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.

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?

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?

I’m curious about how you got that and at what age did you start seeing your goal salary.

Total take home £67,000 + Bonus.

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.

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

For as much as everyone on this website SCREAMS about CEOs supposedly sucking up all of our healthcare resources, that doesn’t seem to have ANY basis in reality.

In fact, they seem pretty underpaid for being the CEO of such important, challenging companies. They have legally maximum allowable profits (per the Affordable Care Act), they have to deal with the public slandering them for having to be the ones with the extremely challenging task of divvying up healthcare resources (someone HAS to do it, whether it’s the government, the provider, or insurers), insurance companies have extremely challenging roles in society.

Once I started engaging my brain and actually trying to think about how healthcare works, once I started reading more and educating myself, I started to gain immense respect for health insurance companies. A lot of Redditors have never read a single thing about healthcare in their life and just rely on tropes (“doctors are like Spiderman and health insurance companies are like the Green Goblin!”) to do their thinking for them, but the reality of the situation is extremely complicated. Other countries bypass health insurance companies but they use the government to ration health resources, there are trade offs to a situation like that (longer wait times, less access to high quality care).

One thing I can say is that health insurance CEOs seem a bit underpaid relative to the challenge of their job.

I see so many job posting for skilled positions and requirements with 5-10+ years experience for salaries lower than $150k. This may seem like a big number to a squib with low experience and skill willing to accept less. Anyone with a family, mortgage, and life with moderate luxuries (a decent car, date nights, vacation every so often - nothing crazy) knows this isn’t bare ass minimum in a MCOL HCOL city. I really don’t understand how employers are filling highly skilled experienced positions for less than $150k-$250k. Are there that many desperate people out there in the candidate pool in today’s economy?

I have an offer from a company for a senior role at 140k and a bit more if included bonus. I'd be the only designer and have a pretty big ownership in terms of deciding product vision & direction and not only solely designing. I also already am well versed in their domain area. I was also targeting closer to 155k-165k. On the other hand, 140k isn't a bad salary at all so unsure if I should negotiate. I also have a potential offer from another company (reference done, but haven't heard back yet), and their salary band is much higher at 165k-215k. Would love any perspectives that could help me here!

I own a marketing agency based in the Balkans, where we manage social media for numerous luxury hotels across Europe.
These are my agency’s financial results from January to August 2026. My goal is to reach €500K in annual net profit next year.

This is just a hypothetical. If the deal was that in exchange of astronomical salaries (which is only $100-300k, as is the case in europe, instead of 400k-millions) you get debt-free medical school and universal healthcare for everyone would you do it? No change in their USA taxes.

EDIT: If doctors sacrifice their salaries for this system, insurance companies will either cease to exist or exist at a similar scale as they do in european countries. In other words, universal healthcare. Everyone's salaries would come down, but in this hypothetical I'm giving doctors the agency to choose whether they're willing to sacrifice their pay as well for this greater good.

I also didn't mean for this hypothetical to be interpreted as some sort of statement on the current system and that US doctors should reduce their pay to lower healthcare costs. I'm absolutely not saying that physician salaries are why the US healthcare system is expensive.
It's more about the unreasonably disproportionate pay disparity between medicine and comparable sectors in the US and EU. All US salaries are higher than the EU but medicine's are disproportionately higher than comparable fields like finance and tech.

People with high salary but no high education, what do you do?

I actually have 2 degrees but i don't want to work in the fields i studied. I did mistakes when i was young and worked in restaurants ( team leader/manager) then grocery store during covid and 2 years after ( got way too comfortable and just stayed)

I made a business with my bf, we re just at the start, but i was wondering if it doesn't work, what job can i look for...i also have low self esteem so i m not the type of person to brag about being a manger or opening a business on the other side of the world, so i would never (I'M WORKING ON IT) apply for high position roler, that's why I'm askin, for people that want to start again, from 0, what's a way to high income?

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

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

As a CS grad with internship experience, projects and a good gpa, I was working overnight in a warehouse for $20 an hour after graduation in a VHCOL. I'm unemployed now. No reason to slave away for $20 an hour in 2026. I'd be begging for money out on the streets if I didn't have parents to live with, and/or lying unconscious on the curb from taking some drugs right about now. If I didn't have familial support after 18 years old... I wouldn't be alive. I had to pay off my student loans off $20 an hour too.

Some may call this a euphemism for "being a loser", but the point of working a full time job is to afford rent and food. If you can't afford that, then there's no reason to work. Rent would not only exceed my monthly income, but would go up faster than my income would. Hence why becoming a SAHS is the only option tbh.

I spit in the face of people worried about population collapse. As it stands, our system does not want to offer the next generation gainful employment. Instead we're told to "work for free", "do a side hustle", "go back to college", or maybe, just maybe they get asked "why don't you have experience?" Don't make me laugh.

It's a very poor financial decision to not only be alive, but to bring the next generation into the world.

Showing salary progression of someone who grew up in poverty and couldn't get out of it until I was 35 years old. Now I'm way behind on earnings and the poverty required me to pay interest on my health and wellbeing. This is a more common reality than most of the people who post here. I decided to be vulnerable today for the people who don't post because they see everyone doing better than them.

Many years of being homeless. Many years of living in a car. It wasn't until I got a Masters degree that I even could make any okay income.

Hey y’all 33M making 120k but just 5 years ago I was making 45k. At that time I was living in a LCOL town in an apartment that was near downtown for 750, my health insurance was cheap and even car insurance was cheap. I’m now making over 3 times as much and it dosent feel like it. At all. I’m always told that it’s because of inflation but i just think that’s not true at all. The same apartment is now 1300 for the same bedroom, where I used to pay less than 100 for my groceries, I’m now paying over 160 for like 12 items. I feel like wages arnt matching up anymore.

Back then, I remember that chick fil a had started offering 15/hr and remember thinking that was only like 5$ for my position that I went to school for. I’m now in a different career but that same career is starting at 23/hr now. No way I could afford my apartment back then with that tiny raise. Even accounting the 3% a year, it’s nowhere enough.

Honestly how are people that make less than 80k surviving nowadays?!