GT_Aggie2015 said:

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Human Resource Development major
Business Administration minor >3.0 GPA
Corporate Talent Acquisition

1 - x (DFW) + 5% bonus
1.5 - 1.15x (DFW) + 5% bonus
2 - 1.3x (DFW) + 5% bonus
3 - 2.05x (Austin) + 10% bonus
4 - 1.83x (Austin) + 10% bonus

Year 4 I switched companies and took a pay cut for a higher title (lead) at another company. I got married this year too and my wife also works so that's how I justified the pay cut + opportunity to become a manager in no more than 2 years if everything goes well, which would hopefully put me at 2.15x - 2.2x. She started at slightly higher than my x and still at x for the purpose of this discussion since her raises are negligible.

I really don't have any desire to go above a TA manager so I've been thinking about going into more operational HR after a few years of being a manager. When that happens my wife and I will likely move back to DFW.

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What a bump.

So much for no desire to be a manager A lot of life has happened since this post.

10 - 3.89x (WFH) + 20% bonus + wife's 1.32x (still a teacher)

AggieOO said:

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2011 - x first job back in texas after being laid off, roughly the same as i was making prior to being laid off. enough to live on, but nothing to brag about.
2012 - 1.4x (new job)
2014 - 1.6x (promo)
2016 - 1.8x (promo)
2018 - 2.5x (promo)
2019 - 4x (promo)
2020 - 5x (promo)
2021 - 5.25x (raise)

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timely bump. got another raise yesterday, so

2024 - 6.25x

So in 2002 my first job out of college paid $56k. I then promptly took a pay cut to $30k to get into the field I wanted to be in. (You need "experience" for the field, but no one will hire you without the "experience". So I bit the bullet and took a 40%+ paycut and I've never regretted it. I'm six figures now, but I admit it was a long slow climb with a couple of lays offs sprinkled in.

I always wonder how much further ahead I might be without those layoffs.

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All of that, and I still think about leaving the law practice almost every day, because it's stressful, and it largely sucks. To those of you who might be thinking "I'll do anything and be happy about it if you pay me $600k," I promise you won't.

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A friend left an associate role at big law and took an non-exempt hourly in-house role at a corporation. Now they get to log off in the middle of a meeting on Friday AM because - "well I have hit 40 hours and OT is not authorized on this project". Huge paycut but they are super happy now without the stress of billable hours and trying to keep both clients and firm happy.

Ag_0112358132134 said:

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Came out of law school in 2012 at the age of 24 making $160,000 base, escalating $10k-$15k per year for several years. End of year bonus was $30,000 my first year and generally ranged from $30k to $60k depending on the time I billed. I left a few years ago to be a partner at a smaller firm. My "base" this year is $445,000, and then I get a draw at the end of the year based on the firm's profits. Last year it was $130,000. This year will probably be about the same. I also occasionally get paid a lump sum mid-year for contingency cases we settle favorably or win. We don't have any big ones likely this year but will have a couple of small ones. So just call my 2024 total comp about $600,000, up from $190,000 at my first job in 2013. I have a lot of great benefits too, including paying zero dollars for health insurance.

All of that, and I still think about leaving the law practice almost every day, because it's stressful, and it largely sucks. To those of you who might be thinking "I'll do anything and be happy about it if you pay me $600k," I promise you won't.

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Dayam dude! You have done well! Congratulations. Invest that money well and enjoy the rest of your life.
If you hate your job, it is time to look at other things.

I still love my field though I have had a LOT of problems. I have invested well and make much more through investing than through salary/bonus. That makes a big difference in reducing stress levels.

Saxsoon said:

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Started out at 55k as a fresh hire out of A&M but it was in Seattle, 2012

Been at 80-90k from 2017 until last week accepting a position at 130k

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Are you in tech?

