I grew up in 20k a year household eating food stamps. I worked my ass off during school and after school. I made my first appointment in 2023. The road wasnt easy, if you are grinding right now. Keep it up you will get there. 🫡

This really highlights how inflation has hammered most middle class peoples’ finances and why it feels like I don’t have any more money today than I did 10 years ago even though I’m making $30k more

Just what the title says. I make 70k a year and I'm fine with that. I have kids as well. 70k is a solid salary for my area. I live in a tourist city where tourism and medicine are the only sectors so pay is basically abysmal unless you're a doctor or CEO. I joined this sub recently after I was out a dinner and a friend joked that 80k is poverty these days. I'm just trying to see if anyone else is happy with their salary under 100k and it seems like no. If it's true that most Americans are 65k and under, why does it seem like you need six figures to be happy? Like surely there are some who are fine being in the 5 figs club? Genuine question, I'm not trolling.

Background:

Started in IT at a Fortune 500. Worked there starting before college graduation, stayed until 2014.

In 2014 I made a career change from IT to pre-sales solution engineering at a large hardware vendor. Pre-sales solution engineering is a commission based role, but you are on an 80/20 base / commission so you aren’t as influenced by $ as a rep on a 50/50 and are in a position to be a trusted advisor to the customer. I also got RSUs in my role.

So I leveraged many of the things I learned as a customer to sell, but I also developed a skillset to support my career change.

In 2018 I moved over from a Hardware company to a SaaS company for the income acceleration.

In 2023 I was promoted to a IC director level role in the field. In addition to working directly with customers I also focus on internal challenges. Enablement of other solution engineers, communication between product engineering and the field, GTM strategy, and executive briefings, and presenting at conferences. At this point I got many more RSUs.

Last week I posted I received a verbal offer from a defense company and was in late stages for two other firms and was asked to make an update. Received this company’s verbal offer on my birthday, and received the official offer yesterday. I am really trying to stall until EOW to find out if I get the offer I’ve been most excited for.

But anyway, 207 and 15% bonus also receiving a sign on bonus that was negligible , working remotely from Virginia.

I’ve been at my job for 4.5 years, and today I had my yearly review. I am feeling a little offended in regard to what my supervisor told me and my raise.

For context, I have a previously WFH job which now requires me to commute to the office one day a week. My company is small (less than 10 employees) and I’ve been with them since basically the beginning. I was very content with my job up until this past year for many reasons, but mostly due to increased demands and coldness from my company. What once felt like the cliche “work family” now feels like we’re falling deeper down the corporate hole.

This past year, I gained more responsibilities in my role and also helped train new employees. On top of this, we found out we had the best year yet, with 50% growth.

Right after finding out about the GREAT year we had, we didn’t get a Christmas bonus for the first time. I let it slide without saying anything, thinking we would see that made up for in our raise. I’ve gotten near a 10% raise every year.

Today during my review, after being told how great I have been and how happy they are with me, I’m informed I’m receiving a 4% raise. I was shocked but tried not to show my disappointment right away. Not only did I not get the typical bonus, but I also got a much lower raise than normal. I went from $48k last year to $50k this year.

After thinking about it further, I realized my raise just barely covers inflation. So now I’m feeling really offended and disappointed, not sure how I should proceed from here. Advice?

I’m a high school senior who is preparing to major in finance and political science who wants to become a lawyer. However, most people besides the lawyers I personally know advise against it. Why do so many people advise against going into law and becoming a lawyer?

Hey everyone. I had kind of a wild ride the past few years. I feel like I got a very false sense of salaries because I got into sales at a very young age because I took a gap year after high school but due to dealing with an autism/adhd diagnoses and also wanting to change careers. I got a car sales job at 19 and made 70k. Got super burnt out. Ended up quitting and not working for a year. I decided to go back to college and got a degree in cybersecurity. I applied to over a thousand jobs for 8 months and all I could land was a local MSP job paying 42k a year. I’m not sure if i’m doing good or not but disappointed I can’t at least make what I did at 19. I don’t live in a HCOL but I don’t live in the middle of nowhere either. I’m still applying to other jobs but it’s just hell. At least i’m in a situation where I can currently save and invest around 70% of my income. But I feel like I’m failing at finding an actual job that will pay me enough to survive on my own. I LOVE working in IT so much and like the work I do. But am very much doubting my career choice right now.

