How much did your income grow from your early 30s onward?

[Anonymous]

30 - 250k
36 - 725k

Finance

[Anonymous]

I went from $80k in my early 30s to $170k by early 40s to over $500k in early 50s. All same corporate. Those who say you can’t progress in one place… not true. Have to choose employer well, work hard, be strategic, find your niche and yes be lucky.

Husband was more erratic, but also went from $100k in early 30s $150k in 40s to over $500k last year. Big jump primarily from live from small consulting into big tech.

At this point just trying to hang in there a few more years and stash as much as possible.

We always were conservative though- didn’t borrow as much for mortgages as the bank said we could have. This was due to job instability primarily but also just risk-averse nature. If one of us were to lose their job, which did happen (twice) we didn’t want to worry about paying the mortgage.

[Anonymous]

The way I see it you can either regret buying too little house or regret buying too much house, and only one of those is a real regret with real consequences.

HHI in early 30s: ~220k
HHI now, early 40s: ~360k

We bought on the less expensive side but then had a kid, I shifted to part time, dealt with some family issues requiring money, advance-funded our kid's 529, etc. There have been a few moments where I felt a twinge of "we could have had a newer/nicer/bigger house and still been comfortable" but there have been many, many more where we've been glad to have just extra money floating around month to month.

[Anonymous]

Around 65-70k at 30 to $200k at 45.

[Anonymous]

Op here, thanks for the replies so far.

We currently have a HHI of $250k + about 10% bonuses.

We bought our house in 2017 for $330k at 2.75% and our PITI is $2200.

We have the opportunity to buy a lake house directly next door to my brother's family. Our kids are the same age, I adore my SIL, great location, we'd have one massive yard between the two houses and it's always been in the long term plans to get something around there, but we weren't necessarily planning so soon bc our youngest is still in daycare for 1 more year. But it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

[Anonymous]

I’m in year four of my professional career at 38 (finished an advanced degree nearly three years ago). I went from making $43/45k in 2020-early 2021, to making $49k 2021-2022, $65-66k 2022-early this year. Just started a job at $77.5. I know this is low by DCUM standards but I’m happy with it. Hope to cross into six figures in 2-3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thanks for the replies so far.

We currently have a HHI of $250k + about 10% bonuses.

We bought our house in 2017 for $330k at 2.75% and our PITI is $2200.

We have the opportunity to buy a lake house directly next door to my brother's family. Our kids are the same age, I adore my SIL, great location, we'd have one massive yard between the two houses and it's always been in the long term plans to get something around there, but we weren't necessarily planning so soon bc our youngest is still in daycare for 1 more year. But it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

You don’t have the income for a second home. Foolishness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thanks for the replies so far.

We currently have a HHI of $250k + about 10% bonuses.

We bought our house in 2017 for $330k at 2.75% and our PITI is $2200.

We have the opportunity to buy a lake house directly next door to my brother's family. Our kids are the same age, I adore my SIL, great location, we'd have one massive yard between the two houses and it's always been in the long term plans to get something around there, but we weren't necessarily planning so soon bc our youngest is still in daycare for 1 more year. But it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

You don’t have the income for a second home. Foolishness.

Not totally true. Depends on the cost of the home and how much they value haing it. I.e., what area they willing to give up if they own the second home and have to economize elsewhere.

But I also wonder whether they'd truly use it often enough, and how often their schedule syncs up with the brother's family.

[Anonymous]

OP, you should look to your own industry and the earning potential there, and whether you're willing to follow the money. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not willing to work for a firm, so the big money jobs can't be considered a meaningful baseline for what I could possibly gain, income wise. I work for the government, and in my early 30s, I was making roughly 85K. 8 years later, I make 185K. But I'm close to the pay cap and don't expect any more salary growth. So it will be a long plateau/actual decline due to inflation eating away my buying power until retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thanks for the replies so far.

We currently have a HHI of $250k + about 10% bonuses.

We bought our house in 2017 for $330k at 2.75% and our PITI is $2200.

We have the opportunity to buy a lake house directly next door to my brother's family. Our kids are the same age, I adore my SIL, great location, we'd have one massive yard between the two houses and it's always been in the long term plans to get something around there, but we weren't necessarily planning so soon bc our youngest is still in daycare for 1 more year. But it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

You don’t have the income for a second home. Foolishness.

Not totally true. Depends on the cost of the home and how much they value haing it. I.e., what area they willing to give up if they own the second home and have to economize elsewhere.

But I also wonder whether they'd truly use it often enough, and how often their schedule syncs up with the brother's family.

I can’t imagine a lake house for less than $100k, which is a years college tuition they are tossing away. On $250k income that is tough, though clearly their primary house income is quite low, so if they never need to update I guess it could work. Is this Minnesota?

[Anonymous]

A lot, but we took big gambles on ourselves. So much of this depends on what you do and your trajectory for growth. Are you a W-2 employee in the federal government who will make 3-5% COLA increases for the next 10 years? Are you a BigLaw potential partner? Are you in sales?

For us, our income went from about $500K in our early 30s combined to $1.5M (I am about to be 40 next year, DH is 43) but we are in fields where we took risks and it paid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should look to your own industry and the earning potential there, and whether you're willing to follow the money. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not willing to work for a firm, so the big money jobs can't be considered a meaningful baseline for what I could possibly gain, income wise. I work for the government, and in my early 30s, I was making roughly 85K. 8 years later, I make 185K. But I'm close to the pay cap and don't expect any more salary growth. So it will be a long plateau/actual decline due to inflation eating away my buying power until retirement.

Almost exactly this and am in my early 40s now. I was at just over $100k in my early 30s though. My spouse makes $220 now which is way more than double what he made in his early 30s. Back then he was at about $80k. We also bought a house in our mid 20s and looking back I don’t know how we swung it on what was then a HHI of $110k. I guess because we had no children to eat up our money.

[Anonymous]

At 30 I was making $60,000 and at 40 I am making $140,000 (mommy tracked to have 3 kids in the middle of this).

DH was making $150,000 at 30 and at 40 is making $465,000 this year (with a $100,000 quota bonus).

At 30 my sister was making $175,000 (give or take) and at 40 she is making $700,000 doing tech sales.

[Anonymous]

Very little, but that's because I started in big law and stepped back once I had kids. However, the investments that I started when I was in big law have grown significantly, so my net worth grows at a much higher rate than my annual income these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here, thanks for the replies so far.

We currently have a HHI of $250k + about 10% bonuses.

We bought our house in 2017 for $330k at 2.75% and our PITI is $2200.

We have the opportunity to buy a lake house directly next door to my brother's family. Our kids are the same age, I adore my SIL, great location, we'd have one massive yard between the two houses and it's always been in the long term plans to get something around there, but we weren't necessarily planning so soon bc our youngest is still in daycare for 1 more year. But it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

You don’t have the income for a second home. Foolishness.

Not totally true. Depends on the cost of the home and how much they value haing it. I.e., what area they willing to give up if they own the second home and have to economize elsewhere.

But I also wonder whether they'd truly use it often enough, and how often their schedule syncs up with the brother's family.

I can’t imagine a lake house for less than $100k, which is a years college tuition they are tossing away. On $250k income that is tough, though clearly their primary house income is quite low, so if they never need to update I guess it could work. Is this Minnesota?

These people would have been fine if they had purchased a 600K home on their current salary - you probably wouldn't have batted an eye. I doubt it will be the end of the world financially if they spend more than 100K on a second house. Maybe they'll sell their lake house when their kids go to college and use the proceeds to fund college. The only option isn't for them to put all their savings into a 529 for them to be okay in life.