AggieOO said:

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AggieOO said:

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2011 - x first job back in texas after being laid off, roughly the same as i was making prior to being laid off. enough to live on, but nothing to brag about.
2012 - 1.4x (new job)
2014 - 1.6x (promo)
2016 - 1.8x (promo)
2018 - 2.5x (promo)
2019 - 4x (promo)
2020 - 5x (promo)
2021 - 5.25x (raise)

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timely bump. got another raise yesterday, so

2024 - 6.25x

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Nice! What kind of work do you do? That is a pretty tidy increase since 2011.

I'm at $53k and going to be 40 years old in May. My job is pretty simple for my education and experience level these days.

Mix of mgmt consulting and general management with a couple industry switches:

2014: x
2016: 1.5x
2019: 1.7x
2021: 1.8x + 20% bonus
2022: 2.1x + 22% bonus
2023: 2.3x + 25% bonus

ktownag08 said:

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ktownag08 said:

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ktownag08 said:

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Working for 4 years and only 1.44x where I started on base salary, but I started fairly high. Have good bonus opportunity on top.

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Great thread! Interesting to go back and see my own post from 2013. Here's my update with just switching companies earlier this year.

2017: 2.03x + 20% bonus (+ sizable off-cycle bonus opportunities, it's a very small company with a generous CEO)

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Seems this pops up every 4 years for me. Anyways, here's the progression:

2009: x (no bonus)
2013: 1.44x + bonus
2017: 2.03x + regular bonus + off cycle bonuses
2021: 3.43x base, 5.33x with bonus + equity options that could push ever higher

Worth noting I'm at the same company as 2017, but it sold, and I've been fortunate to rapidly climb the corporate ladder.

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Still same company. Kept climbing although have likely peaked, but I'm happy with where I'm at in the hierarchy...

2024: 6.05x base, ~14x w/ bonus + equity options

infinity ag said:

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AggieOO said:

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AggieOO said:

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2011 - x first job back in texas after being laid off, roughly the same as i was making prior to being laid off. enough to live on, but nothing to brag about.
2012 - 1.4x (new job)
2014 - 1.6x (promo)
2016 - 1.8x (promo)
2018 - 2.5x (promo)
2019 - 4x (promo)
2020 - 5x (promo)
2021 - 5.25x (raise)

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timely bump. got another raise yesterday, so

2024 - 6.25x

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Nice! What kind of work do you do? That is a pretty tidy increase since 2011.

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i've been in IT sales since 2012. Obviously a chunk of my income is commission, so the above numbers aren't exact every year. There have been years a little lower and years like last year where I'm way over the above. Feel like it still averages out.

2013 - x
2017 - 1.5x + 15% bonus
2018 - 1.6x + 15% bonus
2020 - 2x, forfeited bonus, bought a small residential construction company
2021 - 3x + Pension
2022 - 5x + Pension + 2.5x business income (lots of big projects completed)
2023 - 5x + Pension

2012-32k Approx First Job out of college
2013-58,600-New Job Same Career
2018-66,130
Today-83,095

Not too shabby for being 35.

For those of you with six figure incomes, have you managed to live beneath your income level or have you been sucked into keeping up with the Jones?

2009 - x
2014 - 1.2x (quit job middle of 2014 to change careers)
2014-2018 - 0x-0.2x
2018 - 1.75x (new job in new field)
2019 - 1.8x
2024 - 3.1x
2025 projection - 3.5x

I don't think we've ever had a problem with wanting to keep up with the Jones'. My parents gave my wife and I the CD set of Financial Peace University when we moved across the country as a newly married couple, which set us on a solid financial path (even when money was very tight). We both have been involved in budgeting our entire marriage, neither us are big spenders, and we both are givers by nature. Even now when we're playing some catch up with retirement, our giving is about the same as we put to retirement

We've never had a car payment (current cars are 13 and 20 years old), don't have a very big house (too much to clean), and generally take low cost vacations for the most part (camping and visiting National Parks). Big vacations with flights typically involve credit card bonuses and/or coupling work conferences to offset costs.

