Why are DCUM salaries so much higher than in "real life"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know DC is a HCOL area so salaries are higher than normal, but the $400K-$2M salaries that are often bandied about here are so unreal to me. I can only think of three possibilities to explain this:

1) DCUM is a congregation that specifically attracts this small subset of high earners

2) These salaries are more common than I think, and they simply go unnoticed because people generally don't talk about money openly

3) People are lying liars who lie about their income.

Which is it?

Almost every person who posts on this site is lying and exaggerating. There is another current post in Money and Finance on having a 15 year vs. 30 year mortgage. What’s interesting there, is that every sound and conservative advisor knows that a 15 year mortgage is the way to go. Yet on DCUM, there is a high concentration of vehement opposition to a 15 year and support for a 30 year. This makes no sense for a group that is allegedly pulling in $500K+ in HHI. People on here know enough to lie about HHI, net worth, and home values. But, they’re not smart enough to know about the less obvious wealth revealing indicators. I especially like the ones in their mid-30s they already have 1M+ in their 401k and retirement plans. A near impossibility given federal limits on annual contributions. They’re just to dumb to know this isn’t possible.

You are clearly the poster of the thread you mention. Your stupidity is evident here too....sigh..... maybe you'll see a broader view when you grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know DC is a HCOL area so salaries are higher than normal, but the $400K-$2M salaries that are often bandied about here are so unreal to me. I can only think of three possibilities to explain this:

1) DCUM is a congregation that specifically attracts this small subset of high earners

2) These salaries are more common than I think, and they simply go unnoticed because people generally don't talk about money openly

3) People are lying liars who lie about their income.

Which is it?

Or 4) few high income SHAMs posting all day while husbands are working

3 or 4. I doubt that people making that much money will use their free time to post on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why lie? It’s anonymous. I’ve posted before about “my” salary but I pretty much say it’s my husbands. He is of course too busy making money and networking to post/read dcum. (He thinks it’s just a bunch of bored housewives. Ha!) But yes, he makes 7 figures, as a financial services exec. That does include stock, cash, and bonuses. He would admit that he didn’t know how much money was out there, until he got promoted/new jobs or himself having to offer competing salaries to bring in new talent. But at least 150 people at his company make more than what he does.

Companies offer people what they think they will accept. My DH advice for his latest jobs was “whatever they offer you don’t say yes and get happy because it’s 20% more than you make now. Because that’s their lowball. They will go higher”

People just don’t talk about salaries enough. this is why I love DCUM. But if the rest of you are lying…..

You do realize people troll out of fun and boredom.

Anonymity makes people bold and fearless.

[Anonymous]

This area just has a lot of rich people. I just attended my sister's wedding where the best man was the son of a billionaire.

Everyone we know is in tech sales, defense contracting, real estate, business owners, or law. Everyone makes 300k+ starting early thirties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are clearly the poster of the thread you mention. Your stupidity is evident here too....sigh..... maybe you'll see a broader view when you grow up.

Great use of definitive and quantitative data to make your case. Broader view of what? Oh, that only stupid people borrow money and pay it back expeditiously. The smart ones pay it back very slowly so they pay more interest. Just like only stupid people pay their credit cards in full each month. The smart ones pay the minimum for years until finally maxing out and declaring bankruptcy. These are the same financial fools that inflate their apparent net worth and HHI around friends and on boards like these and the same ones secretly living in embarrassing levels of debt.

Way to identify yourself, PP! Description fits like a glove, I suspect.

[Anonymous]

What strikes me as odd is that there are a lot of federal employees in this area, and outside of a few unicorn agencies, even high level feds usually are not making even 200k. So I tend to think there’s exaggeration, or the dual fed couples just don’t post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know DC is a HCOL area so salaries are higher than normal, but the $400K-$2M salaries that are often bandied about here are so unreal to me. I can only think of three possibilities to explain this:

1) DCUM is a congregation that specifically attracts this small subset of high earners

2) These salaries are more common than I think, and they simply go unnoticed because people generally don't talk about money openly

3) People are lying liars who lie about their income.

Which is it?

Almost every person who posts on this site is lying and exaggerating. There is another current post in Money and Finance on having a 15 year vs. 30 year mortgage. What’s interesting there, is that every sound and conservative advisor knows that a 15 year mortgage is the way to go. Yet on DCUM, there is a high concentration of vehement opposition to a 15 year and support for a 30 year. This makes no sense for a group that is allegedly pulling in $500K+ in HHI. People on here know enough to lie about HHI, net worth, and home values. But, they’re not smart enough to know about the less obvious wealth revealing indicators. I especially like the ones in their mid-30s they already have 1M+ in their 401k and retirement plans. A near impossibility given federal limits on annual contributions. They’re just to dumb to know this isn’t possible.

Actually, when your income is that high and the mortgage rates were as low as they were recently, it made total sense to go with a 30 year mortgage. At that level of income, your home is a small part of your wealth and you should be aiming to keep things flexible.