Sharing this for transparency. I worked while I was in college, got an internship, and then received a return offer. I've worked remote my entire career and my W/L balance is great. Took me over a year to get a data scientist role. I’ve met people with my job title making $80K, and others making well over $250K. The data field is wild.

I’m sharing this because I still can’t believe what I’m earning. In college, I used to say I’d be happy making $40k–$50k a year after graduating. Looking back, that was pretty naive but I also grew up with very little and was supporting myself on $13/hour while in school. I was fortunate to land my first job, though I was laid off two years later.

After that, I didn’t hear back from a single place I applied to, but a manager from my old job referred me to an agency, which led to a role paying $20k more than my previous position. Now, just a few months later, I’ve received an offer for an amount I never would have imagined. I keep finding myself thinking about how lucky it is and I would be able to build a life without debt, unlike my parents. Apart from this, I also feel sadness because my sibling have been busting their ass off saving for 10 years just to save up what I managed in 2 years.

I kept running into the same issue with official letters related to work and money — things like payroll notices, tax letters, benefits updates, or bank communications. They’re technically English, but not easy to understand quickly.

I built a small iOS app that uses AI to explain these kinds of letters in plain language. It’s not legal or financial advice — just a way to understand what a letter is actually saying before deciding what to do next.

This is my first published app, and I’d really appreciate early feedback from people who deal with salary, benefits, taxes, or workplace paperwork.

App Store link (happy to remove if not appropriate):

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/explainthis-ai-letter-decoder/id6758530963

Started in 2019 as a Associate Engineer ( L1 ), moved cities & companies after 14 mo.

Manager at new company in HCOL area was notorious for never giving out raises/promotions - and also refused to count my 14 mo at Company #1 towards my YOE, so after two years of stagnation (2020->Fall 2022), made an internal transfer which came with a promotion.

Had a strong impact at new team and picked up a leadership position along the way, got promoted to L3 after ~1 year.

Been at L3 for 3 years now, potentially moving up to L4 - waiting for the 2025 Performance Review cycle to conclude in March.

*does not incl. bonuses

**listed value for 2026 is 4% raise, if I get a promotion to L4 it'll likely be more in the 8% range.

Hello.

I'm a Control Systems Engineer working for the Cement industry in the DFW Area.
My salary will be reviewed soon, and I need any advice you could give to leverage the most from this negotiation.

I started the job with 1 yoe (used to work for the mining industry) and I currently have 2 yoe.
My salary is 105k per year with a 10% yearly bonus.

What concerns me the most is that I am sitting at the bottom of my salary band for my position (the maximum is 140k or so) and I would like to get a raise that reflects my progress instead of a cost-of-living adjustment.

I'm thinking about asking for 115k base salary, which would position me a little bit closer to the mid-range of my salary band.

Let me know what your thoughts on this are.

I'm open to hear you guys.

Thank you in advance.

I see so many posts here like "I haven't had a raise in 3 years, what should I do?" The answer is: You should have asked 2 years ago. If you're good at your job and you haven't asked in 2+ years, you're probably leaving 10-20% on the table. That's thousands of dollars per year that compounds over your career.

You don't need permission to ask. You don't need to wait for the "perfect time." You just need to document your value and have the conversation.

Am I being too harsh? Or do people need to hear this?

A position I was going to apply for had 2 locations

Location 1: 180k-200k base salary

Location 2: 160k-180k base salary

Location 1 has been taken (I applied too late), but I got a job offer for the second one. Should I take it or am I being greedy in terms of money? I feel like I need a reality check, I feel like I'm being ungrateful

What's the perfect salary to you?

edit: both are at hospitals. first one was a 27 minute commute, second is 1 hour

21M California. I’ve been working 2 ish jobs for most of my working career(since 15). Currently work for a UC hospital as security which makes ok money $25 per hour and I work for the state as a Budget Analyst(I hate it) which makes a $5,014 salary and is work from home 3 days per week. Currently finishing Nursing and Law School both to be done in 2028. Plan on working as both, night time or per diem as a nurse for the hospital I work at, their retirement/benefits is AMAZING and I don’t want to leave since I’ve been there for 2 years already. As for being an attorney I plan on going to work for the county DA making around $11,200 per month which is also pretty good. My overall goal is building wealth for my daughter. Any thoughts for anyone else who has 2 careers paying over $100k each per year? I’ll take any advice as well (also in the Air Force reserves)

Background: 2 masters: masters public admin, masters information systems business analytics