The divide gets bigger as you get older...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

My best friend from college and I both got advanced degrees the same year, she went to a top MBA program and I went to a top public policy school. Fast forward over 20 years and she has a luxurious vacation home, huge savings, multiple kids in private school, and lots of luxuries. I’m doing fine as a GS-15 but our paths diverged a little and then a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

I have a hard time understanding how you couldn't see this in your 20s or before, tbh. I have understood this since childhood and is why I chose the career path I did (biglaw). Did you grow up in a very economically homogeneous community? I was a middle class kid at a fancy boarding school so the differences were very apparent to me. Of course it's different if you truly have a passion, but most people don't (or don't have one that is possible to turn into a career).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes the divide is bigger, in part because of career path but also because of time spent. I am a woman who basically worked straight since law school - only took maternity time off - not bigger chunks. I'm 50 and have been working every year for 25 years.

But some friends took a lot of time off to have kids or did something and then went back to school and tried a new career and they just don't have 25 years in the same field working their way up - it's much harder to have money when you haven't worked that whole time.

What field are you in? / What's your job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

I have a hard time understanding how you couldn't see this in your 20s or before, tbh. I have understood this since childhood and is why I chose the career path I did (biglaw). Did you grow up in a very economically homogeneous community? I was a middle class kid at a fancy boarding school so the differences were very apparent to me. Of course it's different if you truly have a passion, but most people don't (or don't have one that is possible to turn into a career).

I sure as hell didn't know any boarding school kids. I grew up thinking $100k was an INCREDIBLE salary, because the richest kid I knew had a dad that made that. So yeah, kind of. I honestly had no perspective at all on this stuff. I was a decade into my career when I learned what a Big Law salary was because I had never met anyone in that career before, at least not well enough to ask their salary.

For me it was like, I was in a nonprofit job making $65k and my law school friends were broke and my friends who went into tech we're making $80k. The differences were there but felt marginal. I do sometimes still feel shell shocked when I hear what other people make in their careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

I have a hard time understanding how you couldn't see this in your 20s or before, tbh. I have understood this since childhood and is why I chose the career path I did (biglaw). Did you grow up in a very economically homogeneous community? I was a middle class kid at a fancy boarding school so the differences were very apparent to me. Of course it's different if you truly have a passion, but most people don't (or don't have one that is possible to turn into a career).

Same. I'm 26 and making the next 4 years count because I desire the wealthy lifestyle and refuse to lie to myself about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

My best friend from college and I both got advanced degrees the same year, she went to a top MBA program and I went to a top public policy school. Fast forward over 20 years and she has a luxurious vacation home, huge savings, multiple kids in private school, and lots of luxuries. I’m doing fine as a GS-15 but our paths diverged a little and then a lot.

Major life decisions and accomplishments that look subtle compound overtime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Any job is "soul-killing" if you make it so. The trick is to not care.

The divide becomes apparent starting around age 30 and people start moving into different directions based on income trajectories. Where they can buy houses, kids start going to private schools or not, the quality of travel and other leisurely activities. And it's become worse as the bulk of economic growth accrues to a smaller pool of professional occupations. Law, finance, consulting and tech have really run away with most of the salary growths compared to other sectors.



I agree... I would say now thought that divide REALLY takes off at age 33. Gen Z and the younger cohort of millennials have had to delay adulthood.

The cream really separates from the crops at age 33.

I've never heard about cream on crops. I've heard that cream separates from milk and that wheat separates from chaff though.

ha... thats what I meant!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

I have a hard time understanding how you couldn't see this in your 20s or before, tbh. I have understood this since childhood and is why I chose the career path I did (biglaw). Did you grow up in a very economically homogeneous community? I was a middle class kid at a fancy boarding school so the differences were very apparent to me. Of course it's different if you truly have a passion, but most people don't (or don't have one that is possible to turn into a career).

I sure as hell didn't know any boarding school kids. I grew up thinking $100k was an INCREDIBLE salary, because the richest kid I knew had a dad that made that. So yeah, kind of. I honestly had no perspective at all on this stuff. I was a decade into my career when I learned what a Big Law salary was because I had never met anyone in that career before, at least not well enough to ask their salary.

For me it was like, I was in a nonprofit job making $65k and my law school friends were broke and my friends who went into tech we're making $80k. The differences were there but felt marginal. I do sometimes still feel shell shocked when I hear what other people make in their careers.

+1. I had never heard of Big Law until I read DCUM.

[Anonymous]

And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

And yet I'm still advising my kids to look at SLACs. When they save the world, you'll know who to thank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

I'm one of the people who has posted a couple times about feeling shocked by my friends' salaries and I just wanted to say... I have zero regrets. I've had a fascinating, meaningful career so far, and I've been lucky enough to make a decent salary doing it (I make $150k working in politics/advocacy). I do feel surprised and, honestly, dumb that I'm surprised by the real salary gaps between me and some of my friends now, but I wouldn't go back and make different choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as you're happy and have a fulfilling career, so what?

That's exactly what I thought at 25, but I didn't realize how much of a difference income makes on every area of your life. Where you can live, where your kids go to school, when or if you can ever retire, if you can travel, if you can afford certain types of healthcare, how you live, the security you feel, the security you can offer your family (parents or children), etc.

It never ends.

I have a hard time understanding how you couldn't see this in your 20s or before, tbh. I have understood this since childhood and is why I chose the career path I did (biglaw). Did you grow up in a very economically homogeneous community? I was a middle class kid at a fancy boarding school so the differences were very apparent to me. Of course it's different if you truly have a passion, but most people don't (or don't have one that is possible to turn into a career).

I sure as hell didn't know any boarding school kids. I grew up thinking $100k was an INCREDIBLE salary, because the richest kid I knew had a dad that made that. So yeah, kind of. I honestly had no perspective at all on this stuff. I was a decade into my career when I learned what a Big Law salary was because I had never met anyone in that career before, at least not well enough to ask their salary.

For me it was like, I was in a nonprofit job making $65k and my law school friends were broke and my friends who went into tech we're making $80k. The differences were there but felt marginal. I do sometimes still feel shell shocked when I hear what other people make in their careers.

Similar story here. We grew up not quite MC (smallest house in a good school district and it was a rental) with no concept of money except that we didn’t have much. Somehow my brother figured out in college what it meant to be rich and that he wanted to be it. He went to law school and then a pretty big firm but not big law because he stayed in our home state. Very lucrative though, and 70+ hour weeks. I still had no concept of what it meant to be rich when I went to law school. But I knew what big law was and I sure as shit knew I didn’t want to do it. So I went to the government. Fast forward to now and my brother is quite wealthy and I am not. I’m not unhappy with my choices, but the amount of money at his disposal is… a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

DC is filled with wealthy people who went to SLACs for undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

DC is filled with wealthy people who went to SLACs for undergrad.

Yes bc they pursued law or BUSINESS in one way or other.
There are thousands of liberal arts grads in non profits, academia, teaching, making just 100k or less, 10-15 years out, we hear their voices on DCUM, you know we do, and they are mighty bitter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And yet DCUM denigrates the pre professional schools at Penn Georgetown Northeastern in favor of SLACs. It’s all daisies and unicorns to be so idealist in when you are young, until you are 35 and your peers are making 3-5x more than you do….. this is exactly why I told my DC to pursue CS or Business. Let someone else try to save the world, the trees and the whales. In the real world, living real life, with two kids and a mortgage, It’s about making money.

It’s naive to think that people who graduate from SLACs don’t make any money.