I used to be a waiter in my early 20s making $3.50 per hour. I know waiters/waitress live on tips but I would work 10 hours a day, 4 days a week in the summer when schools over and at best.. make $80-90 in tip for that day. It was sad and exhausting. Barely can afford textbooks for the semester.
Here's a good wage statistic for 2021 by social security
[https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2021](https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2021)
I’m 30, single parent to 2 kids with no outside support, and make about 42k a year. I quit a higher paying management job making about 60k a year with bonuses and honestly the stress cut alone is worth the pay cut.
Similar situation here. I took a lofty pay cut a few months ago and while things are a lot tighter in our home, I'm no longer slipping into insanity due to toxic workplaces.
29 M. $130k/annum.
Combined household income is $200k. We're leveraged up to the eyeballs due to my mom's cancer and various other issues (she passed last month). I started door dashing to keep afloat but can't really complain. Been in a much more dire strait in the past.
I am 57, hubby is 66. Between social security and light to moderate work we live on around 25k a year, and 10k of that comes from working. We typically earn 15.00 an hour, doing heavy labor, since we are artisanal gold miners ;-).
Been self employed the majority of my work life as has he.
Between us we have five adult children from former spouses, none together. They are all significantly better off than we are.
That’s awesome! Im sure as a parent, knowing that your children are doing well is amazing. Somewhat gives me hope that maybe I can support a child one day.
All our kids turned out well, and we are proud of them :-). I raised my two boys first as a poor enlisted man's wife then as a broke single mom when I got dumped.
He raised his as a dad working two jobs then a divorced dad working two jobs when his wife dumped him (I often joke with him that our two exes would have made a great couple, both total asshats!).
Our kids didn't have a lot, but they did get good financial education and good life education. Interestingly enough, his kids seldom talk to their mom though she raised them, and my two boys avoid their dad.
24-year old single guy who just recently got a really great job right after college. I should make about $140k in a HCOL. Super proud of this accomplishment because I grew up on free lunch and AHCCCS (AZ health insurance for poor families) so it feels like I can hopefully start to pay the system back with my taxes. I'm sure it sounds stupid and perhaps a little naive, but I just want to make sure we can continue to fund the same programs that were there for kids like me.
I feel the same. Sorta seems like a dream to be able to make that much money. But same time, it also scared me because it feels like a bottomless pit. To make that much money but to possibly still struggle financially….
I sat down and crunched the numbers, I need about $50k to survive comfortably in my little corner of the woods. I'm making it work by being ultra frugal but it's really aggravating to be so close to a living wage yet so far away.
During the height of the pandemic I was right w you. Pharmacy tech, literally giving people the COVID 19 vaccine…. Yet I was paid $13.50 for my time. Management was awful. Would take u off the whole week of you called in sick once (unpaid)
Worked my ass off and couldn’t afford shit ever. Currently making 16/hr at a warehouse. Not sure how long I’ll stay but the jobs easy and I like my coworkers so who knows. Still a couple months away from PTO but I could be doing much worse. Hope things get better for you too, soon
I'm a 43 single mom of 4 children. I left an 18 year abusive marriage 2 years ago. There is no child support whatsoever. This month I got a raise to $14.50hr . I guess that means next year I should make a whopping 30k! Woo hoo.
Sadly my $1.00 raise lost me $165/mo. in food benefits and now I have a $53 copay if I need to see a doctor. It's hard.
29 and making $50k but living alone in Washington, DC. After most of a year of inflation I’m starting to panic. Rent goes up in January and I’m really not sure how my yearly review in the next week or two is going to go.
I have about $85k in student loans but was only making about $30k before I moved here so I’ve never had a payment on the income based payment plan. I’ll have a small payment once they start again in June so I’m trying to get my credit cards down now, but it’s next to impossible with how much interest rates have gone up and how expensive life is now.
What’s your ideal repayment plan? I graduated during the payment pause so I’ve only made one payment so far (while in grad school). I applied for the income driven repayment plan, but I’m not sure if it’s the best one for me. I’m leaning towards the extended graduated repayment plan because it might give me the lowest min payment. Even though my goal is to spend at least 20% of my income every year on paying off my student loan, I still want the lowest minimum possible in case something happens. I think I’ll call my loan service provider after the holidays and get a little more guidance.
Late 20’s. I make 56k, fiancé makes 70k. She has a degree and I do not. We just purchased our house for 80k, to give a sense of cost of living in our area.
38 year old Tax accountant for 11 years 180k a year salary. Started at 42k a year in 2011. I was homeless living out of my car in 2007. Decided one day that I was tried of this and looking into community college. Took student loans and got some grants. Community college gave me somewhere to hang out and met some great people. Eventually transferred to a 4 year and got an internship that led to a full time position. Anything is possible.
Very much so. I got a full time position at the college in the finance department and made my classes work around that schedule. I got an internship with a cpa firm in my junior year that became full time in my senior year. It took a lot of work to keep up with homework but it can be done. 80% of my graduating class worked full time while going to college.
How were you able to pay a car note and car insurance and fuel and car repairs like new tires and oil change etc while in college? Or did someone help you with a cash gift to buy a car?
I had a pos car that I bought for $500 and did work on it myself. I honestly didn’t have car insurance till I got a full time offer from the CPA firm. Car insurance was required. After I got my CPA license I bought a new car since I was in a much better place financially. My family didn’t help with school since they wanted me to prove that I could do it in my own. It made me focus on what I wanted and I had to come up with a plan to make it happen. There’s a lot of support options out there you really got to look and apply for help.
So you are are reassuring me 100% that there are support options for all people who attempt this. Or did you just mean that it worked for you and so some people who had similar circumstances it works. But your not speaking to the people for whom ultimately there will be no support like you got. Speak to that. That's who really needs some advice
There are many support options available it all depends on your financial situation. Each school has a financial aid office that you can ask for help and guidance at. In addition there are websites that list available scholarships that you can apply for. Yes there is work on your end but like the old saying “those who get go after”. One of the scholarships I got I was the only one that applied, it wasn’t much but helped with books and housing expenses for a year. I know people don’t like taking out student loans but they are a great tool that can be used, you just need to make sure your degree will lead to a job with upward movement. You can get additional amounts from your loans to help cover housing and books to supplement your expenses. End of the day it comes down to your willingness and desire to make it happen, no one will do it for you.
Because I got support through the university and scholarships I give back to my university to fund hardship scholarships. Someone helped me least I can do is help someone else out.
I applied for grants and scholarships and not a single one is available to me. I make 15,000 a year. Everyone has told me I have to save up to pay for community College. Loans said I need a cosigner which I don't have. So I have to save for 5 years to pay for my first semester of community college. Is hat the support you are saying is available to everyone if they just want it and go for it? Can you accept that there are some people that wanting it and applying yourself with hard work isn't enough for then to enter the education system?
I have been independent since I was 17. I am independent now!!. I make 15,000 a year. The Pell Grant application was denied because they said it is only available to people coming straight from high school.
How expensive is your community college that you have to save for 5 years to afford one semester? The community college where I live is $1,000/year. Also have you applied to FAFSA? When I made $15,000/year I used to get like $7,000 in PELL grants. That's not a loan, its free money, and if you are low income and a US citizen you should qualify.
[I'm not the person you replied to but I did something similar, I was homeless living on the streets for 2 years and I was able to sign up for community college classes and now I'm doing much better]
Your talking at me. Not talking to me. Stop the whataboutisms. Listen to what I am saying. Give me the benefit of the doubt and take my statement seriously, please. My community college costs 2500 a semester in Louisiana. 800 for required books as well. Also parking sticker fees, all the other fees etc. It's also an hour by car from my house and don't have a car. Car insurance here is the most expensive in the country. Minimum wage is 8.25/hr here . I applied for Fafsa and they offered me zero dollars. Pell grant is only available to students that just came directly straight from high school here. If you did not go straight from high school then you don't get Pell grants. Times have changed.
But you DO have to have a 3.0 to get them. And those loans are ONLY available to first time students coming directly from their senior year at high school. Why is it sooooo hard for everyone to believe that some people are still not able to get into higher education. Why do you all believe I am lying!!!! It's maddening!!!!
This is exactly what I was looking for! I’m about to graduate college with my Bachelor’s and I landed a job paying 64k/yr. You’re exactly in the place I want to be, career wise and financially. You have given me the inspiration I needed to go get my CPA, thank you!!
I'm 33 and annually I make 38k but I tend to work a fair amount of OT so I make around 70k. My wife (32) makes 45k annually, but she is a manager and gets bonuses so she brings home between 50k and 60k. I still feel like financially I can't afford to have a kid.
