I work within a small discipline of the HVAC commercial construction sector for about 13 years.

No one knows what I do on a project unless you’re in the sector or apart of the HVAC industry. So, trying to explain my day to day work to normal people is a job in itself lol. The discipline is HVAC controls or BAS (Building Automation Systems).

To start off with is the only education I have is a one year trade school certificate. The rest is working experience from literally the ground work up to director level.

My first 12 years I chased the title of my career. The next 3 years was chasing the money. Hence, why I changed companies 3 times.

Another note to mention is once you hit the 10 year mark. You’re valuable and can go to any company and write your salary. Currently there is a huge gap in labor in my industry.

I just signed my offer letter today to start as a director of project development for a general contractor company that focuses on mission critical/data center projects. So, as the data center bubble might pop within 5 / 10 years (I don’t believe so) I wanted to make the most money within that time frame.

This progression was to show that you don’t always need college, trades are great and that if anyone is in my industry you too can make this kind of money.

The WGU MBA keeps paying off. Finished it last year in July and my salary has nearly doubled since. (Was $73k prior to graduation). I just signed an offer with Aerovironment for $146k so now it’s time to update this.

My new salary puts me in the top 10% earners in the USA for my age cohort (30-35). I never once believed a salary like this was attainable for me prior to school.

Now I make enough money that my wife can retire to fulfill her dream of being a SAHM. This was our long term plan and we achieved it about a year before we though we would.

Perseverance and discipline have led me here today and I am beyond blessed. The money comes fast once you break that $100k mark.

Keep pushing!

Assumptions:

1. NOTHING saved or put away for future home ownership

2. VERY conservative on the cost of being in a relationship, I know guys spending that much on a single date night, not for the whole month

3. No hobbies listed (a lot of you guys have extremely cheap hobbies like “play video games”, real human beings often have more outdoor type hobbies that actually cost money)

I put all the percentages for each category on the right side of the chart since inevitably someone will come in and nitpick one of the line items (“bro, you’re spending THAT much on a haircut?! I can ignore everything else you’re saying, bro!”) but with the percents there we can see they’re nitpicking at like 0.2% of the monthly budget. Most on here are numerically illiterate and don’t actually understand what it costs to live a middle class lifestyle.

Feel free to explain what you disagree with on this chart or which item you don’t consider necessary for living a middle class lifestyle.

Context and current financial situation:
College student junior year, college is fully paid for on scholarship so zero debt when I graduate, parents have used the fund originally for tuition to pay for my rent and food. So I have basically zero expense currently and am a saver with a decent nest egg thanks to working part time nonstop since I was 15, it’s mostly in retirement accounts.

I am studying finance, my original plan was to go into wealth management I did two internships and have return offers to go work and become an advisor where the salary ceiling is relatively uncapped and entry positions are 6 figures. However, what my heart wants is to be outside not at a desk, I’m an Eagle Scout so I grew up outside. I would love to become a state park ranger and progress to state park manager. However rangers make about 60-70k salary, although the benefits bring all in comp it closer to 85-90k, a manger position would bring in somewhere in the ballpark of 100-120k from what I’ve seen.

I am worried I’m running out of time to decide and don’t know what to do. I’m not someone who cares a lot about having a bunch of expensive things. I want two kids and rooms for both so they don’t have to share and I’m happy (and money to travel, I prefer experiences).

I would love advice from people who have lived more life than I have!

From 2023 to Now

Here’s my salary progression in the financial services industry as an unlicensed full time employee in back end operations. This does not include any overtime and the bonuses are not included in the base salary provided either.

I recently got Series 7 & 63 licensed because I started a new role that required licensing, but I am still not client facing. I’m going to have a compensation review meeting shortly since it is year end review time, so I think I can get at least $10k more using my experience & amazing performance reviews at the firm and that fact that I just got licensed.

I am breaking into the wealth management space now so I expect my salary to increase a lot more over the years.

I think I’m doing well for myself. This was my first ever job and I got it without experience since my family didn’t allow me to work while I was in school. Having a company take a risk on you without any experience is such a blessing, especially in finance.

EDIT: I worked in operations, doing basically everything for a client. Ranging from general account maintenance (name & address changes, password resets, adding people to accounts) to opening new accounts and transferring assets (in and out).

EDIT: If I include any overtime I worked this year, I am projected to make a total of $72k including my bonus.

