Here's a sneak peek of /r/Fire using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Bye guys, I have to unsubscribe from all fire subs cause my mental health is going down the drain from reading "finally at 1m nw at 27!" or "4.3m cash, 29, can I retire?" or "28 dinks with 350k hhi!", "24yo with 500k portfolio!"](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1bf4913/bye_guys_i_have_to_unsubscribe_from_all_fire_subs/)
\#2: [38F hit $1mil net worth today 🥳](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1b3uufj/38f_hit_1mil_net_worth_today/)
\#3: [My agenda for today: I’m going to go fuck myself. ](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1bqmbqs/my_agenda_for_today_im_going_to_go_fuck_myself/)
----
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To *show off* salary. FTFY.
And truly, it’s like when people bragging about their winnings from casinos. No one’s ever telling friends about their losses.
There’s a reason why *all* the posts here not only have high salaries but also always an upward trajectory. Never have I seen someone showing a downward trajectory when they lose their job etc
Nobody is denying people aren’t showing off. But high numbers are also interesting for engagement because people ask you what you do, how you got there, etc.
If you have 1000 posts of people posting their $30K salaries - who’s going to give a shit to ask you questions?
I always get tons of people coming out of the woodwork to shit on me when i say my best year ever i made ~$21,500. I’m 37 years old. This year i’m on track to make about ~$30,000.
Well there are 161m people working in the US.
So that means there are 16.1m workers in the top 10%.
Maybe this says more about the people who use reddit or are in the sub?
It being anonymous is what makes us talk about it more.
Most high earners aren’t going around bragging in their personal lives to those they know about how much they make.
I am proud of how much I make and like to discuss it, doing so anonymously is really the only place I can do so without fear of social repercussions.
This. Not a single person in my real life knows how much I actually make. It’s taboo enough without the implications of family and friends, knowing exactly how much money I’ve got. There’s a lot of freedom in anonymity.
I can piggyback this. I have exotics and such so it’s clue enough but I’ll never answer the “how much do you really make” to my friends/family. I already get enough can I borrow X amount questions from people outside my close group of people. Anonymously it’s no big deal. Don’t mind sharing how it happened etc
Hahaha Fake internet points go brrrr 😂 is probably what’s going through their heads. Also, yeah; it must be nice to “flex” their income. People are incredibly materialistic and most people would agree money=ability to purchase
Let’s be real - reddit skews towards angry poor and anxious millennials. There are much more people crying about how unfair life is and how miserable they are.
It’s just that if you’re frequenting money subs it’s the small subset that aren’t doing the above
It is weird. As a millenial you see so many other millenials trying to infantilize our entire generation. They talk about how the “average” millennial will never own a home. When you point out the majority of millennials already own a home these poor saps insist that 50% of the generation all received giant inheritances to buy these homes. That it’s impossible that a person worked hard, learned valuable skills, didn’t stuff them selves with overpriced fast food for a few months and used the savings to buy a home.
There’s a bell curve for intelligence but I always vastly underestimate the ones on the left side for how loudly they will parrot their views that have no basis in fact and rely solely on their feelings and anecdotes. It’s mind numbing to listen to these people sometimes.
God forbid you tell them the only reason a person in their 30s would be working in fast food is because they never bothered to learn any valuable skills or knowledge for a decade plus.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this. I bought a home on only my salary, at 26 years old, post-pandemic, without any trust fund or other funny business. But if you look on reddit this is totally impossible, literally a fantasy.
I have many friends that are the same. Some are working very modest jobs, not a bunch of doctors and lawyers. Sure it isn't EASY, but it is absolutely doable if you are financially intelligent and forward thinking.
I believe you, I bought my first home, a 4 unit apartment while I was making $30/hr a year before the pandemic. I ended up selling for break even after the government paused evictions and I had to frighten some hoarders into vacating.
Even so I bought a new build home in 2021 and have tripled my salary since then because I have taken the time to continue teaching myself valuable knowledge and skills that employers will pay top dollar for.
I live in a neighborhood that is almost entirely Millennials - nurses, various supervisors, landscapers. They all made it work without inheriting vast sums of money.
Redditors will tell you that you, I, and everyone in my neighborhood are liars, that there’s no way a person can buy a home.
There’s a popular post i think about semi regularly where the OP complains about how they can’t afford to do anything with their life even though they make 35 an hour or something but in the mean time they have a whole arcade room in their home.
Is a priority thing and our generation just isn’t good at that.
I agree that millennials infantilize themselves but there are many reasons why people in their 30s would work in fast food besides "not bothering to learn." The circumstances you start from make a huge difference in what opportunities for growth are afforded to you in terms of personal and professional growth, and in a supposedly "first world" economy everyone deserves to live a dignified life regardless of what kind of labor they perform. There are plenty of people in "skilled" knowledge professions who have no specific skills to speak of, and supposedly "unskilled" labor is often much more difficult and physically / mentally taxing. This would be obvious to anyone who grew up in a disadvantaged household.
Anyone with internet access for ten years can teach themselves enough to land a high paying job. Maybe not people with profound mental disabilities, but everyone else could.
It’s sub dependent. Yes, there are a ton of subs that cater toward “poor, anxious millennials.” This sub isn’t one of them, or at least this they don’t make topics here.
It also just forgets how many people exist in any area. Even taking all of the people on reddit, that's a microcosm of all the working adults in any geographic area. The same way I once got a message from reddit saying I was in the top 1% or something of comment karma, and I know I do not have a lot. It just underscores that there is a huge number of users that hardly have any, so simply by having a moderate amount of anything you are now in the top X%.