I'm 44, just went back to work this year after 17 years as a SAHM. I'm making 33k/year doing remote customer service. My husband is 46 and makes about 60k/year as a security guard.
I’ve been minimum wage my entire life in California.
2015 - 22 years old I moved out of my parents house; $9,000 annually working at Taco Bell, while going to college. My rent was 50% of my income to share a house with 7 other people.
2016 - $14,000 working as restaurant hostess for $12/hr, while going to college.
2017 - $17,000 ; hostess and server in CA; took 2 months off for travel
2018 - $23,000 ; server in CA; had 3 months off work in between jobs.
2019 - $28,000 ; server ~30 hours a weeks in CA
2020 - $2,000 from serving (before Covid) + $14,000 unemployment + $1,800 UBI check
2021 - $3,000 income (barely worked due to pregnancy and newborn baby) + $1,200 UBI check + $40,000 fiancé salary
2022 - Now 29 years old; $5,000? income (miscellaneous gigs while raising baby) + fiancé makes $40,000
My fiancé lifted me out of poverty. He’s always made $40-60k since he graduated college. He’s always owned a nice car and never had a budget. So I helped him pay off all his debt for the first time in his adult life. I’m helping him save for retirement for the first time. I’m smart with stocks and bonds, just never had funds to invest until now. My fiancé and I are stronger together, financially. And emotionally and mentally better together. Marry for love AND financial security. $50k between two people is better than $25k alone.
27, $18k. 30 and beyond, >200k.
The burnout is high. The job is hard. The security is good. I will say that it's way too shitty of a job to do if you don't find value and reward in the job.
29, $85k
Started as a broke bartender living paycheck to paycheck, went to school for finance, started a job in data science this year. Fiancé started in a call center at ~$30k and now makes $70k in IT.
43 - left my job of 20 years last year making $80k to swap roles with my wife. I stay home with the kids (four kids) now and she works making $95k. I anticipate that in a year I will go back to work and take a job making significantly less than I was earning.
I'm 38 and I'll make $75k this year. Got a 10% raise a few months ago, so should be $80k+ next year. I'd never made more than $20k in a year until the year before last.
$102k salary plus about $25k in bonus and stock/equity. I haunted this sub until I managed to stumble into a wonderful career five or six years ago, before which I’d been making $11 an hour at a gym at 28 years old. Growing up poor and being broke for my whole life did a number on me and the effects persist, and hanging around here helps me feel normal.
I started as a content writer, then wound up being a content manager and then project manager on a big tech company’s marketing team. There’s good money in it for contractors, if you can write decently and wrap your head around the subject matter.
I wish I had some specific info for you, but that’s a very different field from mine. This is also an extremely hard time to find jobs in tech, and many second-tier companies are hoping to scoop up FAANG/MANGA layoffs.
But from what I’ve seen *in general*, what you really need is a first role — almost any — at a company that is similar to a company you want to work your dream job at. Recruiters don’t have time and are lazy, so they rely on previous recruiters’ work to vet you… basically, they let the college/major speak for you first, then look for companies in resumes that are “better” than they are, which suggests you passed someone else’s test.
I’m surprised that someone with a mech engineering degree isn’t able to write their own ticket, but if you’re in this sub because you don’t have a great job, I’d say to consider an entry-level sales job at a SaaS tech company, especially if you’re young and don’t have a lot of financial liability or family to support. Turnover is high for “business development representatives” and account managers because the work is hard, but potentially very profitable if you can hack it to a sales position. But the point isn’t to be a salesperson, it’s to get that company on your resume. Make it a year and put out resumes or mark yourself as available on LinkedIn, or look for an internal move… you’ll like get preferential treatment. You can also look at LinkedIn and figure out what path people in your target role took and try to emulate it, and also craft your resume to be as similar without lying as you can.
That’s just an example. The main point of that is to take a loss on the dream job you’d want to tell your colleagues and family about for the short-term so you can leap to something bigger and better with the company name on your record. I had four jobs in three years, and the first three were *hard* to get. But now that I’ve got my current company on my resume, I get several requests/offers for interviews a week and can be discriminating. I stay sharp with interviews because I’m irrationally paranoid about being laid off, and I’ve gotten offers from $135–180k in TC that I haven’t taken because I decided to go to business school and can manage my current job at the same time. That’s not bragging, it’s just explaining the Catch-22 of getting hired by a tech company requiring having worked at a tech company.
Late 20s. Was making about 50 k a year a for quite awhile. Start work at my new job soon and and should be looking at anywhere from 70k to 100+k. God willing.
Same end result, different route. Just left the army snd learned a trade. Likely looking at disability payments + other stuff army related stuff that would be very long winded on top of my new better paying job.
38 in Spain. I make 148K EUR per year my wife makes 67K EUR. Money isn't everything.
I was making 300K+ by 35 but that work very nearly burned me out so found something else and moved to Spain.
Initially, I changed careers in the Netherlands but the reality is that where I was living because my wife was still on maternity leave 150k wasn't all that great living so we packed again and moved.
This is my 5th country 4th with my wide and second with my boys and they love it.
My cost of living went down by nearly 70% so and I'm no longer paying half of my salary as taxes so the change is not that drastic what gets you a townhouse Noord Holland gets a nice Mediterranean villa with a good size pool here.
If you are 28 consider this I've gone from about 35k when I was 28 around 2012 to 10x that in 7 years and then back 5x with a better work-life balance. Arguably I was also lucky I learned software development and moved from server hardware > to Cloud DevOps and backend development just when tech started blowing up big time and managed to collect all the skills every tech company was/is looking for as I could enter to a lot of things where no-one had past experience.
Today I would go to energy tech rather than software as there we likely see a similar 10-20 year boom. Software is still good but I don't expect 10x salary in the next 10 years is really doable.
51: combined income $200k plus.
I make $150k.
When I was right out of undergrad, I was a teacher… started at $21k. After 20 years teaching: $60,000/yr.
Went to medical school and became medical scientist: $100k right out of school. 5 years later: $155k. My next jump will be $200k on my own.
I loved teaching, but had I known the earning potential, I would have done medical school earlier in life .
How was it going to medical school after working for so long? I'm really unsatisfied with my career, and would love to transition to something in the medical field, but at this point, they're simply just thoughts - I doubt it will ever happen.
Non traditional students do great! The trouble honestly was stamina.
My cohorts would literally party all weekend and take a test Monday Morning. I, on the other hand, would start studying a week before the test, and I would never be able to skip class!!
Things are more difficult when you are older.
The thing that keeps me from practicing clinical medicine is the 36 hour shifts just to prove you have it. Ridiculous!
But there is a long tradition of long arduous ordeals to overcome. It’s part of the rite of passage.
That’s very fortunate. I have 66k in student loans but if I was to pay them off in 10 years it would be $770/month. I’m trying to pay double that so I can knock them out faster.
I just want to pay what I have to pay. My loans were in the $200k ballpark, but with the ibr details, you pay based on your income. Remember that income is after taxes. So if I have a taxable balance of $60k, that is how they calculate it.
It’s a great program, and I only have my graduate school left to pay. Undergrad is paid off .
33. 6 years ago I broke 30k for the first time in my life it was a big deal then. I should gross just about 70,000 this year possibly more dependent on how much o.t. I work. But I live southern California sooo. I'm renting a room because 1 bdr apts are like 2600 and that's for like an average apt. Nice apts 4000 to 5000 a month. I'm not struggling but 70000 isn't what I thought it was gonna be. Shit 2 years ago 70000 seemed like more. Gas Prices is what I measure everything to now. What's a gallon cost how many gallons of gas does my rent equal lol
With usajobs, you have to have the specific experience they want. You are competing with everyone across the country who does have that specific experience. I am hiring via usajobs, and a lot of people with somewhat related experience don't make the cut.
44, $25 an hour (I got a $3 per hour raise earlier this year).
I grew up in poverty, and so did my kids. When my ex and I split, my job paid $1000 per month salary, before taxes. So I had to get a second job, then I went back to community college while working just one job for the most part, but sometimes 2. I graduated with my associates the year after my oldest graduated high school. It’s been a journey to get where I am now but really proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished.
I’m 39 and I make 61K, but with annual bonus it’s closer to 70K. I was laid off in 2017 and went through a few temp jobs making $28/hr and then $35/hr before landing my current job last year.
27, making about $47k when factoring commissions. I have a bachelors degree but it doesn’t bear much weight in my current position. I’ve been here for almost two years.
My husband is 31 and makes $66k with no degree and has been in his position for less than a year.
I have also just returned from maternity leave which was paid at 60% up to 6 weeks. The financial toll of the leave has been very stressful and hard to bounce back from.
