Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I make 250k. I lead a 50-person department at a Fortune 500 company.

My rich friends make $60k-80k as artists, teachers, or NPR reporters. They are from exceptionally wealthy families who underwrite everything and live far better than I would ever to be able to afford to. It sounds like a cliche but it’s true.

very true, seen it a lot. And they can have much healthier marriages because they have flexible, low stress jobs but also have the generational wealth to support things like down payments or kids college funds. But those teachers won’t be able to do for their grandkids what their parents did for theirs

Depends if they are spending down the generational wealth and if they snagged a bag to marry.

They marry other trust funders OR a high earner (law partner etc). I say this as someone who knows a lot of artists and journalists.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The people (jobs and salary ranges) you’re talking about aren’t in the 1%. These are people in the 5, 8, 10%.

+1

200k individual income is top 5%, while 400k HHI is top 3%.

Nationally, yes. In the DC area $200K is only top 30% (not even top quartile!) and $400K is top 6%. The top 10% is at $330K and top 1% is at $1M.

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.

no- you are missing the immigrants who live with their parents in a W school district, no student loans and whole family goes in on real estate business, lot of them living in nova and MOCO. You missed the people who's parents pay for their down payments, kids private school, or grand parents provided a 50k/100k trust fund that they know they won't touch until their own retirement so they can save for a down payment. I dont know anyone who paid for their down payment straight up out of their earnings- everyone I know in DC or close in had a loan from family, it might not be outright money that they get a gift, it might be that they have to pay it back when they sell the property or that they moved in with their parents rent free for a few years to save on rent, it might be their brother loaned them the money who makes bank from ambulance chasing law or Silicon Valley, parents who lent them money to buy the business they currently successfully run and have grown while they live very simple lives.. it can be a little bit of help but just going to college, getting a job and paying for things like SFH is so rare that I dont know anyone in a multicultural, multi ethnic and multi-religious cohort of like 25 people all over the Washington area who have done it. I am sorry but I dont know more than 25 people well enough to know the ins and outs of their financial lives but im pretty gregarious so not too shabby for someone short of a RE professional. every single one of the adults I know who have bough in this area had family help- from down payment from parents to drs who lived at home through residency. Everyone else moved away.

Anonymous wrote:Why should non profits pay peanuts?

When I was unemployed during Covid I applied a few non profits.

One non profit offered me a job paying $165k and expected me to manage a staff of 40. There was no bonus, and since Head of an area no opportunity ever for a promotion.

I was doing exact same job pre Covid managing only 6 people for $330,000 a year.

I also got offered a job in private making $165 as an individual performer, making $165k I could do in 4-6 hours a day with a 30k bonus.

I also applied another non profit that was offering me $140k to manage a small dept. and a church run mission at $120k that was easily a 450k job of private.

It was insulting. I DGAF about missions I want to get paid and don’t give me your mission crap.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I make 250k. I lead a 50-person department at a Fortune 500 company.

My rich friends make $60k-80k as artists, teachers, or NPR reporters. They are from exceptionally wealthy families who underwrite everything and live far better than I would ever to be able to afford to. It sounds like a cliche but it’s true.

very true, seen it a lot. And they can have much healthier marriages because they have flexible, low stress jobs but also have the generational wealth to support things like down payments or kids college funds. But those teachers won’t be able to do for their grandkids what their parents did for theirs

Depends if they are spending down the generational wealth and if they snagged a bag to marry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

300K for a non-profit exec? Susan G. Come-on!

I am less okay with exorbitant non-profit salaries than corporate; that money usually comes at the expense of the program. Donors beware.

You (and people who think like you) are the reason we have so many poorly run nonprofits. A nonprofit, much like many for-profits, needs experience and skill to be successful. A major part of that is paying for that experience and skill. You can't arbitrarily say a $300k salary for a nonprofit executive is too much without looking at their finances. You don't know their budget. $300k for a $2m budget? Yes, that's questionable. $300k for a $10m budget is more reasonable. As a society, we need to get away from the mentality that nonprofits should be lowballing salaries. The best way to make nonprofit programs successful is to put skill and knowledge behind those programs and that requires money.

Right, because Wall Street CEOs making millions in comp never mess up anything.

The people motivated by money always put the mission first? Good luck with that.

Anonymous wrote:Why should non profits pay peanuts?

When I was unemployed during Covid I applied a few non profits.

One non profit offered me a job paying $165k and expected me to manage a staff of 40. There was no bonus, and since Head of an area no opportunity ever for a promotion.

I was doing exact same job pre Covid managing only 6 people for $330,000 a year.

I also got offered a job in private making $165 as an individual performer, making $165k I could do in 4-6 hours a day with a 30k bonus.

I also applied another non profit that was offering me $140k to manage a small dept. and a church run mission at $120k that was easily a 450k job of private.

It was insulting. I DGAF about missions I want to get paid and don’t give me your mission crap.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

300K for a non-profit exec? Susan G. Come-on!

I am less okay with exorbitant non-profit salaries than corporate; that money usually comes at the expense of the program. Donors beware.

You (and people who think like you) are the reason we have so many poorly run nonprofits. A nonprofit, much like many for-profits, needs experience and skill to be successful. A major part of that is paying for that experience and skill. You can't arbitrarily say a $300k salary for a nonprofit executive is too much without looking at their finances. You don't know their budget. $300k for a $2m budget? Yes, that's questionable. $300k for a $10m budget is more reasonable. As a society, we need to get away from the mentality that nonprofits should be lowballing salaries. The best way to make nonprofit programs successful is to put skill and knowledge behind those programs and that requires money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I make 250k. I lead a 50-person department at a Fortune 500 company.

My rich friends make $60k-80k as artists, teachers, or NPR reporters. They are from exceptionally wealthy families who underwrite everything and live far better than I would ever to be able to afford to. It sounds like a cliche but it’s true.

very true, seen it a lot. And they can have much healthier marriages because they have flexible, low stress jobs but also have the generational wealth to support things like down payments or kids college funds. But those teachers won’t be able to do for their grandkids what their parents did for theirs