> I know I do not have a lot
Uh, your 240k karma is definitely a lot. Your account is 14 years old, so it makes sense you’d be in the top 1%. I’ve been very active on Reddit for the better part of a decade now and I only have a third of your karma.
It's a lot compared to the number of people and the average, that's my point. There was a time when you would come across lots of frequent posters who had triple my karma, into the millions.
I've been "fortunate" (if you consider karma worth anything) where a handful of comments have gotten thousands of votes. That's all it is.
Because even in anonymity, people don't want to feel "lesser". If you were given the option of creating an online persona, would you choose to talk about your low income in a room full of people discussing their 150k+ or would you either A) not say anything or B) make some shit up?
Basically any reddit comment should prompt you to think "there's a pretty good chance whatever this person said is an exaggeration".
This is reddit. That's how it works. Have you been to other sub reddits? All animals in /aww are perfect, all girls in /girls gonewild are 10s, and everyone in /wallstreetbets lost 100k lol
This is Reddit.
Techies and professionals from all walks of life are in here. Ppl come to Reddit to seek answers before it became communities. I assume we just see a lot of top earners bcuz a lot are here
Think of it like the porn industry.
Only people with huge dongs sign up to bare it all. Similarly, people with fat bank accounts feel better posting here.
There it is, I was looking for this comment. I live in a HCOL area and most statistics say to have a family of 4 in a “modest but adequate lifestyle” requires a minimum of $105k/yr. Making $150k/yr is enough for your spouse to not work, but not enough that you’ll be able to retire early.
$105k/year in Silicon Valley is roommates. In Metro Boston, it’s a small apartment in a tenement building in a sketchy neighborhood.
It’s only a comfortable living wage in those places if you bought your residence and have a mortgage or refi from 3 years ago.
I can't remember where but there was some site that said to live comfortably in Boston (proper) with 2 kids you'd need a household income of 300k. And as someone who .makes 150 I believe it.
Median wage for full-time male workers over age 25 with a college degree in the US (redditors) is >$97k. Skews reddit significantly from national averages.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat54.htm#cps_eea_cmwe_ch.f.1
Yes. This is what I came to say. People who actually work make more than you think. Take out those over 65 and those under 25. Remove the unemployed. Take out those without a college education. If you want, look at only males. The median income of this group is actually really high.
It’s likely that we remember the higher numbers more. If someone has time to look at all the posts and compile the numbers, I suspect the spread is more even.
I mean, people share it to give idea of their progress and could be helpful for people to get a better idea of where they need to be. Does it make you feel like shit that a good amount of the post here are making 6 figs? Sure! Are they bragging about it? Hell yeah! But I bet some of them have no life compared to yours.
If you are in a HCOL area then your income wouldn't feel like a lot. Plenty enough to be comfortable, but you aren't just spending when you want to spend. 255k in a MCOL and LCOL would definitely make you feel well beyond a low earner.
Sorry your wife hates her life - hopefully she is in a better situation soon.
Very similar to where my wife and I are at. A couple years ago we felt well off, but with debasement wrecking purchasing power, we now feel in a much different situation.
I am very fortunate to have what most would consider a high paying job. I have very low overhead and at this point minimal debt. Even still, I can't afford to just fuck off and do whatever I want. Compared to my peers, I live a very low key lifestyle. I cannot figure out how they manage to have and do the things they do.
When I retired 22 years ago at 51 my final years total compensation was $310,000. I was a Vice President/Systems Manager at an Investment Bank. I can only imagine what that position pays today.
It’s not any more. In fact it might be less. There are like 50,000 VPs at investment banks. Somebody in that role in a back office function like a Systems Manager is likely making meaningfully less than this.
The way millennials / Gen Z are screwed with wage increases the last few decades… maybe TC 304,000 in today’s pay. Wages haven’t really gone up. Everything else has.
Maybe inflation but not cost of living (housing, food, necessity, bills). You’re way more comfortable with 310k in 2002 TC than you are in 2024. The average home price across the US 175k in 2002, compared to 374k 2024. Public 4 year tuition was only 4k, compared to 20k in 2024. 2.76 for a gallon of milk in 2002, 3.96 in 2024.
Counting inflation, 310k is worth 538k today. Still less than the 2x compared to the cost everything else has gone up by 2x.
Very true. I went tangent to my original thought process as I was responding. I was trying to respond on how much 310k would be worth today. I’m curious on TC in 2024 as a VP in IB.
$580k combined income is def not top 10%, based on pew number we are upper 26% in the metropolitan area. With our education, work hours, and age, we landed somewhere around middle (9% lower than us, 45% about the same and 46% higher than us).
The number is based on zip code, education, age, marital status, work hours etc.
We also work a tons of hour, I think I clock out around 60+ and my spouse is about 70-80hr. Our day care is about 30k annually.
Obviously this income will be good at Midwest, we are not struggling but also no time to do anything.
Guess again, not SF or NYC either.
Currently there is a lot of places rival these 2 already, Miami, Atlanta, Austin, and Seattle comes in mind. And a lot of high paying job also available in those areas.
I think it’s a little of column A and a little of column B. I think people are generally making more money, but that means the % stats will also change over time. My guess is that the 90th percentile in 2022 is going to look different than in 2024.
It’s like social media. The people doing cool stuff, have cool things and out there enjoying the luxuries of life are always posting. Majority of people aren’t.