I will say it hasn't always been easy, but overall we've done a really good job about keeping our personal goals prioritized and not stray far from them.

Not really. I mean, i don't live like i was when I was making $30k. But I kept my same truck for 16 years. We bought a house that is well-below the cost the bank says we can get. We don't take lavish trips. We don't drive luxury vehicles. We live in the 'burbs.

It is amazing to me people that I KNOW are bringing in less than us, and I see them constantly with new cars, buying a new house that costs more than ours, doing major home renovations, taking 3 & 4 big trips per year. I wonder how they do it.

Then I get a call from one of the people I'm speaking about who was a former coworker. He knows I finally bought a new truck after 16 years and I had decided to keep my old one to chauffeur the dogs around and may give to my stepdaughter when she's 16. Apparently his truck he just bought about 4 years ago (I think it was maybe a year old when he got it) has crapped out and his car is on its last leg. He wanted to borrow my old truck, for free, for SIX MONTH so they could save up for a new vehicle. Seriously??? I thought it was pretty audacious to even ask, but it drives home the point that they were living above their means if they could build a home, do home renovations, take several trips per year, and not be able to afford a new car when theirs breaks down.

AJ02 said:

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Not really. I mean, i don't live like i was when I was making $30k. But I kept my same truck for 16 years. We bought a house that is well-below the cost the bank says we can get. We don't take lavish trips. We don't drive luxury vehicles. We live in the 'burbs.

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pretty much this. Although I make well into six figures, my wife is currently a stay-at-home mom, so there's no additional income. We have a 5 and 3 year old. We have one car payment for the wife's explorer. My car has 200K+ miles and has been paid off for years. I'll drive it until the wheels fall off. We do travel a bit, but no crazy trips. They are all stateside and we drive more than we fly. Our mortgage is less than $2K/mo, though some of that is being lucky to own before the housing market got crazy.

Sure, we afford ourselves some luxuries here and there. I feel like I've earned that, but we aren't throwing money around at random crap.

Stringfellow Hawke said:

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For those of you with six figure incomes, have you managed to live beneath your income level or have you been sucked into keeping up with the Jones?

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kind of a mixed bag if that makes sense? neither me or the wife have any desire to keep up with the jones but we do like some niceties and comfort. Sometimes i feel like we spend too much but we are definitely comfortable and still save every month.

1. we bought two new vehicles in the past 5 years but we keep them 10+ years.
2. our mortgage is well below our income level and on a 15 year note, we pay it like a 10 year note, and allows us to do other things we want with our money
3. vacations are bigger or better or more frequent.
4. we still max out retirement plans.
5. we bought some land with our extra income and will either hold and sell depending on values or build a vacation home in 6-8 years.

Worlds Foremost Ag said:

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Worlds Foremost Ag said:

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2012-- x
2012-- 1.033x
2013-- 1.20x
2014-- 1.33x

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2015-- 1.22x (industry change)
2016-- 1.30x
2017-- 2.02x
2018-- 2.56x (expected)

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2019-- 2.63x
2020-- 2.57x (job change)
2021-- 2.88x
2022-- 3.70x (job change)
2023-- 3.81x
2024-- 5.29x

It's getting harder to remember what "x" was...

Interesting topic to scroll through.

Nuclear Engineering degree,

2010: x
2015: 1.22x
2021 :1.61x (2020 was weird)
2024 :1.97x (projected)

Starting x wasn't super low and I've played it a bit conservative with only one job change (when my previous company went under), but I have plenty of job security due to my experience in a niche industry.

As for the six figure question, I don't have much of an issue with keeping up with the Jones's, but kids are just flat out expensive, and I did "indulge" a bit to let my wife stay at home to raise the kids for several years. I got lucky and managed to buy a house at a reasonable price before the last explosion, drive old cars, and had no student debt, so I have gotten by with other expenses increasing.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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2013 - x
2017 - 1.5x + 15% bonus
2018 - 1.6x + 15% bonus
2020 - 2x, forfeited bonus, bought a small residential construction company
2021 - 3x + Pension
2022 - 5x + Pension + 2.5x business income (lots of big projects completed)
2023 - 5x + Pension

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Good for you man!!

