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

[Anonymous]

I think DCUM attracts people with desk jobs who tend to have good salaries and intermittent free time during the day. The guy building your cabinets out doesn't hang on his computer all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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)

This is a quintessential DCUM money board post.

[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?

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.

I agree with all of this and you sound similar to me. I grew up without much and am unsophisticated enough about finances that I find this forum really helpful. Thanks to DCUM, I can ask our financial advisor questions without sounding like an idiot. I even learned some things about our 529s that my much more savvy DH didn’t know.

But returning to OP’s question, I do think #1 is a factor not only because the richer you are the more engaged you tend to be with money discussions, but also because DCUM attracts a lot of UMC posters. Check out the Private school forum if you haven’t. It’s very active (and extremely amusing) and most of those posters are not receiving financial aid.

[Anonymous]

I post my income on DCUM. I do not post my weight. I am sure many people are happy to share the most brag-worthy thing about their life but keep to themselves the thing they are struggling with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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)

We make more than that and are UHNW. Yet, in reality we are still fairly frugal. I drive a 12 yo vehicle, person with newest car is our 17yo (since new cars are a better deal right now than used cars and we needed a vehicle for the teen). We do take fancy vacations (Europe, Hawaii, etc) but still are focused on getting a good deal and are planned for. Still fly coach unless business is an amazing deal---just cannot bring ourselves to spend the extra despite being able to "afford" it. I find the people that actually have the money are not extravagant, those that appear extravagant are often leveraged to the max.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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)

Maybe you’re just very smart and fiscally responsible people.

[Anonymous]

OP: I thought it was exaggeration but then I switched orgs and found an entire level of wealth that I didn't know about. For perspective, the org employs about 200 ppl. My total take home last year was a little over 400K which includes a bonus. Their contribution to my retirement was either 17,500K or a bit more b/c I have two different contribution vehicles.

Anyway, at my level, there are probably about 75ppl and there are about 2 dozen who earn far more than I do, at least.

That's 5 floors of people in a big DC office building. Think about all the buildings, all the floors and all the people making this obscene amount of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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)

We make more than that and are UHNW. Yet, in reality we are still fairly frugal. I drive a 12 yo vehicle, person with newest car is our 17yo (since new cars are a better deal right now than used cars and we needed a vehicle for the teen). We do take fancy vacations (Europe, Hawaii, etc) but still are focused on getting a good deal and are planned for. Still fly coach unless business is an amazing deal---just cannot bring ourselves to spend the extra despite being able to "afford" it. I find the people that actually have the money are not extravagant, those that appear extravagant are often leveraged to the max.

I find this pathetic. You’re a hoarder living so much smaller than you need to. You can’t take it with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I post my income on DCUM. I do not post my weight. I am sure many people are happy to share the most brag-worthy thing about their life but keep to themselves the thing they are struggling with.

I'm not you but hovering at 140. Was a nicer 130 before covid but hell, I make my money with my head so it works for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I post my income on DCUM. I do not post my weight. I am sure many people are happy to share the most brag-worthy thing about their life but keep to themselves the thing they are struggling with.

I'm not you but hovering at 140. Was a nicer 130 before covid but hell, I make my money with my head so it works for me.

Proving my point. Start a thread asking people to post their height and weight and I bet you’ll turn up almost only healthy BMIs. People like me will just keep scrolling. Ask me about HHI and I’m there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never lied about salary or net worth. We have apparently low salaries for the area (HHI is about $180k but salary alone is $160k, net worth $2.8m or so).

But I also have absolutely zero idea how much my friends and neighbors make. I’m amazed that you all seem to know. How could you possibly know? I do know that our mortgage is very low compared to others living in $1.2m houses around us. We are also frugal.

We work in the same industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I post my income on DCUM. I do not post my weight. I am sure many people are happy to share the most brag-worthy thing about their life but keep to themselves the thing they are struggling with.

Why you’re a pig? Oink oink

Walking into my med spa right now. I’m thicc rich and permanently 27.

[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.

+1

We have always done 30 year and pay down premium at our own pace, but like the flexibility/leverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

This doesn't even include the lawyers who make serious bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never lied about salary or net worth. We have apparently low salaries for the area (HHI is about $180k but salary alone is $160k, net worth $2.8m or so).

But I also have absolutely zero idea how much my friends and neighbors make. I’m amazed that you all seem to know. How could you possibly know? I do know that our mortgage is very low compared to others living in $1.2m houses around us. We are also frugal.

We work in the same industry.

This, and also lots of salaries are just known. Anyone in gov. Biglaw associates. Starting salaries anyway for many professional services.