Interesting. Then do what with the additional net income per month? The only smart move is to spend it on an investment that grows at a greater rate than that of the 30 year mortgage interest. This goes without saying.

But, are we to believe that the majority of homeowners in DMV that have 30 year mortgages have them for this reason? Total nonsense. The majority of 30 year mortgages are taken because people cannot afford the monthly payments against a 15 year mortgage of the same principal amount. This is a very well researched and documented fact. Lenders and underwriters all over the country have detailed data on this. It is ESPECIALLY true in DMV, where countless people are trying to live too far beyond their means. So desperate to live inside the beltway or in NW D.C. that they’ll stretch to the financial limit. Then try to justify later as some outlier case of financial ingenuity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I confess. I lie here. And I lie on other forums. Why do I lie? - Mainly to not give too much identifying detail
- Sometimes to crowdsource info because DCUM is also a great place to get info and advice
- Sometimes to give good and relevant info to DCUM
- Sometimes to shut up some annoying posters

But yes, mainly the top three.

People like you ruin these forums. Why lie when you don't have to? It's insane. I wish people like yourself would leave these boards for good. Keeping posts honest but anonymous is what makes this place nice. You are why we can't have nice things. You have some real problems if you can't even be honest on a anonymous message board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What strikes me as odd is that there are a lot of federal employees in this area, and outside of a few unicorn agencies, even high level feds usually are not making even 200k. So I tend to think there’s exaggeration, or the dual fed couples just don’t post.

Most families I know aren't dual fed. It's one GS-15 and one in a higher paying job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know DC is a HCOL area so salaries are higher than normal, but the $400K-$2M salaries that are often bandied about here are so unreal to me. I can only think of three possibilities to explain this:

1) DCUM is a congregation that specifically attracts this small subset of high earners

2) These salaries are more common than I think, and they simply go unnoticed because people generally don't talk about money openly

3) People are lying liars who lie about their income.

Which is it?

Or 4) few high income SHAMs posting all day while husbands are working

Yep, gonna bet there's a lot of #4 because people making the super high salaries don't have the time to be posting on DCUM all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know DC is a HCOL area so salaries are higher than normal, but the $400K-$2M salaries that are often bandied about here are so unreal to me. I can only think of three possibilities to explain this:

1) DCUM is a congregation that specifically attracts this small subset of high earners

2) These salaries are more common than I think, and they simply go unnoticed because people generally don't talk about money openly

3) People are lying liars who lie about their income.

Which is it?

Probably some of each, but #1 is not that it attracts high earners, but rather that high earners are more likely to respond to questions about HHI/NW. Partly to brag and partly because it's taboo to talk about this stuff IRL so this is a place to get a feel for whether similarly-situated people think you're doing okay or making an obvious mistake you cannot see. I used to post in FIRE forums but the responses started being "at that HHI you should be able to quit work yesterday what are you wasting all your money on" and it became obvious that even if they're doing well in terms of their own personal goals, someone willing to live in a semi-off-the-grid trailer in Idaho is not the sounding board I'm looking for. Plus I didn't grow up with money and most of my family don't have it still so I do have some questions. You have to weed through some chaff to get the wheat here, but the DCUM money boards do provide a service.

[Anonymous]

DH makes almost 1M (including bonus) and you’d never know it if you met us. We live in a nice but not extravagant house. We drive normal not flashy cars. Our kids go to public. We go to Bethany for vacations, not Turks and Caicos. I don’t work but other than that we wouldn’t seem to make that much. So I think likely there are a lot of people making a lot of money and you just have no clue. (Also, in our neighborhood I feel like we are on the lower income side based on the houses and cars and vacations of my kids’ friends)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most of us with more “regular” salaries just aren’t talking about them on DCUM. We are talking about other things.

+1 We're in the top 10% of HHIs in the country but here on DCUM we'd be considered extremely poor. I don't post about our salaries or savings much here, because what's the point? This forum is occupied by those with $10 million in the bank who aren't quite sure how they will survive retirement on so little (or those who pretend to have those stats). The rest of us are elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I confess. I lie here. And I lie on other forums. Why do I lie? - Mainly to not give too much identifying detail
- Sometimes to crowdsource info because DCUM is also a great place to get info and advice
- Sometimes to give good and relevant info to DCUM
- Sometimes to shut up some annoying posters

But yes, mainly the top three.

People like you ruin these forums. Why lie when you don't have to? It's insane. I wish people like yourself would leave these boards for good. Keeping posts honest but anonymous is what makes this place nice. You are why we can't have nice things. You have some real problems if you can't even be honest on a anonymous message board.

You are a clown for believing everything you read on the internetz

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What strikes me as odd is that there are a lot of federal employees in this area, and outside of a few unicorn agencies, even high level feds usually are not making even 200k. So I tend to think there’s exaggeration, or the dual fed couples just don’t post.

The feds are married to a higher income spouse in law or med or tech.
a 150k + 300k = 450k

That's why there are so many rich people. The double incomes.