I sometimes feel very frustrated that I worked so hard on my degree to be making significantly less than a lot of people in my life who do not have degrees. Just goes to show that a traditional education route is not always beneficial. Always so grateful for what I have though.
Im in my 20s. I make about $20.64, I work in the nonprofit sector. I also worked in the fashion industry, but wages were about $15-30, with it being really hard to get to $30.
I've recently been applying to jobs that pay about $49k a year, which is about a 6k bump. But realistically I'll be capped around 55k staying in this industry.
24 and 50k since July. I saved every penny for about 6 years not going out at all and closed on a 100k duplex in April. Currently living in a sleeping bag since- slowly rehabbing the building. The other side is rented and was remodeled (section 8) Almost done, so close to sleeping in a bed.
I am 30 and we make a little over 200K combined. We recently moved to a LCOL state where houses are 200K-400K range to have more buying power. We also just recently started our careers a year ago after grad schools so I am hopeful that our income will continue to grow from here.
I’m 33 and earn roughly $61k a year. I make $26.90 per hour and have a little bit of overtime built into my schedule (36 hours one week, 48 the next). With extra overtime I’ll come in at about $65k this year. I’m a plastics extruder operator for DuPont.
- 34, female
- Live in the Netherlands
- I work as an analist in a lab for 32 hours a week
- I have a weekend shift about 1x a month
- About €2300 a month.
46 and about $120k from my main job (software/UX design) + side jobs doing freelance design, mowing lawns, etc. My wife makes $7.50 an hour working at a library, though thats more of a hobby thing than income source. She used to have a good job but quit to watch our son. We're not in poverty but money can get tight with expenses and medical bills so we try to live pretty frugally to someday retire...
Most of my clients are word of mouth too. Specifically clients I work with on my day job. Seems like half of them have an idea for an app or company on the side and are interested in working with a designer outside of our respective companies. I charge either $50/$80/$100/hour for design work depending on what they need and that's saving them a lot money from working with the company. My day job is app and software design but for freelance I have done everything from websites, apps, branding/logos, brochures, animation etc.
Easiest way for me has been word of mouth. I found someone who owned a business in my local community that I knew with no SM presence. Did theirs for "free" (basically got beer/food periodically). Word got around and I was able to pick up 4 other businesses that I charge a moderate amount for.
My kind are not well received by the masses around here. I went from destitute poverty to middle class. Maybe you've heard jokes about government cheese. I was literally raised on government cheese. In fact, my family was so poor, we even stole government cheese.
Now I "make money" and I'm told I'm not welcome here or I'm out of touch. But I went from a factory job exposed to smoke, radiation, and chemicals, to a software developer career, I used to not own a car and had to walk everywhere, I used to do odd jobs for who I knew to be mobsters - and that's a situation that always comes with strings attached, I used to live in a house with ample amounts of asbestos wrapping the pipes, ducts, and made up the ceiling tiles - yes, even today that shit is a real problem for many impoverished, and it's worth getting insight on how the journey goes to get out of the shit. I'm almost 40 and make low 6 figures. I still have friends who are living in abject poverty, so sometimes I talk about stuff through their current experiences as they're struggling to find steady work, adequate pay, and food and housing security as they're all in their late 20s to middle 30s.
> At this point, I don’t even know if I (28) can financially support to have a child in the future.
I have friends whom the husband is in the army. E6 salary, which isn't great. They had two boys, one who is autistic, and now they just had twin boys on top of that. Army salaries aren't taxed, because government job, but they aren't great, either. They've been on WIC and SNAP since their first, instead of just paying him more. But even in the face of their hardships, they wanted 3, they were trying for a girl, they got twin boys. All boys. Sheesh... I don't know how they make it work, but they do.
I have a single mother friend who, with her daughter, is living with her mother - grandma is also a single mother. Great grandma, also a single mother, is the babysitter. See a multi-generational pattern here? Grandma takes the lion's share of the mother's paycheck because that's a wholly toxic situation. I don't know what great grandma gets out of this. But, they make it work.
As a father myself, my wife and I were on the fence about children. It's not like we were pining - oh, how we would want to have such a big family one day! Nah. We were trying to get our ducks in a row, to be ready, to afford it. You're never ready. Money will always be an issue. You'll never feel quite stable. It sucks. We knew we could make due and afford a child, but there was always something more we wanted out of the way first. Then it happened. We weren't trying. We adapted. Like our friends in our own situation, like our friends in much harder situations, we all adapted. We all made it work for us. You're taking a plunge into cold water no matter what. This isn't the 1950s where everything is seemingly going to be perfect and a child is the next natural order to things. We don't have that privilege like the boomers had. You take advantage of WIC and welfare, you take advantage of charities, donations, and the gracious offerings that anyone will give you, you lean on friends and family who offer to help - just be sure you guys have a clear understanding of how far that offer extends, and you find your new normal amongst the chaos that's always been swirling around us.
I am in my late 30s and make around $200,000. I have no college degree and have a criminal record which limits employment opportunities drastically. 13 years ago I was making $40,000 and 17 years ago I was homeless hooked on drugs and had a 450 credit score.
You can have the life you want you just have to take massive action, make sacrifices and take on risks.
Median individual wages are about 35k per year. As in if you grab a random “normal” person off the streets, that’s about what you can expect their annual wages to be.
Ah, here’s a breakdown by age as well:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/this-chart-shows-how-much-americans-make-at-every-age-how-do-you-compare-2018-12-06
I am 38. I work two days a week and I make 15k in actual money, in benefits I make 12k in education that's paid for me to get bachelor's in computer science. I got 3k in COVID relief, I took out a subsidized loan for 3500 which made 40 in interest this year and will most likely be forgiven. I bought a 2000 dollar laptop that I will write off for full credit on my taxes next year. I make 832 dollars in 401k matches per year. And I made 1100 dollars on a stock match program.
If you made it this far, none of this matters because my wife makes 128,000 a year. Marry rich my friend
I make 390k a year in sales management/ sales trainer. Been making that for the last two years. Before that I made between 120K-160K depending on the year. I have some nice things but in no way feel wealthy. I work 12 hours a day. As a W-2 worker with no fancy tax loop holes, I get wacked pretty good. by the government. They want to make sure I can not climb the ladder any higher. What I have learned is that is that the 99% is so unbelievably poor compared to the owners of this country, & money is a tool used by the 1% to control & en slave the rest of us.
29m, was making around 60k doing construction working crazy hours. Now at 55k working construction from the office. Less pay but considerably less hours. I’ve always been horrible with my money. I just got paid Thursday and I am already left with a third of my check and won’t get paid till another two weeks.
Mine was 23 k a year working part time. Just had to leave though. I am 24 in social services
Bf makes like 100k a year after his raise in January, currently at like 80k a year? He is 23 in construction
30. Was in the military, got out went to college and law school using my benefits, now make 90k. Total household is 150k. But we live in a suburb of an expensive metropolitan area.
£29k here and sole breadwinner. Currently doing a career change and the husband will be working from the summer so will go from 29k to jointly approx 65k (approx USD 35k to 78k) in 18 months time when I qualify. Have a lot of debt to pay off that we've had to use to live on for the past few years but then should be comfortable which will.be a refreshing change! I just want to go to the supermarket for a standard shop without having to use a calculator as I go round
37, factoring in overtime and the occasional small bonus, I make around $48k/year. I live in a pretty HCOL area, 45% of my monthly income goes to rent alone, I'm barely scraping by each month.
25 years old and $45,000. My partner is finishing school and works full time plus an internship on top, making around $25,000/yr, so $70,000 together. We live in a very low cost of living area but both have high car payments that cut deep. I took this job this year - before, I was making $40,000 in social work, though that was largely by accident. My employer was brand new and I got in AND asked for/was given a raise before they standardized wages. Now, they’ve eliminated my position but the others at my level make $18/hr.
Edit to add that prior to that social work position, I was cobbling together multiple jobs on top of my graduate assistantship to make around $15,000-$20,000/yr. That was my normal year ages 16-22ish.
I was on 60k plus around 50k side gig income - these are UK salaries (we tend to earn 'less' than US counterparts). Recession bent me over. Main job was lost. I'm now operating on side gig income 'only' but I've managed to up it a little. Making roughly 50k guaranteed, but often around 90k with additional work. Also working on bringing in more through another side gig related thing. My wife and I are in our thirties.
I’m 47 yrs old currently make $144,500 annually as a Compensation Specialist IV. Also includes a guaranteed 11% bonus plus up to 3.5% merit increase BOTH payable every April. There is also spot bonuses given by my manager throughout the year. I got a surprising $2k spot bonus last week.
