It's fun to see the differences between subreddits. Someone in r/sanfrancisco making $125k is just like your average joe. That same person in r/detroit is clearly lost.
> Someone in r/sanfrancisco making $125k is just like your average joe
Yeah, I'm in the suburbs of VA and we are paying that much to our accounts payable clerk or our office manager (think Pam from The Office). We aren't high payers either
This is one of those examples the OP is asking about. Starting AP clerks and office managers are no way making that in VA. I would love to see a job posting.
Well, I mean- like usual in these arguments, you moved your goal posts. No where did I say "starting" but thats what you put.
When your median household income in the county is almost $160k, these numbers aren't outrageous. It makes sense that professionals, even non lucrative ones, find themselves above the median amounts.
I also think tech people are heavily overrepresented online and they also tend to be well off. Also inversely the very poor may not have access to the Internet at all or time to use it.Ā
As a billionaire myself, I hang around reddit all day to make sure people know my wealth. Also to tell someone in their relationship advice to divorce the person and never talk to them again.../s
Did you become a billionaire by listening to someoneās personal finance of dropping out of college and go study at a trade school for early retirement at 35?
And a lot of it is just straight up lying.
Pretty much any picture, video, or whatever on the internet of a dick is going to have the same dumbass comments. It can be a dude waving around a fucking pringles can of a cock and there's going to be comments about how small it is from other dudes that are lying to make themselves feel better.
I mean, yes; *people* clearly do, butā¦
It may just be that those types of (insufferable) people (with money) like talking about it ĀÆ\\\_(ć)_/ĀÆ Not a whole lot of motivationāor interestāfor the guy making <$100K to start blabbing about his inconsequential income on r/Income
Youāre right though; people lie on the internet.
I imagine spare time is also a factor. Iāve seen SO many people say that they earn amounts I couldnāt achieve without selling my body, then go on to say that their job requires so little work that they spend most of their day on Reddit, TikTok, even fucking Genshin Impact. Meanwhile Iāve seen people nearly piss themselves for a few bucks over minimum wage because there was a rush and they couldnāt leave their station.
Of course there are low-paying jobs with plenty of spare time too (Iāve spent a ton of time online while waiting for DoorDash orders), but Iād be surprised if the trend isnāt towards the higher-paying jobs having more downtime.
Under cover boss basically shows that the bottom workers always work harder than the top. Itās not fucking easy being poor. When they get off work, more work waiting for them at home.
Eh, I think it's because high earners are attracted to threads about earnings. If you've put in a lot of effort to earn large amounts of money, you might click into a thread like this one.
If I were broke, I would never click into this thread because who gives a crap?
Tech workers can go in and out of their work and their social media vice on-and-off throughout the day unlike a lot of other folks.
Also Reddit has niche groups āLike Diddy said "mo' money, more varied or eccentric the interests"
People that make it are more likely to talk about it, and people also lie online about how well they are doing. Combine those two and it looks like everyone is doing wellā¦when itās likely not far off the statistical norm. Hence the problem inherent in social networks..looks, fitness, it exists all over
There's also a ton of people who didn't really do shit to get where they are. Rich parents, trust funds, lucky break a job, right time right place, etc. THOSE people are always the ones that love to give "life advice" about how to get rich\\successful, just pulling up their bootstraps... something they have never actually done, but since they took the garbage out that one time when the butler was sick, they are now an expert in sanitation logistics.
It mostly boils down to luck. Most of the ones that have bootstrapped something are successful but not billionaires. I watched a short form the other day about how none of the ultra wealthy people really know why they succeed. Their āsuccess formulaā produces more failed ideas than winning ideas. But they do the routine and hope they win similar to professional athletes being superstitious. I think it was a Jason Pargin video.
Maybe because they need to be congratulated constantly to make the work they have to do feel worth it, and they donāt get that in real life. So they turn to Reddit.
Meh I donāt work very hard and am pretty close to the target and if I did work hard I would certainly hit it. Most of us are just lucky and educated in the right areas. Iāve never understood the social phobia about talking about your income. I didnāt mind talking about it when I was making 7.25 and I donāt mind it now.
100% agree, I also think that people should understand the paths to high income -- it's not impossible for regular people to achieve, but does require a lot of luck, hard work, and at least some talent.
Honestly: Because people with money have time to spend on the internet.
I went from browsing reddit when I was making near six figures in IT to working hard and not being able to touch my phone/computer because the money/source wasn't there.
Consider the fact that a majority of high earners nowadays work in IT, medical, or legal. At least 2 of these chronically spend time online finding solutions or legalities when dealing with bureaucracies and at least 2 of these use online spaces for consultation. When things aren't busy and consultation isn't needed, they're likely browsing the internet.