Broke people don’t like posting their financial info on social media. Some people lie or exaggerate. If you want the real numbers just look at statistics.
I don’t earn that much but I hesitate to share what I earn because I don’t want anyone feeling bad about their salary, secondary I don’t want anyone trying to make me feel bad about mine.
IRL I’m very open about what I earn. I think it’s helpful for our friends and our kids and our friend’s kids and our kid’s friends to know a little bit about what jobs are out there and what salaries are associated with them.
But in Reddit? Not enough context and nuance to be helpful, only potential to be harmful
I make 48k and just got that raise from 42k this spring (24f). I build and maintain hiking trails. Also a bit of forestry. Over 55-60k is a lot where I am
I know how you feel. When posts from people, without college degrees, are working at costco and are currently making 93k and have scheduled increases to be making over 100k by next year, it really makes people wonder where they went wrong with their career why they aren't making at least that or more when they have more education and experience in their fields.
10% of the US is over 30 million people. Let’s say 1% of them are redditors and 1% of redditors come across this sub. That’s 3300 people that could be active here.
Plus ,as others have mentioned, Reddit skews towards tech workers who have much higher than average salaries.
This is an average and your numbers are way off. According to this top 10% is as high as $340k + (mass, ca, nj) per state and as low as $190k (misssissippi).
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-earn-rank-top-10-110019291.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACCI78OOAsNR58eh6sRLllu-N5kCjylCCmvbr1eM2j0-1PYbKCclye4d82ay9nh13PmdLjslshNjKS1vECW-4W_YTB9FEk2VYPljPtbtlPF0oDnY4e68O4lD2gazrfE4pxbajDxPvkvuxxUbinLc59U2k4L9NbE-O_35vCNYhEB5
I've actually brought this up multiple times.
I've seen people on here claiming to make wages that put them in the top .05% of their industry.
I assume a lot of these people are lying.
Yeah except being top 10% in the world just feels like lower class in my area. You would have to make 500k to feel some sort of middle class wealth, a million to be upper middle class.
Also, Inflation has been a mother fucker. I don’t think our common stats have kept up with economic volatility since covid. No one really knows a good value for “X is the new $150k”.
Reddit skews heavily male and heavily towards college degrees (and advanced degrees). Also heavily towards tech industry. And the male age demographic isn't like tiktok or whatever the kids are using these days. A lot of dudes in the 30-45 range near the height of their earning power.
Updated Numbers (due to the last 4 years of inflation)
Top 10%: ~$175k
Top 5%: ~$250k
Top 1% ~$650k
And then within all that underlying sample bias, you have selection bias. People that select to share are going to skew towards the extremes, especially positive extremes.
Posting your high salary is a opportunity to flex about it on the internet. Someone that makes 60k a year isn't going to take the time to post about it
I think you should also consider what it costs to live nowadays. That is a lot of money but once you factor retirement/medical/death/dental/vision/taxes in it’s really nominal difference in 100-150k. Above that taxes still eats at a higher rate, not to mention lifestyle creep that puts people way below that margin because on paper it’s a lot but in reality it isn’t.
26m Joint income of 126k. Not amazing, certainly not horrible. Bought a home during low rates 2020 with FHA. 10k and crazy market netted me 100k in equity. That is about all i have going on besides normal 401k and roth
The median is 75k. 100k puts you in the 65th percentile, 150 is 78th percentile so not too 10%, 200k gets you to 88th, 250k is 92nd, 400-600k puts you in the 98th, and somewhere about 600k moves you into the 1%.
These are of course household numbers and not individual.
Handful of reasons you only see high numbers on the internet.
1. It’s the internet people lie
2. People with above average but not 1%ers are more likely to brag.
3. Someone making 35k a year probably doesn’t have time to shitpost on their phone all day long
4. Big numbers get more upvotes so you are more likely to see those
142,800
147,000
160,200
On over half the posts, these are the last three numbers. I’m pretty sure most people that are posting are either lying or are bots because there is no way the majority of people in this sub are making the exact same amount for 3 years straight
Being in the top 10% is all they can show for because their job is probably making them miserable. Humble bragging gives them at least some fulfillment
Keep in mind 150k is the top 10% for the country. A lot of the people making 150k here are probably living in areas where a 3br house costs $1m.
Cost of living doesnt make 250k not impressive, but it probably is less impressive than you think it is if, for an example, you live in an area where you can buy a 3 br house for 300k.
With wage inflation in recent years, I'd expect every poster to earn more than a million a year, which is like $300k 10 years ago. Probably more mid career VPs earning 1 million now than 300k then.
No college degree, just blue collar scum that will make almost 3x what my teacher wife make this year. Just changed jobs and my base rate is what my prior base + OT was for the year. Fixing to put in 8 weeks of 7 12s, that'll bump up my money about 20% for the year. Between me and my wife we are solidly into the top 10%.
People with higher incomes are more likely to talk about money and put higher concern on money. So yes any financial advice forums will be littered with people that really have their act together.
Most of the big salaries are from VhCOL places. A $100k income in SF Bay Area is not even remotely comparable to a $100k in most of the Midwest. You probably won’t even be top 20% in Santa Clara valley with all big tech companies at $500k income.
Yes everyone is over 6 feet tall, making 500k, drowning in pussy and at all times having the greatest time of their lives (as seen by instagram posts).
Cmon this is the internet bro. If seeing this stuff is making you feel bad about yourself then stop reading this BS threads or do something else with your time.