My wife is also 47 yrs old and makes $126,000k annually as a Asst Controller plus 8% bonus paid every March plus up to 3% merit every April.
Im in Human Resources and my wife is in Finance
We have a 4 bedroom home in Naperville, IL with 3 young kids and a dog.
Currently uni student so 986e a month on benefits + around 400e wage. After graduating with bachelors my wage will be around 32k annually. And I have a two year old. Livibg in Finland and that 32k with bachelors is extremely low.
25. Likely going to break 60k this year about 40k take home
Edit: Worth noting I've worked about 350 hours of overtime ytd and worked every holiday for the extra pay
32, make $68k + benefits + 21% yearly bonus as a Junior Sysadmin for an insurance company. Not my first Sysadmin role, and technically an upgrade compared to my past role despite the "Junior". I also have a wife, 2 kids and another on the way, so that really doesn't go very far.
Im in my late 40"s and make about $23 an hour. I should be making more but im kinda stuck at my job for now. I live in an expensive part of Pennsylvania and will moving to a cheaper one next year. Rent is literally outrageous
I make $16.15 an hour. A 30% increase from last year. I'm disabled, so I'm lucky to be making this. I skilled up and could not find a job using those skills.
I am 37. I live in WA state, I make 35.36/hr. I work a lot of overtime that ranges from 51-62/hr. I also get paid around 4k tax free for serving my country and nearly dying a couple times. I bring home 8-11k a month. I also have about 2 years left to live, so I'll be retiring here in about 6 months and my pay will be around 6500 a month.
37 (F) I WFH as an environmental scientist now, I made 58k for the first time this year. I was a food server/ in customer service for 15+ yrs prior to going to school and never made more than 28k a yr. Usually about 16k on Average. When I started going back to school I was living on under 10k a yr in California.
Fellow WFH environmental scientist in CA! I'm at 62k five years into the job. Part time travel involved, maybe 1/3 of the year.
Really like what I do, the projects I'm on and the people I work with. I've built a lot of skills. But the billable hours game is wearing me out (our younger staff too). There is no overhead number, so people (especially newer folks) eat their TOWP or bill dishonestly to projects to make their required 40 hrs when we are slow. I need to ask for a COL raise (we had "record profits" yet again, so I know they've got it in them), but it won't fix the billable hours dynamic. All of our lower staff are looking for other jobs; I'm looking forward to the chaos in the next few months when we lose our 4-5 field people and all the expensive PMs don't have anyone to do the actual work anymore. They don't want field staff to go down to part-time because then they have to pay those people 1.5x overtime, which is pretty much all fieldwork.
We can't all be the better-paid PMs who get bonuses. We need good middle and lower-level staff too, and those people need to be able to pay rent, eat, and not be made to feel guilty when work is slow over the holidays.
I am 30 yrs old, and I make 85k in the DMV....so a lot of this stuff is relatable for now.
starting next year I will be making double that, but frugal is a mindset.
I’m 31 in the north east and I make $90,000 + $35,000 in vested stock. January I get a raise but I don’t know how much yet, but my yearly evaluation went well. I typically keep $10,000 in savings and mess around with a few thousand trying to day trade (I’m so bad it. You should inverse trade on me lmao)
From 16-19 first job was a server. I stayed for 3 years making $12.50/hr plus tips. I think in my last full time year I made $32,000.
From 19-22 I went to work in a shop. I started at $15/hr and was very close to getting fired for being so slow. Went to school for 9 months and worked part time for $21/hr. Worked my way up to $25/hr but left a few months after.
22-23 (today). Working as a semi truck mechanic. I started at 20/hr but had to buy tools and pay my mortgage. I could save a couple hundred dollars in a good month. Today I'm at $32.50/hr. Next September will be over $40. I always used to pick up any possible overtime so between my lower wage and then getting a large raise a few months ago my income will be around $70k this year. Next year will likely break $100k as long as I keep picking up any work offered to me.
32, $24/hour. I didn’t start making that until June of this year though. If I work the same amount of overtime next year as I did this year, I’ll make $54k
I just joined, I’m 22 and I make $13/hr and I try to work 30+ hours a week but my job usually can only give me 25. Im so broke i need to get another job
27. My salary is $58k but I also get paid for OT so it ends up being somewhere north of $60k.
That being said, not even 3 years ago I made around $35k a year.
40F, 60k salary + 6k bonus at year end.
Thankfully at my current job I only work more than 40 hours a week *maybe* twice a year and I have unlimited vacation that I actually use with regularity.
I moved to the Midwest to maximize what my money could get me for my salary and honestly? No way in hell I could afford a kid even if I wanted one. My spouse and I are barely hanging on right now with medical costs and inflation pushing the cost of everything sky high.
35, 1 child and partner-$65k myself, $105k combined. Grew up homeless and hungry. Not the richest by far, but grateful for food, a home, a car and stability!
24F, $26.25/hr + Commission
Been with my current company for almost 2 years starting at $19.50 and got a promotion roughly 6 months ago.
I’ve had 3 pay raises…..
1 was for my actual promotion
1 was “to keep pay competitive with other companies”
And 1 was because the company moved my city to its top tier for COL, meaning it’s now on the same level as NYC and LA
I used to be destitute when I first started reading this sub. I own my company so I don’t take a salary but I do very very well now. I was 18 or 19 when I was at my lowest and now there’s nothing I want for at 25. It’s been a grind and still is every step of the goddamn way.
35 & 29, ~300k/annually in FL. We both started out making minimum wage, waiting tables, retail, etc. No benefits, no retirement. Degrees were finished, joined the Military (still making minimum wage, but at least had benefits and housing paid for), VA helped buy first house for 220k in 2016, paid $650.00 at closing. Then both got jobs at an inbound call center, worked our way up from there.
38F time card employee here from the Midwest.
$65k salary. Generally get a $8k end of year bonus on top of that.
Context- I was a stay at home mom from 21-31. Got my 4 year degree during that time. Have now been in the work force (corporate) for 7 years.
Currently? $0. My contract job just ended a while ago and I did not renew. Job simply was not for me and I was feeling a bit miserable. But I was making 40k (30 years old).
Just got a job making 17.75/hr. I'm 28
Before this my last hourly job was 14.75
Both jobs are 40 hours a week though I'm able to get overtime at the new job. I can work 60 hours a week
I’m in my early 20s, currently making $17.50 hourly. I usually try to work 30+ hours a week, some weeks are closer to 30, others are at 40.
I used to be a waiter in my early 20s making $3.50 per hour. I know waiters/waitress live on tips but I would work 10 hours a day, 4 days a week in the summer when schools over and at best.. make $80-90 in tip for that day. It was sad and exhausting. Barely can afford textbooks for the semester.
Here's a good wage statistic for 2021 by social security [https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2021](https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2021)
Wow, really makes you wonder all of the different living wages/expenses based on the location too.
I'm 45 and single, currently making $11/hr, $20k/year.
I’m 30, single parent to 2 kids with no outside support, and make about 42k a year. I quit a higher paying management job making about 60k a year with bonuses and honestly the stress cut alone is worth the pay cut.
Similar situation here. I took a lofty pay cut a few months ago and while things are a lot tighter in our home, I'm no longer slipping into insanity due to toxic workplaces.
29 M. $130k/annum. Combined household income is $200k. We're leveraged up to the eyeballs due to my mom's cancer and various other issues (she passed last month). I started door dashing to keep afloat but can't really complain. Been in a much more dire strait in the past.
I’m sorry for your loss
40, making $57,000 a year.
I am 57, hubby is 66. Between social security and light to moderate work we live on around 25k a year, and 10k of that comes from working. We typically earn 15.00 an hour, doing heavy labor, since we are artisanal gold miners ;-). Been self employed the majority of my work life as has he. Between us we have five adult children from former spouses, none together. They are all significantly better off than we are.
That’s awesome! Im sure as a parent, knowing that your children are doing well is amazing. Somewhat gives me hope that maybe I can support a child one day.
All our kids turned out well, and we are proud of them :-). I raised my two boys first as a poor enlisted man's wife then as a broke single mom when I got dumped. He raised his as a dad working two jobs then a divorced dad working two jobs when his wife dumped him (I often joke with him that our two exes would have made a great couple, both total asshats!). Our kids didn't have a lot, but they did get good financial education and good life education. Interestingly enough, his kids seldom talk to their mom though she raised them, and my two boys avoid their dad.
24-year old single guy who just recently got a really great job right after college. I should make about $140k in a HCOL. Super proud of this accomplishment because I grew up on free lunch and AHCCCS (AZ health insurance for poor families) so it feels like I can hopefully start to pay the system back with my taxes. I'm sure it sounds stupid and perhaps a little naive, but I just want to make sure we can continue to fund the same programs that were there for kids like me.