2013: x
2016: 1.22x (layoff)
2019: 1.36x
2020: 1.25x (covid layoff)
2021: 1.6x
2023: 1.82x
2024: 2.21x

2024 update

1992: x
1997: 2.1x
2002: 3.3x
2007: 4.7x
2012: 5.8x
2021 update 7.2x....raises have slowed down big time
2024: 10x with a promotion after threatening to take another job in the company..haha.

If it's $10,000 that makes me feel much better about my own situation. Otherwise, I'm just a lol poor.

Thanks!

I've been really blessed by a wife that supported my decision to take the leap into entrepreneurship.

Regarding the 6 figure question, I would say we're half & half. We're both students of Dave Ramsey to a certain extent but our parents are very different when it comes to money. Her parents are supremely fugal and are set up to be fully retired in the next few months with plenty in the bank (her mom retired before covid at 55 & her dad is about to retire at 62). My parents are divorced but my dad has a pension that covers his expenses (75 yo) and my mom is still working at 66. We live in the suburbs in a modest house that we wish was bigger and my wife bought herself a new car last year.

But we both max out our retirements and we paid cash for that new car. My business pays for my truck so that cost is negligible. My classic car, our lot/shop for the business, my Jeep, and the travel trailer are paid off in full.

Right now we're designing a house for that lot and getting ready to get bids to make the big decision of building a house slowly with all cash or taking out a loan.

I have an interesting one:

2011 - x
Job change
2013- 2.14x
2016 - 2.29x
Job change
2018 - 2.85x
2019 - 5.94x
2020- 6.00x
2021- 7.54x
2022 - 9.14x
New leadership
2023 - 8.25x
2024 expected 6.85x

I'm extremely dejected over the past couple of years as I am a top performer in my company. I win awards every year and grow my business substantially. I'll be number one in revenue at the end of this year and my company has lowered my pay 2 years in a row.

I'm in the job market now as the culture of my company has changed for the worse

hbc07 said:

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2011: .33x (graduated & couldn't find work.)
2012: 1x
2013: 1.12x
2014: 1.27x
2015: 1.33x
2015 again: 1.42x.
2016: 1.42x
2017: 1.45x
2018: 1.66x (moved cross country to different office of same firm)

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2022: 2.51x (job change)
2024: 2.96x (contemplated quitting, boss enticed me to stay, expecting another raise in June)

More or less toiled away at a job where I was underpaid for the first ~10 years of my career. I think I'm still somewhat underpaid at my current job, but I enjoy it, feel appreciated, and have a lot of perks that I would lose if I went anywhere else.

Salary:
2005 1x
2006 1.4x
2009 1.9x
2010 2.0x
2011 2.1x
2013 2.5x
2014 3.9x
2015 4.5x
2016 3.6x
2017 3.9x
2019 4.1x
2024 7.6x


In terms of total earnings including bonus and side work...started in 2011
2005 1x
2011 2.3x
2012 2.4x
2013 3.3x
2014 4.3x
2015 5.7x
2016 5.2x
2017 5.4x
2018 6.1x
2019 8.4x
2020 10.1x
2021 6.5x
2022 10.7x
2023 6.6x
2024 10x


Moral of my story for anyone with high ceiling employees. When pay gets stagnant, that employee with find a way to make money elsewhere...and sometimes do it within your walls 8-5.

This is really interesting, as I think about mine it wasn't at all a linear path.

1993 x
1997 .8x
1999 2x
2002 1.3x
2006 5x
2011 5.5x
2014 6x
2020 8x
2024 ~12x

The starting number wasn't that great to the point above, which was why I was willing to make employment moves, take chances and even take steps back to get to a good number. Now I'm not even really looking for a promotion anymore, the extra hassle isn't worth the money.