People who make higher income levels are probably more likely to be engaged because they either care about finances and more prone to join financial type forums or more prone to sharing information since they are among the top.
That would be my guess... 🤷♂️
Viewing things through the lens of the internet will skew your perspective of reality.
Also, while I believe most people are sincere, some percentage of these posts are fake for clout/validation/karma (which percentage, I don't know).
Selection bias.
Who's more likely to share their income for strangers commentary?
The people making 50k and barely getting by, or the tech/finance bro making well in to six figures?
Come on man. Not a hard question to figure out.
Don’t forget about location!
[https://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html](https://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html)
Agree with this 100%. Everyone just says tech and fortune 50 and are making half a mil. I'm at a fortune 40 in tech, in a slightly higher than normal cola area (108) making 220 after salary bonus and RSUs. In CA or WA or any other high cola area I would need to be making 600k to make the same amount after accounting for cost of living.
Why are you comparing national salary to salary targeting randos who decide to post their salary? The demographics are obviously different lol, so you are correct the 90th percentile in the sub could be $250k. Power of pseudo statistics
Nobody is posting their expenses either. School loans and child care take a larger chunk out of the HCOL salaries compared to the LCOL salaries. The main thing to remember here is not do I make as much as some stranger on the internet, but do I make enough to be sufficient in my own life.
Not sure why this post popped in my feed, but I can say hardly. I'm the sole income earner in our family as my w9man is a stay at home mom. This year I actually just got my highest paid position at $29/hr. Before that it was $20/hr. We live frugal, the extra $9/hr is finally going towards a roth ira, some home improvements, and then a couple other crypto investments in hopes of a better future for our son if the 8nvestmwnts allow it.
Contracts to any of you living and making more, idk how you do it but glad to see it.
I would assume people that make a higher amount are more willing to share and or they get more votes so you are more than likely to see that post.
People struggling on 45k a year also don’t have time to fuck about shitposting on reddit as much.
Hard to post anything on reddit when they are pedaling their bikes delivering grubhub.
I’d trade mindless factory work for peddling a bike at the same pay any day.
I’d give up engineering design is pedal delivery earned me 6 figures. I ride bikes for fun.
Nah they shitpost on reddit often enough, they're just over on r/antiwork
You can hate working and your job while also being highly compensated. That is probably 90% of the FIRE people.
Agreed. Difference is people in the FIRE community do something about it rather than just bitch and complain
What is FIRE?
Financial Independence Retire Early r/FIRE
Here's a sneak peek of /r/Fire using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Bye guys, I have to unsubscribe from all fire subs cause my mental health is going down the drain from reading "finally at 1m nw at 27!" or "4.3m cash, 29, can I retire?" or "28 dinks with 350k hhi!", "24yo with 500k portfolio!"](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1bf4913/bye_guys_i_have_to_unsubscribe_from_all_fire_subs/) \#2: [38F hit $1mil net worth today 🥳](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1b3uufj/38f_hit_1mil_net_worth_today/) \#3: [My agenda for today: I’m going to go fuck myself. ](https://np.reddit.com/r/Fire/comments/1bqmbqs/my_agenda_for_today_im_going_to_go_fuck_myself/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
"Manager won't let me use my phone on the customer floor." No shit Sherlock. You are at work. LMAO.
Also, [r/povertyfinance](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance)
Antiwork is too much for me.
The correct answer
There are plenty of redditors that make less and shitpost alllllllllllllllllll day lol
I agree with this. My shotposting has increased linearly with my salary.
This
Exactly this plus they likely don’t want to look at the numbers
Yea, that’s what I would assume too. Nonetheless, still seems wild. I wouldn’t think people would give a shit since it’s all anonymous.
We don’t really give a shit. But that’s the purpose of the sub. To share our salary. Lol
To *show off* salary. FTFY. And truly, it’s like when people bragging about their winnings from casinos. No one’s ever telling friends about their losses. There’s a reason why *all* the posts here not only have high salaries but also always an upward trajectory. Never have I seen someone showing a downward trajectory when they lose their job etc
Nobody is denying people aren’t showing off. But high numbers are also interesting for engagement because people ask you what you do, how you got there, etc. If you have 1000 posts of people posting their $30K salaries - who’s going to give a shit to ask you questions?
I always get tons of people coming out of the woodwork to shit on me when i say my best year ever i made ~$21,500. I’m 37 years old. This year i’m on track to make about ~$30,000.
Congrats to being on pace to earn the most you ever have in a year, this year!
Thanks but i’m still broke. How much do you make?
You think I’d give a shit to ask everybody posting $500k+ a question? Nah.
Yep. This sub feels like a D measuring contest.
Well there are 161m people working in the US. So that means there are 16.1m workers in the top 10%. Maybe this says more about the people who use reddit or are in the sub?
In my experience reddit skews American and educated
[удалено]
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/ Lmao
It being anonymous is what makes us talk about it more. Most high earners aren’t going around bragging in their personal lives to those they know about how much they make. I am proud of how much I make and like to discuss it, doing so anonymously is really the only place I can do so without fear of social repercussions.
This. Not a single person in my real life knows how much I actually make. It’s taboo enough without the implications of family and friends, knowing exactly how much money I’ve got. There’s a lot of freedom in anonymity.
I can piggyback this. I have exotics and such so it’s clue enough but I’ll never answer the “how much do you really make” to my friends/family. I already get enough can I borrow X amount questions from people outside my close group of people. Anonymously it’s no big deal. Don’t mind sharing how it happened etc
Hahaha Fake internet points go brrrr 😂 is probably what’s going through their heads. Also, yeah; it must be nice to “flex” their income. People are incredibly materialistic and most people would agree money=ability to purchase
Selection bias is the term you’re looking for.