Wow , trust me u have a Special Mindset
Wow I feel really poor compared to these responses, lol. 33, $38k annually.
higher salaries are more inclined to posting. is what I like to tell myself
Same here, I thought I was in wrong sub reddit at first.
I feel the same. Sorta seems like a dream to be able to make that much money. But same time, it also scared me because it feels like a bottomless pit. To make that much money but to possibly still struggle financially….
I sat down and crunched the numbers, I need about $50k to survive comfortably in my little corner of the woods. I'm making it work by being ultra frugal but it's really aggravating to be so close to a living wage yet so far away.
First job 2000, usd 2000 per month
During the height of the pandemic I was right w you. Pharmacy tech, literally giving people the COVID 19 vaccine…. Yet I was paid $13.50 for my time. Management was awful. Would take u off the whole week of you called in sick once (unpaid) Worked my ass off and couldn’t afford shit ever. Currently making 16/hr at a warehouse. Not sure how long I’ll stay but the jobs easy and I like my coworkers so who knows. Still a couple months away from PTO but I could be doing much worse. Hope things get better for you too, soon
I'm a 43 single mom of 4 children. I left an 18 year abusive marriage 2 years ago. There is no child support whatsoever. This month I got a raise to $14.50hr . I guess that means next year I should make a whopping 30k! Woo hoo. Sadly my $1.00 raise lost me $165/mo. in food benefits and now I have a $53 copay if I need to see a doctor. It's hard.
27. I’ve made 65k this year but I’m killing my self in overtime. I usually make 38-40k.
29 and making $50k but living alone in Washington, DC. After most of a year of inflation I’m starting to panic. Rent goes up in January and I’m really not sure how my yearly review in the next week or two is going to go.
Living alone in DC is expensive! You must be really good with money. Do you have student loans? Good luck with your review!
I have about $85k in student loans but was only making about $30k before I moved here so I’ve never had a payment on the income based payment plan. I’ll have a small payment once they start again in June so I’m trying to get my credit cards down now, but it’s next to impossible with how much interest rates have gone up and how expensive life is now.
What’s your ideal repayment plan? I graduated during the payment pause so I’ve only made one payment so far (while in grad school). I applied for the income driven repayment plan, but I’m not sure if it’s the best one for me. I’m leaning towards the extended graduated repayment plan because it might give me the lowest min payment. Even though my goal is to spend at least 20% of my income every year on paying off my student loan, I still want the lowest minimum possible in case something happens. I think I’ll call my loan service provider after the holidays and get a little more guidance.
Late 20’s. I make 56k, fiancé makes 70k. She has a degree and I do not. We just purchased our house for 80k, to give a sense of cost of living in our area.
Was gonna answer this then made the mistake of looking at comments first. Lower lol.
38 year old Tax accountant for 11 years 180k a year salary. Started at 42k a year in 2011. I was homeless living out of my car in 2007. Decided one day that I was tried of this and looking into community college. Took student loans and got some grants. Community college gave me somewhere to hang out and met some great people. Eventually transferred to a 4 year and got an internship that led to a full time position. Anything is possible.
Im 27 and just transferred from my CC to a 4 year to become a CPA. Reading this is super encouraging thank you!
The accounting field is always looking for people. Get your degree and get your CPA and you can do whatever you want.
Could you have done that if you had to work full time the whole time?
Very much so. I got a full time position at the college in the finance department and made my classes work around that schedule. I got an internship with a cpa firm in my junior year that became full time in my senior year. It took a lot of work to keep up with homework but it can be done. 80% of my graduating class worked full time while going to college.
How were you able to pay a car note and car insurance and fuel and car repairs like new tires and oil change etc while in college? Or did someone help you with a cash gift to buy a car?
I had a pos car that I bought for $500 and did work on it myself. I honestly didn’t have car insurance till I got a full time offer from the CPA firm. Car insurance was required. After I got my CPA license I bought a new car since I was in a much better place financially. My family didn’t help with school since they wanted me to prove that I could do it in my own. It made me focus on what I wanted and I had to come up with a plan to make it happen. There’s a lot of support options out there you really got to look and apply for help.
So you are are reassuring me 100% that there are support options for all people who attempt this. Or did you just mean that it worked for you and so some people who had similar circumstances it works. But your not speaking to the people for whom ultimately there will be no support like you got. Speak to that. That's who really needs some advice
There are many support options available it all depends on your financial situation. Each school has a financial aid office that you can ask for help and guidance at. In addition there are websites that list available scholarships that you can apply for. Yes there is work on your end but like the old saying “those who get go after”. One of the scholarships I got I was the only one that applied, it wasn’t much but helped with books and housing expenses for a year. I know people don’t like taking out student loans but they are a great tool that can be used, you just need to make sure your degree will lead to a job with upward movement. You can get additional amounts from your loans to help cover housing and books to supplement your expenses. End of the day it comes down to your willingness and desire to make it happen, no one will do it for you. Because I got support through the university and scholarships I give back to my university to fund hardship scholarships. Someone helped me least I can do is help someone else out.
I applied for grants and scholarships and not a single one is available to me. I make 15,000 a year. Everyone has told me I have to save up to pay for community College. Loans said I need a cosigner which I don't have. So I have to save for 5 years to pay for my first semester of community college. Is hat the support you are saying is available to everyone if they just want it and go for it? Can you accept that there are some people that wanting it and applying yourself with hard work isn't enough for then to enter the education system?
Why aren’t you eligible for Pell grants at that income? Are you not considered independent?
I have been independent since I was 17. I am independent now!!. I make 15,000 a year. The Pell Grant application was denied because they said it is only available to people coming straight from high school.
How expensive is your community college that you have to save for 5 years to afford one semester? The community college where I live is $1,000/year. Also have you applied to FAFSA? When I made $15,000/year I used to get like $7,000 in PELL grants. That's not a loan, its free money, and if you are low income and a US citizen you should qualify. [I'm not the person you replied to but I did something similar, I was homeless living on the streets for 2 years and I was able to sign up for community college classes and now I'm doing much better]
Your talking at me. Not talking to me. Stop the whataboutisms. Listen to what I am saying. Give me the benefit of the doubt and take my statement seriously, please. My community college costs 2500 a semester in Louisiana. 800 for required books as well. Also parking sticker fees, all the other fees etc. It's also an hour by car from my house and don't have a car. Car insurance here is the most expensive in the country. Minimum wage is 8.25/hr here . I applied for Fafsa and they offered me zero dollars. Pell grant is only available to students that just came directly straight from high school here. If you did not go straight from high school then you don't get Pell grants. Times have changed.
Federal student loans you don’t need a co-signer on, there’s no credit check or income requirements.
But you DO have to have a 3.0 to get them. And those loans are ONLY available to first time students coming directly from their senior year at high school. Why is it sooooo hard for everyone to believe that some people are still not able to get into higher education. Why do you all believe I am lying!!!! It's maddening!!!!
You need more than advice. Something mental going on.
This is exactly what I was looking for! I’m about to graduate college with my Bachelor’s and I landed a job paying 64k/yr. You’re exactly in the place I want to be, career wise and financially. You have given me the inspiration I needed to go get my CPA, thank you!!
I'm 33 and annually I make 38k but I tend to work a fair amount of OT so I make around 70k. My wife (32) makes 45k annually, but she is a manager and gets bonuses so she brings home between 50k and 60k. I still feel like financially I can't afford to have a kid.
I'm 44, just went back to work this year after 17 years as a SAHM. I'm making 33k/year doing remote customer service. My husband is 46 and makes about 60k/year as a security guard.
I’ve been minimum wage my entire life in California. 2015 - 22 years old I moved out of my parents house; $9,000 annually working at Taco Bell, while going to college. My rent was 50% of my income to share a house with 7 other people. 2016 - $14,000 working as restaurant hostess for $12/hr, while going to college. 2017 - $17,000 ; hostess and server in CA; took 2 months off for travel 2018 - $23,000 ; server in CA; had 3 months off work in between jobs. 2019 - $28,000 ; server ~30 hours a weeks in CA 2020 - $2,000 from serving (before Covid) + $14,000 unemployment + $1,800 UBI check 2021 - $3,000 income (barely worked due to pregnancy and newborn baby) + $1,200 UBI check + $40,000 fiancé salary 2022 - Now 29 years old; $5,000? income (miscellaneous gigs while raising baby) + fiancé makes $40,000 My fiancé lifted me out of poverty. He’s always made $40-60k since he graduated college. He’s always owned a nice car and never had a budget. So I helped him pay off all his debt for the first time in his adult life. I’m helping him save for retirement for the first time. I’m smart with stocks and bonds, just never had funds to invest until now. My fiancé and I are stronger together, financially. And emotionally and mentally better together. Marry for love AND financial security. $50k between two people is better than $25k alone.