The White Collar Great Depression rages on. White collar workers are now so expensive, Microsoft is offering a one time payment to make them STOP showing up to work.

When’s the last time you saw healthcare workers or tradesmen getting bought out to stop coming in to work?

It’s time to face the facts: White collar work is DEAD. We are not needed, we are not wanted, we are too expensive. White collar workers in the US have ZERO future. If you’re still trying to push young kids into white collar careers you’re either profoundly ignorant or malicious. It’s over, the dream is dead, if you want a stable, high paying career, healthcare is your only option.

Getting an engineering degree was the literal worst decision of my life, I’d do anything to go back in time and change things, I screwed up so badly. I literally paid with my own time and money to acquire skills that are rapidly becoming obsolete in the most expensive economy in human history.

2022: Engineering Intern - $20/hr, SLO, Ca
2023: Engineering Intern - $33/hr, SoCal

—obtained bachelor's—

2024: Engineering Intern - $33/hr, SoCal
2025: Engineering Contract - $51/hr, SoCal

—obtained master's—

2026: Aerospace Engineer - $110/yr, SoCal
2027: Aerospace Engineer - $165/yr + $68k RSUs, SoCal

Background: 25M, specialized in guidance/nav/controls.

Do you feel like at this point you would want more money or do you think your mindset has shifted to prioritizing other things? For instance, would you take a 1 hour longer commute each way for an extra 70k? If not what do you prioritize?

Do you have a masters/professional degree? Do you work in tech? Did you attend a top 10 institution? Does everyone you know make that much or more? Do you feel very much “middle class” at that level of income?

An hour of pay from my last ever job in life wouldn't be affording even 4 gallons of gas, 3 weeks of pay wouldn't even be covering monthly rent. A week of pay didn't even cover the monthly interest on my old student loans, 2 weeks of pay wouldn't be affording a car. I mean, wow.... it really wasn't worth my time to be working there, esp after finishing a bachelor's with internship experience and all.

God forbid I listened to the government and created a couple brats to replace me when I die. Omg... I couldn't even afford my own life working full time let alone another whole child. It's such a terrible financial decision to be alive.

It's sad.

What is the base pay for a junior writer in Pune? also, if there are other things i need to know before confirming a permanent position.

I don’t think that I would need to for the bachelors degree (social work) I am going to start soon, and I don’t really like the idea of owing money back in the future. I will start a bachelors degree program in a few months.

But I also know that when I start a masters degree program I may actually need to at that point especially since I will likely only be able to work part time it seems for the next two years and am already from a very poor family. I’m just not sure whether or not taking out federal or subsidized loans would have a negative impact. I don’t know how long I’ll be in college for, I’m almost done with community college (will be done in December and start a bachelors degree program in January.) I might change majors in fall 2027 and am guessing that if I do so I won’t be done until spring 2029, when I am 24. I will then *probably* get a masters degree in social work, special ed, or school psychology, but it might end up being different. I want to make sure that I am financially smart either way.

I work as a substitute behavior technician and it is looking like based upon class times I probably won’t be able to work full time in spring 2027, and I’m guessing not fall 2027 either. My mother is volatile and the family were asked to leave the first apartment we were in around April or May of this year even though we’d lived there all my life which is why I am now in a condo that I will probably leave before December.

Total take home £67,000 + Bonus.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to know if my math is correct on this. I'm signing a new job and wanted to know what my net take home would be after NYC taxes (not benefits). $115k gross and according to my math I'm getting net take $6500 in NYC.

I'm not accounting for 401k or Roth or Insurance. I just want to know net after taxes filing single with no dependents. If anyone has similar profile it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Graduating college and received my first offer in defense.
-75K base
-5k relocation
-Free MBA over next 2 years
-401K, stock plan, other fringe benefits

Is this a reasonable offer for the area and out of college? Considering a more traditional finance path or pursuing intelligence/gov work.

Started around $34. Kept bothering about machines overtime and learned to operate a CNC followed by a manual lathe.

Graduated with a bachelors in comp sci.

2017 - €0 - junior sysadmin internship

2018 - €28k - helpdesk

2019 - €42k - support

2020 - €42k - support

2021 - €90k - solutions architect

2022 - €110k - startup solutions engineer

2023 same role, no raise

2024 same role, no raise

2025 laid off, took 10 months to land new role

2026 - €70-80k (depending on performance) - technical product marketing

2026 - €205k - startup sr principal SWE