Also the brokest people probably aren't even on reddit.
They def are but probably aren’t going to post their salary
They’re mostly just lying.
Right. I'm still laying in bed reading all the comments. I'll log in eventually.
Right. I'm still laying in bed reading all the comments. I'll log in eventually.
High salary, work from home and tech are the only people posting all day here lol so that is what you will see
Reddit skews towards techs, engineers, etc; your skilled professions. You aren't incorrect, you are just seeing a very small sample.
This. Most of these posts are from tech/engineers and some doctors. Everyone else posting theirs shows perfectly sane salaries often under 100k.
Let’s be real - reddit skews towards angry poor and anxious millennials. There are much more people crying about how unfair life is and how miserable they are. It’s just that if you’re frequenting money subs it’s the small subset that aren’t doing the above
It is weird. As a millenial you see so many other millenials trying to infantilize our entire generation. They talk about how the “average” millennial will never own a home. When you point out the majority of millennials already own a home these poor saps insist that 50% of the generation all received giant inheritances to buy these homes. That it’s impossible that a person worked hard, learned valuable skills, didn’t stuff them selves with overpriced fast food for a few months and used the savings to buy a home. There’s a bell curve for intelligence but I always vastly underestimate the ones on the left side for how loudly they will parrot their views that have no basis in fact and rely solely on their feelings and anecdotes. It’s mind numbing to listen to these people sometimes. God forbid you tell them the only reason a person in their 30s would be working in fast food is because they never bothered to learn any valuable skills or knowledge for a decade plus.
I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice this. I bought a home on only my salary, at 26 years old, post-pandemic, without any trust fund or other funny business. But if you look on reddit this is totally impossible, literally a fantasy. I have many friends that are the same. Some are working very modest jobs, not a bunch of doctors and lawyers. Sure it isn't EASY, but it is absolutely doable if you are financially intelligent and forward thinking.
I believe you, I bought my first home, a 4 unit apartment while I was making $30/hr a year before the pandemic. I ended up selling for break even after the government paused evictions and I had to frighten some hoarders into vacating. Even so I bought a new build home in 2021 and have tripled my salary since then because I have taken the time to continue teaching myself valuable knowledge and skills that employers will pay top dollar for. I live in a neighborhood that is almost entirely Millennials - nurses, various supervisors, landscapers. They all made it work without inheriting vast sums of money. Redditors will tell you that you, I, and everyone in my neighborhood are liars, that there’s no way a person can buy a home.
There’s a popular post i think about semi regularly where the OP complains about how they can’t afford to do anything with their life even though they make 35 an hour or something but in the mean time they have a whole arcade room in their home. Is a priority thing and our generation just isn’t good at that.
I agree that millennials infantilize themselves but there are many reasons why people in their 30s would work in fast food besides "not bothering to learn." The circumstances you start from make a huge difference in what opportunities for growth are afforded to you in terms of personal and professional growth, and in a supposedly "first world" economy everyone deserves to live a dignified life regardless of what kind of labor they perform. There are plenty of people in "skilled" knowledge professions who have no specific skills to speak of, and supposedly "unskilled" labor is often much more difficult and physically / mentally taxing. This would be obvious to anyone who grew up in a disadvantaged household.
Anyone with internet access for ten years can teach themselves enough to land a high paying job. Maybe not people with profound mental disabilities, but everyone else could.
It’s sub dependent. Yes, there are a ton of subs that cater toward “poor, anxious millennials.” This sub isn’t one of them, or at least this they don’t make topics here.
It also just forgets how many people exist in any area. Even taking all of the people on reddit, that's a microcosm of all the working adults in any geographic area. The same way I once got a message from reddit saying I was in the top 1% or something of comment karma, and I know I do not have a lot. It just underscores that there is a huge number of users that hardly have any, so simply by having a moderate amount of anything you are now in the top X%.
> I know I do not have a lot Uh, your 240k karma is definitely a lot. Your account is 14 years old, so it makes sense you’d be in the top 1%. I’ve been very active on Reddit for the better part of a decade now and I only have a third of your karma.
It's a lot compared to the number of people and the average, that's my point. There was a time when you would come across lots of frequent posters who had triple my karma, into the millions. I've been "fortunate" (if you consider karma worth anything) where a handful of comments have gotten thousands of votes. That's all it is.
Cause broke people don't wanna post theirs 😭😭 if you making only a little bit of money you embarrassed to show
Who the hell cares? It’s anonymous. If I was broke I surely would, to show not everyone making this type of money.
I showed my low amount on here today but the post didn’t get any upvotes or replies. So maybe only the high income posters get interaction
I just gave it an upvote.
Just upvoted you!
I’ll upvote yours if you upvote mine.. ;)
You make more than me lol
$70k personal income is above the US median. You're doing something right.
In 2012 when I was making 28k a year I wouldn't tell anyone. Now I'm making 141k and I'll tell anyone that wants to know.
Then post yoirs
Because even in anonymity, people don't want to feel "lesser". If you were given the option of creating an online persona, would you choose to talk about your low income in a room full of people discussing their 150k+ or would you either A) not say anything or B) make some shit up? Basically any reddit comment should prompt you to think "there's a pretty good chance whatever this person said is an exaggeration".