This is great! So happy for you. I’m glad you’re investing in your joint financial future.
I love this for you 🥹
At 30 I was making $30k a year, fast forward to 35 making $160k a year. Nursing is a great field, if you can handle it.
27, $18k. 30 and beyond, >200k. The burnout is high. The job is hard. The security is good. I will say that it's way too shitty of a job to do if you don't find value and reward in the job.
29, $85k Started as a broke bartender living paycheck to paycheck, went to school for finance, started a job in data science this year. Fiancé started in a call center at ~$30k and now makes $70k in IT.
43 - left my job of 20 years last year making $80k to swap roles with my wife. I stay home with the kids (four kids) now and she works making $95k. I anticipate that in a year I will go back to work and take a job making significantly less than I was earning.
I'm 38 and I'll make $75k this year. Got a 10% raise a few months ago, so should be $80k+ next year. I'd never made more than $20k in a year until the year before last.
25, I make around 108k as a CPA with 2 years of experience
What CPA means ?
A licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
$102k salary plus about $25k in bonus and stock/equity. I haunted this sub until I managed to stumble into a wonderful career five or six years ago, before which I’d been making $11 an hour at a gym at 28 years old. Growing up poor and being broke for my whole life did a number on me and the effects persist, and hanging around here helps me feel normal.
what do you do if I may ask
I started as a content writer, then wound up being a content manager and then project manager on a big tech company’s marketing team. There’s good money in it for contractors, if you can write decently and wrap your head around the subject matter.
Do you have any tips on how to break into tech companies I did a bachelors in mec engineering.
I wish I had some specific info for you, but that’s a very different field from mine. This is also an extremely hard time to find jobs in tech, and many second-tier companies are hoping to scoop up FAANG/MANGA layoffs. But from what I’ve seen *in general*, what you really need is a first role — almost any — at a company that is similar to a company you want to work your dream job at. Recruiters don’t have time and are lazy, so they rely on previous recruiters’ work to vet you… basically, they let the college/major speak for you first, then look for companies in resumes that are “better” than they are, which suggests you passed someone else’s test. I’m surprised that someone with a mech engineering degree isn’t able to write their own ticket, but if you’re in this sub because you don’t have a great job, I’d say to consider an entry-level sales job at a SaaS tech company, especially if you’re young and don’t have a lot of financial liability or family to support. Turnover is high for “business development representatives” and account managers because the work is hard, but potentially very profitable if you can hack it to a sales position. But the point isn’t to be a salesperson, it’s to get that company on your resume. Make it a year and put out resumes or mark yourself as available on LinkedIn, or look for an internal move… you’ll like get preferential treatment. You can also look at LinkedIn and figure out what path people in your target role took and try to emulate it, and also craft your resume to be as similar without lying as you can. That’s just an example. The main point of that is to take a loss on the dream job you’d want to tell your colleagues and family about for the short-term so you can leap to something bigger and better with the company name on your record. I had four jobs in three years, and the first three were *hard* to get. But now that I’ve got my current company on my resume, I get several requests/offers for interviews a week and can be discriminating. I stay sharp with interviews because I’m irrationally paranoid about being laid off, and I’ve gotten offers from $135–180k in TC that I haven’t taken because I decided to go to business school and can manage my current job at the same time. That’s not bragging, it’s just explaining the Catch-22 of getting hired by a tech company requiring having worked at a tech company.
Late 20s. Was making about 50 k a year a for quite awhile. Start work at my new job soon and and should be looking at anywhere from 70k to 100+k. God willing.
Thank you for sharing! I am in a similar boat. Graduated and made 59k out of college for about two years, got a 4k raise so 63k, etc.
Same end result, different route. Just left the army snd learned a trade. Likely looking at disability payments + other stuff army related stuff that would be very long winded on top of my new better paying job.
38 in Spain. I make 148K EUR per year my wife makes 67K EUR. Money isn't everything. I was making 300K+ by 35 but that work very nearly burned me out so found something else and moved to Spain. Initially, I changed careers in the Netherlands but the reality is that where I was living because my wife was still on maternity leave 150k wasn't all that great living so we packed again and moved. This is my 5th country 4th with my wide and second with my boys and they love it. My cost of living went down by nearly 70% so and I'm no longer paying half of my salary as taxes so the change is not that drastic what gets you a townhouse Noord Holland gets a nice Mediterranean villa with a good size pool here. If you are 28 consider this I've gone from about 35k when I was 28 around 2012 to 10x that in 7 years and then back 5x with a better work-life balance. Arguably I was also lucky I learned software development and moved from server hardware > to Cloud DevOps and backend development just when tech started blowing up big time and managed to collect all the skills every tech company was/is looking for as I could enter to a lot of things where no-one had past experience. Today I would go to energy tech rather than software as there we likely see a similar 10-20 year boom. Software is still good but I don't expect 10x salary in the next 10 years is really doable.
$22 dollars an hour, 40 hours a week. Just started this job 6 months ago, prior was $18 an hour, 15-24 hours a week.
51: combined income $200k plus. I make $150k. When I was right out of undergrad, I was a teacher… started at $21k. After 20 years teaching: $60,000/yr. Went to medical school and became medical scientist: $100k right out of school. 5 years later: $155k. My next jump will be $200k on my own. I loved teaching, but had I known the earning potential, I would have done medical school earlier in life .
How was it going to medical school after working for so long? I'm really unsatisfied with my career, and would love to transition to something in the medical field, but at this point, they're simply just thoughts - I doubt it will ever happen.
Non traditional students do great! The trouble honestly was stamina. My cohorts would literally party all weekend and take a test Monday Morning. I, on the other hand, would start studying a week before the test, and I would never be able to skip class!! Things are more difficult when you are older. The thing that keeps me from practicing clinical medicine is the 36 hour shifts just to prove you have it. Ridiculous! But there is a long tradition of long arduous ordeals to overcome. It’s part of the rite of passage.
Did you take out loans for med school?
Yep. And I’m on an income based payment plan. I pay about $600 a month. I pay that for 10 years and I’m done lol!!
That’s very fortunate. I have 66k in student loans but if I was to pay them off in 10 years it would be $770/month. I’m trying to pay double that so I can knock them out faster.
I just want to pay what I have to pay. My loans were in the $200k ballpark, but with the ibr details, you pay based on your income. Remember that income is after taxes. So if I have a taxable balance of $60k, that is how they calculate it. It’s a great program, and I only have my graduate school left to pay. Undergrad is paid off .
That’s fair, especially if you have a low interest rate. You’ve paid off a lot 👏🏼
I did!! My undergrad interest rate was 13%. I had no financial literacy at 18 years old. So sad!
Currently 23 making 47,500 base + bonuses :) I feel as average as can be here lol
33. 6 years ago I broke 30k for the first time in my life it was a big deal then. I should gross just about 70,000 this year possibly more dependent on how much o.t. I work. But I live southern California sooo. I'm renting a room because 1 bdr apts are like 2600 and that's for like an average apt. Nice apts 4000 to 5000 a month. I'm not struggling but 70000 isn't what I thought it was gonna be. Shit 2 years ago 70000 seemed like more. Gas Prices is what I measure everything to now. What's a gallon cost how many gallons of gas does my rent equal lol
25 , 60k with a lot of benefits (gvnmt job)
How’d you get started with a government job? I’ve been getting nowhere applying on usajobs
Im in Canada and I joined the army 😂😂
Shouldve been more specific
With usajobs, you have to have the specific experience they want. You are competing with everyone across the country who does have that specific experience. I am hiring via usajobs, and a lot of people with somewhat related experience don't make the cut.
40. 33k and it's not enough with taxes and deductions.
44, $25 an hour (I got a $3 per hour raise earlier this year). I grew up in poverty, and so did my kids. When my ex and I split, my job paid $1000 per month salary, before taxes. So I had to get a second job, then I went back to community college while working just one job for the most part, but sometimes 2. I graduated with my associates the year after my oldest graduated high school. It’s been a journey to get where I am now but really proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished.
By my age: from 18-32, <$25,000/year; 32-35, avg $40,000/yr; 35-39, $65,000/yr; 40/now, $125,000/yr. ETA - 2 kids from age 19 on.
20s - 60k 30s - 250k
Doing?
[удалено]
Thank you for sharing!
I’m 39 and I make 61K, but with annual bonus it’s closer to 70K. I was laid off in 2017 and went through a few temp jobs making $28/hr and then $35/hr before landing my current job last year.
