All you with these high-paying jobs!

[Anonymous]

I make $415K doing investor relations for a software company and my spouse makes $450K leading a comms group at a bank. We both switched jobs during the great resignation and it boosted our income a lot. Neither one of us set out to make money after college so it has been a mindset shift and a career shift that has been driven by having kids. I’m 36 and he’s 40. A lot of people around here have family money that has helped them get where they are so I find comparisons are useless because you may be working a lot harder than your peers and wondering why you still can’t afford what they can and many times it’s as simple as someone else started on third - college and grad school paid for, wedding paid for, car paid for, childcare paid for, partial down payment provided, etc etc and then to top it off their parents pulled strings to get them their first job during the Great Recession when you were working in a temp job for $10 an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

[Anonymous]

Spouse is in biglaw in that bracket and believe me they earn every penny of it. Works non stop and has a lot of stress. Most people have no idea what a job like that entails, they could not handle it or would not want to. I say this without judgment, it's not a good work life balance at all. Also the salary is somewhat misleading because of what we pay for health insurance, taxes etc.

[Anonymous]

Lawyer and Engineer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spouse is in biglaw in that bracket and believe me they earn every penny of it. Works non stop and has a lot of stress. Most people have no idea what a job like that entails, they could not handle it or would not want to. I say this without judgment, it's not a good work life balance at all. Also the salary is somewhat misleading because of what we pay for health insurance, taxes etc.

+1

They also don't know what it is to be born on third, as other PP said - college, wedding, down payment, everything paid for - then they come to DCUM and ask who makes what and why?? GTFOH (them, not you).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

Not me.
Undergrad And Law school debt - in the hundreds of thousand (no zero)
I make $950k per year or so. Age 47
My husband makes 4x that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people are exaggerating or rounding up.

They absolutely are. Many have a small base and the rest is variable stuff like bonuses (dependent on company and persona performance, never guaranteed), RSUs (have several years until they're vested, value is not guaranteed), etc.

I would never count non vesting RSUs in annual comp. for personal financial planning (obvi) or on this site. It’s not guaranteed and you can’t liquidate if you need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make $415K doing investor relations for a software company and my spouse makes $450K leading a comms group at a bank. We both switched jobs during the great resignation and it boosted our income a lot. Neither one of us set out to make money after college so it has been a mindset shift and a career shift that has been driven by having kids. I’m 36 and he’s 40. A lot of people around here have family money that has helped them get where they are so I find comparisons are useless because you may be working a lot harder than your peers and wondering why you still can’t afford what they can and many times it’s as simple as someone else started on third - college and grad school paid for, wedding paid for, car paid for, childcare paid for, partial down payment provided, etc etc and then to top it off their parents pulled strings to get them their first job during the Great Recession when you were working in a temp job for $10 an hour.

You’re within spitting distance of $1M HHI and are worried you can’t afford the things other people can?? What are you buying?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Double biglaw. But remember I am happier to disclose my income on this board than other stats. Like, say, how many hours of screen time a day my kids have. When it’s a “good” number for you, you post it willingly. When it isn’t, you skip the thread.

Exactly this. Much happier to talk about my salary than my weight, for example. People like to bragg, even anonymously. All the people earning $50k don’t post about it here.

The OP didn’t ask us poors to post. Actually I’m not poor (in my mid-50s as a capped GS15 I’m almost up to OP’s standard but never will be) but I’m not exceptional on DCUM. On the plus side, I weigh the same 125 lbs as I did when I got married. So I’ll brag about that instead.

That’s something to brag about for sure.

I do too but I also earn $230K.

A capped GS-15 isn’t far off from that when you consider the pension benefits.

That depends. I work for a non-profit for 250K with an annual bonus of 50K. I also receive a 6% 403b contribution with 100% matching (vs. 5% in the Fed), much better health and dental benefits. I also receive a 1.5% pension for every year of service (vs. 1% in the Fed). In my case, the nonprofit sector is much better than the Fed.