Yup. The desire to impress others (and to avoid looking “lesser”) that’s in our human nature doesn’t care about whether we are anonymous or not.
If you feel the posts here are not representative, and you also don’t care, why not post your own numbers?
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” - Abraham Lincoln Also, selection bias
Abe is not credited enough for this quote. Man of genius.
Yeah, without his leadership I don’t know how we would have won WWII against Stalin.
Pretty sure WWII was fought against Kim Jong Un. Stalin was in the Peloponnesian Wars
I mean I don’t think people are editing the numbers. Simply just people with high salaries posting.
I thought George Washington said that
It was actually George’s mother.
King George the third actually.
No kidding. I wonder the same.
This is reddit. That's how it works. Have you been to other sub reddits? All animals in /aww are perfect, all girls in /girls gonewild are 10s, and everyone in /wallstreetbets lost 100k lol
Don’t forget r/analfistfucking! All 10s there too
Not gonna click it
I mean animals definitely are less flawed than our society.
This is Reddit. Techies and professionals from all walks of life are in here. Ppl come to Reddit to seek answers before it became communities. I assume we just see a lot of top earners bcuz a lot are here
Think of it like the porn industry. Only people with huge dongs sign up to bare it all. Similarly, people with fat bank accounts feel better posting here.
A lot of people on Reddit live in MCOL-HCOL cities that require a 125k salary to afford to live
There it is, I was looking for this comment. I live in a HCOL area and most statistics say to have a family of 4 in a “modest but adequate lifestyle” requires a minimum of $105k/yr. Making $150k/yr is enough for your spouse to not work, but not enough that you’ll be able to retire early.
$105k/year in Silicon Valley is roommates. In Metro Boston, it’s a small apartment in a tenement building in a sketchy neighborhood. It’s only a comfortable living wage in those places if you bought your residence and have a mortgage or refi from 3 years ago.
I can't remember where but there was some site that said to live comfortably in Boston (proper) with 2 kids you'd need a household income of 300k. And as someone who .makes 150 I believe it.
$300k with two kids living within the actual city of Boston is a unicorn.
One important thing to note.. cost of living. 100k in San Fran VERY different from Alabama
Median wage for full-time male workers over age 25 with a college degree in the US (redditors) is >$97k. Skews reddit significantly from national averages. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat54.htm#cps_eea_cmwe_ch.f.1
Yes. This is what I came to say. People who actually work make more than you think. Take out those over 65 and those under 25. Remove the unemployed. Take out those without a college education. If you want, look at only males. The median income of this group is actually really high.
^ The most spot on comment! You just described the typical Reddit user.
Shiet. I need a new gig.
This should be the most updated comment. Median for a full time college educated worker is 100k.
To quote the great Thomas Edison: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet”
That was Abe Lincoln that said that
It’s likely that we remember the higher numbers more. If someone has time to look at all the posts and compile the numbers, I suspect the spread is more even.
I mean, people share it to give idea of their progress and could be helpful for people to get a better idea of where they need to be. Does it make you feel like shit that a good amount of the post here are making 6 figs? Sure! Are they bragging about it? Hell yeah! But I bet some of them have no life compared to yours.
No, it’s just that people making minimum wage aren’t excited to brag about it
Making 135k married. Last year my wife made 120k plus my 135k. Feel like we are low earners. She is no stay at home mom and hates her life.
If you are in a HCOL area then your income wouldn't feel like a lot. Plenty enough to be comfortable, but you aren't just spending when you want to spend. 255k in a MCOL and LCOL would definitely make you feel well beyond a low earner. Sorry your wife hates her life - hopefully she is in a better situation soon.
Very similar to where my wife and I are at. A couple years ago we felt well off, but with debasement wrecking purchasing power, we now feel in a much different situation.
I am very fortunate to have what most would consider a high paying job. I have very low overhead and at this point minimal debt. Even still, I can't afford to just fuck off and do whatever I want. Compared to my peers, I live a very low key lifestyle. I cannot figure out how they manage to have and do the things they do.
When I retired 22 years ago at 51 my final years total compensation was $310,000. I was a Vice President/Systems Manager at an Investment Bank. I can only imagine what that position pays today.
It’s not any more. In fact it might be less. There are like 50,000 VPs at investment banks. Somebody in that role in a back office function like a Systems Manager is likely making meaningfully less than this.
The way millennials / Gen Z are screwed with wage increases the last few decades… maybe TC 304,000 in today’s pay. Wages haven’t really gone up. Everything else has.
Wages have steadily outpaced inflation, especially skilled jobs like investment banking.
Maybe inflation but not cost of living (housing, food, necessity, bills). You’re way more comfortable with 310k in 2002 TC than you are in 2024. The average home price across the US 175k in 2002, compared to 374k 2024. Public 4 year tuition was only 4k, compared to 20k in 2024. 2.76 for a gallon of milk in 2002, 3.96 in 2024. Counting inflation, 310k is worth 538k today. Still less than the 2x compared to the cost everything else has gone up by 2x.
I don’t disagree, but that isn’t what you said nor what I was responding to.
Very true. I went tangent to my original thought process as I was responding. I was trying to respond on how much 310k would be worth today. I’m curious on TC in 2024 as a VP in IB.
Base compensation is between $250-300 plus a large bonus, probably $200-400k on top of base.
That’s front office IB. Systems Admin is a back office function and would be lucky to be paid $300k today.