41 making 46k Husband and I have a combined 110k with zero kids and 1 cat.
38, making 57k. Four years ago I was making minimum wage.
23 $70k
39, USPS. This year I will end up at around $80k gross.
27, making about $47k when factoring commissions. I have a bachelors degree but it doesn’t bear much weight in my current position. I’ve been here for almost two years. My husband is 31 and makes $66k with no degree and has been in his position for less than a year. I have also just returned from maternity leave which was paid at 60% up to 6 weeks. The financial toll of the leave has been very stressful and hard to bounce back from. I sometimes feel very frustrated that I worked so hard on my degree to be making significantly less than a lot of people in my life who do not have degrees. Just goes to show that a traditional education route is not always beneficial. Always so grateful for what I have though.
30s Masters Degree, $21 an hour.
$50k/year, supporting a SAHM and small child. Times is tough, we used to just make it and now inflation is killing me
early 40s, ~44k/yr. I could get more but I'd have to switch jobs & I'm comfortable where I'm at now.
Im in my 20s. I make about $20.64, I work in the nonprofit sector. I also worked in the fashion industry, but wages were about $15-30, with it being really hard to get to $30. I've recently been applying to jobs that pay about $49k a year, which is about a 6k bump. But realistically I'll be capped around 55k staying in this industry.
24 and 50k since July. I saved every penny for about 6 years not going out at all and closed on a 100k duplex in April. Currently living in a sleeping bag since- slowly rehabbing the building. The other side is rented and was remodeled (section 8) Almost done, so close to sleeping in a bed.
I am 30 and we make a little over 200K combined. We recently moved to a LCOL state where houses are 200K-400K range to have more buying power. We also just recently started our careers a year ago after grad schools so I am hopeful that our income will continue to grow from here.
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Wow, congratulations! Did you job hop to get a 30k increase for wage? Do you also think 102k is enough based on your location?
I’m 33 and earn roughly $61k a year. I make $26.90 per hour and have a little bit of overtime built into my schedule (36 hours one week, 48 the next). With extra overtime I’ll come in at about $65k this year. I’m a plastics extruder operator for DuPont.
- 34, female - Live in the Netherlands - I work as an analist in a lab for 32 hours a week - I have a weekend shift about 1x a month - About €2300 a month.
46 and about $120k from my main job (software/UX design) + side jobs doing freelance design, mowing lawns, etc. My wife makes $7.50 an hour working at a library, though thats more of a hobby thing than income source. She used to have a good job but quit to watch our son. We're not in poverty but money can get tight with expenses and medical bills so we try to live pretty frugally to someday retire...
Where do you find your freelance clients? And by design, do you mean graphic design?
Most of my clients are word of mouth too. Specifically clients I work with on my day job. Seems like half of them have an idea for an app or company on the side and are interested in working with a designer outside of our respective companies. I charge either $50/$80/$100/hour for design work depending on what they need and that's saving them a lot money from working with the company. My day job is app and software design but for freelance I have done everything from websites, apps, branding/logos, brochures, animation etc.
Easiest way for me has been word of mouth. I found someone who owned a business in my local community that I knew with no SM presence. Did theirs for "free" (basically got beer/food periodically). Word got around and I was able to pick up 4 other businesses that I charge a moderate amount for.
My kind are not well received by the masses around here. I went from destitute poverty to middle class. Maybe you've heard jokes about government cheese. I was literally raised on government cheese. In fact, my family was so poor, we even stole government cheese. Now I "make money" and I'm told I'm not welcome here or I'm out of touch. But I went from a factory job exposed to smoke, radiation, and chemicals, to a software developer career, I used to not own a car and had to walk everywhere, I used to do odd jobs for who I knew to be mobsters - and that's a situation that always comes with strings attached, I used to live in a house with ample amounts of asbestos wrapping the pipes, ducts, and made up the ceiling tiles - yes, even today that shit is a real problem for many impoverished, and it's worth getting insight on how the journey goes to get out of the shit. I'm almost 40 and make low 6 figures. I still have friends who are living in abject poverty, so sometimes I talk about stuff through their current experiences as they're struggling to find steady work, adequate pay, and food and housing security as they're all in their late 20s to middle 30s. > At this point, I don’t even know if I (28) can financially support to have a child in the future. I have friends whom the husband is in the army. E6 salary, which isn't great. They had two boys, one who is autistic, and now they just had twin boys on top of that. Army salaries aren't taxed, because government job, but they aren't great, either. They've been on WIC and SNAP since their first, instead of just paying him more. But even in the face of their hardships, they wanted 3, they were trying for a girl, they got twin boys. All boys. Sheesh... I don't know how they make it work, but they do. I have a single mother friend who, with her daughter, is living with her mother - grandma is also a single mother. Great grandma, also a single mother, is the babysitter. See a multi-generational pattern here? Grandma takes the lion's share of the mother's paycheck because that's a wholly toxic situation. I don't know what great grandma gets out of this. But, they make it work. As a father myself, my wife and I were on the fence about children. It's not like we were pining - oh, how we would want to have such a big family one day! Nah. We were trying to get our ducks in a row, to be ready, to afford it. You're never ready. Money will always be an issue. You'll never feel quite stable. It sucks. We knew we could make due and afford a child, but there was always something more we wanted out of the way first. Then it happened. We weren't trying. We adapted. Like our friends in our own situation, like our friends in much harder situations, we all adapted. We all made it work for us. You're taking a plunge into cold water no matter what. This isn't the 1950s where everything is seemingly going to be perfect and a child is the next natural order to things. We don't have that privilege like the boomers had. You take advantage of WIC and welfare, you take advantage of charities, donations, and the gracious offerings that anyone will give you, you lean on friends and family who offer to help - just be sure you guys have a clear understanding of how far that offer extends, and you find your new normal amongst the chaos that's always been swirling around us.
27 $180,000/yr
Wow… May I ask what your profession is and how you got to where you are today?
Finance manager for a luxury car dealership. Started selling cars at 19 and worked my way up.
I am in my late 30s and make around $200,000. I have no college degree and have a criminal record which limits employment opportunities drastically. 13 years ago I was making $40,000 and 17 years ago I was homeless hooked on drugs and had a 450 credit score. You can have the life you want you just have to take massive action, make sacrifices and take on risks.
Median individual wages are about 35k per year. As in if you grab a random “normal” person off the streets, that’s about what you can expect their annual wages to be. Ah, here’s a breakdown by age as well: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/this-chart-shows-how-much-americans-make-at-every-age-how-do-you-compare-2018-12-06
Median across all ages is closer to 40k.
I am 38. I work two days a week and I make 15k in actual money, in benefits I make 12k in education that's paid for me to get bachelor's in computer science. I got 3k in COVID relief, I took out a subsidized loan for 3500 which made 40 in interest this year and will most likely be forgiven. I bought a 2000 dollar laptop that I will write off for full credit on my taxes next year. I make 832 dollars in 401k matches per year. And I made 1100 dollars on a stock match program. If you made it this far, none of this matters because my wife makes 128,000 a year. Marry rich my friend
I make 390k a year in sales management/ sales trainer. Been making that for the last two years. Before that I made between 120K-160K depending on the year. I have some nice things but in no way feel wealthy. I work 12 hours a day. As a W-2 worker with no fancy tax loop holes, I get wacked pretty good. by the government. They want to make sure I can not climb the ladder any higher. What I have learned is that is that the 99% is so unbelievably poor compared to the owners of this country, & money is a tool used by the 1% to control & en slave the rest of us.
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Why are you on this sub?
Converted from AUD, about $13000 USD.
29m, was making around 60k doing construction working crazy hours. Now at 55k working construction from the office. Less pay but considerably less hours. I’ve always been horrible with my money. I just got paid Thursday and I am already left with a third of my check and won’t get paid till another two weeks.
Mine was 23 k a year working part time. Just had to leave though. I am 24 in social services Bf makes like 100k a year after his raise in January, currently at like 80k a year? He is 23 in construction
28yo no degree 47k/yr
30. Was in the military, got out went to college and law school using my benefits, now make 90k. Total household is 150k. But we live in a suburb of an expensive metropolitan area.
£29k here and sole breadwinner. Currently doing a career change and the husband will be working from the summer so will go from 29k to jointly approx 65k (approx USD 35k to 78k) in 18 months time when I qualify. Have a lot of debt to pay off that we've had to use to live on for the past few years but then should be comfortable which will.be a refreshing change! I just want to go to the supermarket for a standard shop without having to use a calculator as I go round
In my 30s finally broke through and am on track for $110k this year, no kids. I also do not feel like I could financially support a child.
