a computer programmer because that was what I wanted to be, and my job did mostly consist of a sort of programming. Now I make almost 62k/year, which is cool because the digits have just moved. My job title is Developer, but I call myself a front end web developer who recently started doing iOS development.

[feh]

I graduated in '88 and have been in IT my entire career. 95% of the time as a software developer, with slight changes to roles/responsibilities over the years.

Started at $28K, today at $108K excluding bonus.

[MonkeyMama]

CPA. Made about $85k last year, including overtime.

Starting salary was $32k in 1999. Plus overtime (& there was plenty!).

Oh, and also moved to lower cost of living area - about 70% cheaper cost of housing. So it's not exactly apples to apples comparison. When we moved (very early in my career), I found salaries to be about the same. I get the sense that the wage gap widens with experience, and I Could probably pull six figures for the exact same job, if we moved back. But I am not 100% sure on that. I hear mixed messages. I Was told when we moved to expect huge pay cuts, but did not find that to be the case *at all*. Today the messages are about as mixed.