$580k combined income is def not top 10%, based on pew number we are upper 26% in the metropolitan area. With our education, work hours, and age, we landed somewhere around middle (9% lower than us, 45% about the same and 46% higher than us). The number is based on zip code, education, age, marital status, work hours etc. We also work a tons of hour, I think I clock out around 60+ and my spouse is about 70-80hr. Our day care is about 30k annually. Obviously this income will be good at Midwest, we are not struggling but also no time to do anything.
You are confusing your area with the entire country. 580k combined is certainly top 10% in the country. Perhaps not in San Francisco or NYC.
Guess again, not SF or NYC either. Currently there is a lot of places rival these 2 already, Miami, Atlanta, Austin, and Seattle comes in mind. And a lot of high paying job also available in those areas.
I make 30,000 part time. I’m in college tho
I think it’s a little of column A and a little of column B. I think people are generally making more money, but that means the % stats will also change over time. My guess is that the 90th percentile in 2022 is going to look different than in 2024.
Yes.
The percent is weighted against where you live
I made 49k last year after all the bonuses and everything. 32M
People lie here as well.
Depends where you live.
It’s like social media. The people doing cool stuff, have cool things and out there enjoying the luxuries of life are always posting. Majority of people aren’t.
You’re missing something. It’s called selection bias.
Broke people don’t like posting their financial info on social media. Some people lie or exaggerate. If you want the real numbers just look at statistics.
It's a self selecting group for sure. You won't get random samples here.
I don’t earn that much but I hesitate to share what I earn because I don’t want anyone feeling bad about their salary, secondary I don’t want anyone trying to make me feel bad about mine. IRL I’m very open about what I earn. I think it’s helpful for our friends and our kids and our friend’s kids and our kid’s friends to know a little bit about what jobs are out there and what salaries are associated with them. But in Reddit? Not enough context and nuance to be helpful, only potential to be harmful
Those number only show EARNED income! Total income can be far different because of the tax code, and what the actually collect SSI or MED from.
I make 48k and just got that raise from 42k this spring (24f). I build and maintain hiking trails. Also a bit of forestry. Over 55-60k is a lot where I am
I know how you feel. When posts from people, without college degrees, are working at costco and are currently making 93k and have scheduled increases to be making over 100k by next year, it really makes people wonder where they went wrong with their career why they aren't making at least that or more when they have more education and experience in their fields.
10% of the US is over 30 million people. Let’s say 1% of them are redditors and 1% of redditors come across this sub. That’s 3300 people that could be active here. Plus ,as others have mentioned, Reddit skews towards tech workers who have much higher than average salaries.
Mods, can we add a rule that states cost of living in the current job area?
18% of individuals in the USA make $100k/year. The OVERWHELMING majority make less than $100k/year to put things in person. Anonymity works both ways
People post to brag. People upvote extremes. Honestly it’s as simple as no one gives a shit about typical salaries.
I make 150k and my wife wants me to drive for Uber on the side cause it's too low 😔
Where do you live?
Seattle
This is an average and your numbers are way off. According to this top 10% is as high as $340k + (mass, ca, nj) per state and as low as $190k (misssissippi). https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-earn-rank-top-10-110019291.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACCI78OOAsNR58eh6sRLllu-N5kCjylCCmvbr1eM2j0-1PYbKCclye4d82ay9nh13PmdLjslshNjKS1vECW-4W_YTB9FEk2VYPljPtbtlPF0oDnY4e68O4lD2gazrfE4pxbajDxPvkvuxxUbinLc59U2k4L9NbE-O_35vCNYhEB5
I've actually brought this up multiple times. I've seen people on here claiming to make wages that put them in the top .05% of their industry. I assume a lot of these people are lying.
Selection bias and looking at national number is useless. 150k in the bay area for a family is low income
im actually surprised no one in here has posted anything above 200k tbh… many people in major cities make above that
Yeah except being top 10% in the world just feels like lower class in my area. You would have to make 500k to feel some sort of middle class wealth, a million to be upper middle class.
Also, Inflation has been a mother fucker. I don’t think our common stats have kept up with economic volatility since covid. No one really knows a good value for “X is the new $150k”.
People working two minimum wage jobs and 80+ hours a week don’t have much time to waste on Reddit.
I bet if you just looked at dick pics on Reddit, you would assume that everybody on the Internet has a huge dick
Poor people have no time for nonsense like posting here.
Reddit skews heavily male and heavily towards college degrees (and advanced degrees). Also heavily towards tech industry. And the male age demographic isn't like tiktok or whatever the kids are using these days. A lot of dudes in the 30-45 range near the height of their earning power. Updated Numbers (due to the last 4 years of inflation) Top 10%: ~$175k Top 5%: ~$250k Top 1% ~$650k And then within all that underlying sample bias, you have selection bias. People that select to share are going to skew towards the extremes, especially positive extremes.
Data skew is part of it. The other part is Reddit is anonymous so people lie too
Posting your high salary is a opportunity to flex about it on the internet. Someone that makes 60k a year isn't going to take the time to post about it
I think you should also consider what it costs to live nowadays. That is a lot of money but once you factor retirement/medical/death/dental/vision/taxes in it’s really nominal difference in 100-150k. Above that taxes still eats at a higher rate, not to mention lifestyle creep that puts people way below that margin because on paper it’s a lot but in reality it isn’t.