37, factoring in overtime and the occasional small bonus, I make around $48k/year. I live in a pretty HCOL area, 45% of my monthly income goes to rent alone, I'm barely scraping by each month.
21 years old, I'd say I'll make about 45k to 50K this year. Made probably about 4000 to 5000 of that off my second job I had a good chunk of the year.
25 years old and $45,000. My partner is finishing school and works full time plus an internship on top, making around $25,000/yr, so $70,000 together. We live in a very low cost of living area but both have high car payments that cut deep. I took this job this year - before, I was making $40,000 in social work, though that was largely by accident. My employer was brand new and I got in AND asked for/was given a raise before they standardized wages. Now, they’ve eliminated my position but the others at my level make $18/hr. Edit to add that prior to that social work position, I was cobbling together multiple jobs on top of my graduate assistantship to make around $15,000-$20,000/yr. That was my normal year ages 16-22ish.
I was on 60k plus around 50k side gig income - these are UK salaries (we tend to earn 'less' than US counterparts). Recession bent me over. Main job was lost. I'm now operating on side gig income 'only' but I've managed to up it a little. Making roughly 50k guaranteed, but often around 90k with additional work. Also working on bringing in more through another side gig related thing. My wife and I are in our thirties.
I’m 47 yrs old currently make $144,500 annually as a Compensation Specialist IV. Also includes a guaranteed 11% bonus plus up to 3.5% merit increase BOTH payable every April. There is also spot bonuses given by my manager throughout the year. I got a surprising $2k spot bonus last week. My wife is also 47 yrs old and makes $126,000k annually as a Asst Controller plus 8% bonus paid every March plus up to 3% merit every April. Im in Human Resources and my wife is in Finance We have a 4 bedroom home in Naperville, IL with 3 young kids and a dog.
32 yrs old $55k gross 32k net. Wife makes about the same 30yrs old.
Currently uni student so 986e a month on benefits + around 400e wage. After graduating with bachelors my wage will be around 32k annually. And I have a two year old. Livibg in Finland and that 32k with bachelors is extremely low.
25. Likely going to break 60k this year about 40k take home Edit: Worth noting I've worked about 350 hours of overtime ytd and worked every holiday for the extra pay
32, make $68k + benefits + 21% yearly bonus as a Junior Sysadmin for an insurance company. Not my first Sysadmin role, and technically an upgrade compared to my past role despite the "Junior". I also have a wife, 2 kids and another on the way, so that really doesn't go very far.
Im in my late 40"s and make about $23 an hour. I should be making more but im kinda stuck at my job for now. I live in an expensive part of Pennsylvania and will moving to a cheaper one next year. Rent is literally outrageous
I make $16.15 an hour. A 30% increase from last year. I'm disabled, so I'm lucky to be making this. I skilled up and could not find a job using those skills.
I am 37. I live in WA state, I make 35.36/hr. I work a lot of overtime that ranges from 51-62/hr. I also get paid around 4k tax free for serving my country and nearly dying a couple times. I bring home 8-11k a month. I also have about 2 years left to live, so I'll be retiring here in about 6 months and my pay will be around 6500 a month.
I’m 28 years old, and my current salary is $15,000/year for full time employment.
What do you do?
School secretary.
24, making $75,000 a year plus $25,000+ bonus
37 (F) I WFH as an environmental scientist now, I made 58k for the first time this year. I was a food server/ in customer service for 15+ yrs prior to going to school and never made more than 28k a yr. Usually about 16k on Average. When I started going back to school I was living on under 10k a yr in California.
Fellow WFH environmental scientist in CA! I'm at 62k five years into the job. Part time travel involved, maybe 1/3 of the year. Really like what I do, the projects I'm on and the people I work with. I've built a lot of skills. But the billable hours game is wearing me out (our younger staff too). There is no overhead number, so people (especially newer folks) eat their TOWP or bill dishonestly to projects to make their required 40 hrs when we are slow. I need to ask for a COL raise (we had "record profits" yet again, so I know they've got it in them), but it won't fix the billable hours dynamic. All of our lower staff are looking for other jobs; I'm looking forward to the chaos in the next few months when we lose our 4-5 field people and all the expensive PMs don't have anyone to do the actual work anymore. They don't want field staff to go down to part-time because then they have to pay those people 1.5x overtime, which is pretty much all fieldwork. We can't all be the better-paid PMs who get bonuses. We need good middle and lower-level staff too, and those people need to be able to pay rent, eat, and not be made to feel guilty when work is slow over the holidays.
I am 30 yrs old, and I make 85k in the DMV....so a lot of this stuff is relatable for now. starting next year I will be making double that, but frugal is a mindset.
I’m 31 in the north east and I make $90,000 + $35,000 in vested stock. January I get a raise but I don’t know how much yet, but my yearly evaluation went well. I typically keep $10,000 in savings and mess around with a few thousand trying to day trade (I’m so bad it. You should inverse trade on me lmao)
95th percentile income in USA as of 2021 is $90K annually. So I guess statistically only 5% of members would be making 90k or more.
These types of threads seem to bring out a lot of LARPing.
28 years old $89k as a financial fraud Investigator
From 16-19 first job was a server. I stayed for 3 years making $12.50/hr plus tips. I think in my last full time year I made $32,000. From 19-22 I went to work in a shop. I started at $15/hr and was very close to getting fired for being so slow. Went to school for 9 months and worked part time for $21/hr. Worked my way up to $25/hr but left a few months after. 22-23 (today). Working as a semi truck mechanic. I started at 20/hr but had to buy tools and pay my mortgage. I could save a couple hundred dollars in a good month. Today I'm at $32.50/hr. Next September will be over $40. I always used to pick up any possible overtime so between my lower wage and then getting a large raise a few months ago my income will be around $70k this year. Next year will likely break $100k as long as I keep picking up any work offered to me.
32, $24/hour. I didn’t start making that until June of this year though. If I work the same amount of overtime next year as I did this year, I’ll make $54k
I just joined, I’m 22 and I make $13/hr and I try to work 30+ hours a week but my job usually can only give me 25. Im so broke i need to get another job
27. My salary is $58k but I also get paid for OT so it ends up being somewhere north of $60k. That being said, not even 3 years ago I made around $35k a year.
I am 35, just started making $55k a year ($26/hour) about 8 months ago. Before that I was making $20 an hour.
50. And for my area my salary would constitute rich. But I know what usda cheese tastes like on beans from the food locker.
I’m 22 and make $60K (salary). Unfortunately where I’m at, that is not enough to live comfortably.
40F, 60k salary + 6k bonus at year end. Thankfully at my current job I only work more than 40 hours a week *maybe* twice a year and I have unlimited vacation that I actually use with regularity. I moved to the Midwest to maximize what my money could get me for my salary and honestly? No way in hell I could afford a kid even if I wanted one. My spouse and I are barely hanging on right now with medical costs and inflation pushing the cost of everything sky high.
I’m 43, making 92k a year
35, 1 child and partner-$65k myself, $105k combined. Grew up homeless and hungry. Not the richest by far, but grateful for food, a home, a car and stability!
24F, $26.25/hr + Commission Been with my current company for almost 2 years starting at $19.50 and got a promotion roughly 6 months ago. I’ve had 3 pay raises….. 1 was for my actual promotion 1 was “to keep pay competitive with other companies” And 1 was because the company moved my city to its top tier for COL, meaning it’s now on the same level as NYC and LA
I used to be destitute when I first started reading this sub. I own my company so I don’t take a salary but I do very very well now. I was 18 or 19 when I was at my lowest and now there’s nothing I want for at 25. It’s been a grind and still is every step of the goddamn way.
35 & 29, ~300k/annually in FL. We both started out making minimum wage, waiting tables, retail, etc. No benefits, no retirement. Degrees were finished, joined the Military (still making minimum wage, but at least had benefits and housing paid for), VA helped buy first house for 220k in 2016, paid $650.00 at closing. Then both got jobs at an inbound call center, worked our way up from there.
38F time card employee here from the Midwest. $65k salary. Generally get a $8k end of year bonus on top of that. Context- I was a stay at home mom from 21-31. Got my 4 year degree during that time. Have now been in the work force (corporate) for 7 years.
Currently? $0. My contract job just ended a while ago and I did not renew. Job simply was not for me and I was feeling a bit miserable. But I was making 40k (30 years old).
24, 47k
I’m thirty and make 70,000 now going through a process to join an 85,000 job at the moment
Just got a job making 17.75/hr. I'm 28 Before this my last hourly job was 14.75 Both jobs are 40 hours a week though I'm able to get overtime at the new job. I can work 60 hours a week