DP - that's great, but also extremely rare, as you likely know. Very few non-governmental employers offer pensions anymore - and most non-profits don't pay that well, either. So if you work for a non-profit unicorn, it may be better than a capped GS-15, but you also have to get that unicorn job in the first place.

Capped GS15 PP. I’m an SME in a technical field and have friends and peers who work in universities, nonprofits, and for-profit companies. Lots of them have pensions and/or better retirement matching, and they always have good medical, and the for-profit ones have profit sharing. At senior levels people have close-to-fed benefits almost everywhere. Not unicorns jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You get paid a lot to do things others don’t want to do if you are good at it.
Sales
Long work hours
Travel
Public speaking
Stressful Crisis situation
Hired Gun situation
Jobs that no one wants to do
Working at companies that are not ethical
Getting companies out of trouble
Jobs you know you will be fired from before you take it.

I am there to get paid. I interviewed at Juul for a senior mgt position for instance, I traveled to 26 states and 7 counties for work, worked 60 hour work weeks months on end, spoke at conferences up to 800 people, sold millions in sales, worked private equity, start ups, crypto, takeovers and regulatory issues.

Shameful company, trying to make money off of making our teens addicted to flavored vaping.

There are much more ethical ways to make money, and be able to sleep at night without feeling like you're profiting off of a harmful product.

Any hot thing cyber Jump on bandwagon

The uglier and harder the better. That’s the real secret to high pay.

[Anonymous]

Plastic surgeons make in the millions. Even some family doctors (like me) make more than $300,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

Ok, but some of us here are children of immigrants who started with NOTHING.

Signed,
healthcare + tech with 7 figure HHI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make $415K doing investor relations for a software company and my spouse makes $450K leading a comms group at a bank. We both switched jobs during the great resignation and it boosted our income a lot. Neither one of us set out to make money after college so it has been a mindset shift and a career shift that has been driven by having kids. I’m 36 and he’s 40. A lot of people around here have family money that has helped them get where they are so I find comparisons are useless because you may be working a lot harder than your peers and wondering why you still can’t afford what they can and many times it’s as simple as someone else started on third - college and grad school paid for, wedding paid for, car paid for, childcare paid for, partial down payment provided, etc etc and then to top it off their parents pulled strings to get them their first job during the Great Recession when you were working in a temp job for $10 an hour.

You’re within spitting distance of $1M HHI and are worried you can’t afford the things other people can?? What are you buying?!?

Our income is $875K now. It was about a third of that in 2019 when we had our first child and we were living in a higher cost of living area (nyc). I want to provide a great life for my kids, pay for their education, and leave them an inheritance. So we’re “buying” a life with less financial anxiety and friction for our children. I hope we can make over $1M by the time I’m 40. Having kids made me realize that if I’m going to work instead of being a stay at home mom that I want to make as much money as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You get paid a lot to do things others don’t want to do if you are good at it.
Sales
Long work hours
Travel
Public speaking
Stressful Crisis situation
Hired Gun situation
Jobs that no one wants to do
Working at companies that are not ethical
Getting companies out of trouble
Jobs you know you will be fired from before you take it.

I am there to get paid. I interviewed at Juul for a senior mgt position for instance, I traveled to 26 states and 7 counties for work, worked 60 hour work weeks months on end, spoke at conferences up to 800 people, sold millions in sales, worked private equity, start ups, crypto, takeovers and regulatory issues.

Shameful company, trying to make money off of making our teens addicted to flavored vaping.

There are much more ethical ways to make money, and be able to sleep at night without feeling like you're profiting off of a harmful product.

Any hot thing cyber Jump on bandwagon

The uglier and harder the better. That’s the real secret to high pay.

I would add to this list you get paid a lot to do what others’ can’t do (well). It would seem that very few people can be competent surgeons or good hedge fund analysts. Similarly, very few people are great actors or models or athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Me: $155-160K
Him: $600K last year, but should hit over $700k this year

We both work in finance (me - corporate role at a large financial institution and him - private equity).

What does a person who has a corporate role at a bank or other financial institution do exactly?