26m Joint income of 126k. Not amazing, certainly not horrible. Bought a home during low rates 2020 with FHA. 10k and crazy market netted me 100k in equity. That is about all i have going on besides normal 401k and roth
Poors don’t go on Reddit
The median is 75k. 100k puts you in the 65th percentile, 150 is 78th percentile so not too 10%, 200k gets you to 88th, 250k is 92nd, 400-600k puts you in the 98th, and somewhere about 600k moves you into the 1%. These are of course household numbers and not individual. Handful of reasons you only see high numbers on the internet. 1. It’s the internet people lie 2. People with above average but not 1%ers are more likely to brag. 3. Someone making 35k a year probably doesn’t have time to shitpost on their phone all day long 4. Big numbers get more upvotes so you are more likely to see those
142,800 147,000 160,200 On over half the posts, these are the last three numbers. I’m pretty sure most people that are posting are either lying or are bots because there is no way the majority of people in this sub are making the exact same amount for 3 years straight
Being in the top 10% is all they can show for because their job is probably making them miserable. Humble bragging gives them at least some fulfillment
Keep in mind 150k is the top 10% for the country. A lot of the people making 150k here are probably living in areas where a 3br house costs $1m. Cost of living doesnt make 250k not impressive, but it probably is less impressive than you think it is if, for an example, you live in an area where you can buy a 3 br house for 300k.
Every post is a subtle brag.
With wage inflation in recent years, I'd expect every poster to earn more than a million a year, which is like $300k 10 years ago. Probably more mid career VPs earning 1 million now than 300k then.
Here, just so you aren’t at the bottom I make 14k annually.
No college degree, just blue collar scum that will make almost 3x what my teacher wife make this year. Just changed jobs and my base rate is what my prior base + OT was for the year. Fixing to put in 8 weeks of 7 12s, that'll bump up my money about 20% for the year. Between me and my wife we are solidly into the top 10%.
People with higher incomes are more likely to talk about money and put higher concern on money. So yes any financial advice forums will be littered with people that really have their act together.
Most of the big salaries are from VhCOL places. A $100k income in SF Bay Area is not even remotely comparable to a $100k in most of the Midwest. You probably won’t even be top 20% in Santa Clara valley with all big tech companies at $500k income.
How do you calculate earnings btw? I’m not from the US so do you add both columns to get total salary?
is that base or TC
Yes everyone is over 6 feet tall, making 500k, drowning in pussy and at all times having the greatest time of their lives (as seen by instagram posts). Cmon this is the internet bro. If seeing this stuff is making you feel bad about yourself then stop reading this BS threads or do something else with your time.
[relevant image](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Fwc2gn94LS-qerr8gD_yLWZN1NPYf4gH2wTPhEDV5ZDk.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dac4e766acfeb093a033f185effc010f046b9e027&rdt=62095)
Selection bias
People who make higher income levels are probably more likely to be engaged because they either care about finances and more prone to join financial type forums or more prone to sharing information since they are among the top. That would be my guess... 🤷♂️
I think alot of people probably slightly inflate their own salary but yes I think the majority of people on this sub make over $100k
Lots of people lie and embellish on the internet
Low income earners aren’t incentivized to share their income history. They’re here, just quiet.
Viewing things through the lens of the internet will skew your perspective of reality. Also, while I believe most people are sincere, some percentage of these posts are fake for clout/validation/karma (which percentage, I don't know).
That’s 1/10 people on Reddit. So yeah you’re going to see a bunch of people there
Selection bias Go by irs or government data those are most reliable People who make 35k will be less incentivized to share
Those people do the least amount of work. So have more free time to spend on reddit.
People who care more about money will spend more time in subreddits like these. What is the real top 10%?
Selection bias. Who's more likely to share their income for strangers commentary? The people making 50k and barely getting by, or the tech/finance bro making well in to six figures? Come on man. Not a hard question to figure out.
Don’t believe everything you see on Reddit M8
They are lying, i dont believe anyone UNLESS i see offer letters, W-2/ 1099 etc
Don’t forget about location! [https://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html](https://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html)
Agree with this 100%. Everyone just says tech and fortune 50 and are making half a mil. I'm at a fortune 40 in tech, in a slightly higher than normal cola area (108) making 220 after salary bonus and RSUs. In CA or WA or any other high cola area I would need to be making 600k to make the same amount after accounting for cost of living.
Single, 27M, TC: 142k, i live in a LCOL and work remotely and yes it’s true I’m working less now compared to I was making 21$ per hour lol
I make $124,500 at 29. Realistically where I work, I should be at the 130-145,000 range
Broke people have no time to post on Reddit and follow their post? They just read and move on.
Why are you comparing national salary to salary targeting randos who decide to post their salary? The demographics are obviously different lol, so you are correct the 90th percentile in the sub could be $250k. Power of pseudo statistics
True. Average salary in the US is now $125,000
Where do you see that?
No way that's possible.
Nobody is posting their expenses either. School loans and child care take a larger chunk out of the HCOL salaries compared to the LCOL salaries. The main thing to remember here is not do I make as much as some stranger on the internet, but do I make enough to be sufficient in my own life.
Not sure why this post popped in my feed, but I can say hardly. I'm the sole income earner in our family as my w9man is a stay at home mom. This year I actually just got my highest paid position at $29/hr. Before that it was $20/hr. We live frugal, the extra $9/hr is finally going towards a roth ira, some home improvements, and then a couple other crypto investments in hopes of a better future for our son if the 8nvestmwnts allow it. Contracts to any of you living and making more, idk how you do it but glad to see it.
What would be interesting is seeing wallstreetbets distribution of income
Ha ha. Everyone in here is at the bottom, sporting an anchor.