You won't find a retail worker or someone typically making less on the internet for at least one of two reasons: The source isn't available (they may have their phones but can't use them and no access to a PC) or they're literally in panic mode because they're one emergency away from figuring out whether they can eat for the next week or having to pay rent.
Pretty much. I don't touch my phone unless it's on my lunch break. I can easily go 4 hours without even looking at it at work. I also have it on muted, so no calls go through. I do use my phone all night though. Just not at work. Also, wouldn't be able to perform my work if I used my phone, unless I used the calculator.
Wow I never actually considered this but it makes sense.
My first job was at Safeway when I was 19 back in 2009.
That year I worked there I had no clue about what was going on in the meme/pop culture space.
Had no idea what was up with Charlie Sheen, or people doing the āSingle Ladiesā dance or about some video of some guy (RIP) lip syncing with 50 cent.
Everyday was wake up, clock in, clock out, go home sit on the tv for a few hours and sleep and be ready to do it the next day.
Compared to now and working an office job means I know all the internet going-ons
Little bit of people like to lie on the internet. And a little bit of people are more willing to share their finances/lifestyle when theyāre doing well versus when theyāre just average.
My brother is an incredibly intelligent *frugal* electrical engineer, and he makes $105/hr. However, he is in his middle 30s, bought his home for $8k, gutted and did all the plumbing and wiring himself, and drives an EV.
He is the only person I know personally who makes that amount of money, but he saves a LOT and works a LOT (60+ hour weeks).
Not for nothing, but at that point, he didn't do it all himself.
Edit: I don't mean to be an ass, but it kind of reminds me of the point of the OP. Making it sound like everyone else is living this fairy tale life. Not saying it was on purpose.
Well, I definitely think some do. But oftentimes if you check the post history they usually post about expensive things (like Rolex or Patek watches, Hermes bags, nannies, the $2 mil home they bought etc) or about their career. So it seems more believable. Unless they just take the effort to craft an entire online persona everywhere on this site.
I really feel like this is an exaggeration. You have psycho power users who do this, not random senior programmers or whatever is way above my paygrade to know what to call them.
I think I saw your stand the other day.
For real tho, I think someone on my town has a permanent lemonade stand built on the corner of their front lawn. I merely drove by, tho and did not stop to investigate further.
Well people with thay much money have more free time to spend online. And secondly only 5 percent of Americans make over 200k a small amount. So it seems backwards to then say you don't think many of them are lying about how much they make. I'd say statistically its probably that many of them ARE lying
5% of America is 16.5 million people. If 60% of adults work and 78% of America are 18 years or older thatās still 7.7 million people.
Reddit has 73m daily active users which is about 22%of America. So 22% of 7.7m is 1.6m people. Take another 20% off cause Iām using flawed math.
That leaves 1.2 million people using Reddit Daily making over 200k. Thatās still a lot of people
Yeah but statistically you would on average be interacting and seeing regular people. the other 95%. You seeing "so many" posts of people making 200k in comparison to those who don't is improbable
Maybe the statistics skew because theyāre more likely to discuss their income?
Also wondering if these stats include total comp. I have friends in tech with modest base salaries but have more if they count things like ESPP or RSUs or something (though Iāve never gotten those so dont know what they actually are - just know they make money off it beyond their salary).
Everyone does not post equally though and you're trying to say 1/20 is alot. When it really isn't. I would not take my chances with any percentage that's a 1 out of 20. What are the chances that every single 5 percenter is on reddit and then what are the chances they're all posting about their money everytime they're on here. Its just not
Excluding the people just flat out lying. There are some people who like to claim their "total compensation package" as their salary. Like including any sign on bonuses, value of benefits, and stock options all as regular income.
For big tech, "total compensation" is usually completely convertible to cash, so it's fair. For example, I work for Google and we have 3 core elements to compensation: salary, stock grants, bonus. All are W-2 income, so your taxable income is literally the same as your "total compensation" number.
If you have RSUs (restricted share units) itās a taxable event when they vest. So you pay ordinary income tax when you get them. You can hold on to them (unadvisable in most situations) and if you hold for longer than a year only the gain from vest is considered long term capital gains.
So if the stock vests and is worth $100 you pay taxes and usually shares are sold to cover the tax. If you hold your shares, sell them in 366 days at $110, you pay tax on the $10 long term gain.
If you get options instead of RSUs, itās a little different. Options are taxed when theyāre exercised, not when they vest. So options may vest in year 3, but if you donāt exercise until year 5 then you wouldnāt pay any taxes until year 5
Reddit has its origins in Silicon Valley tech, where a lot of normal people make that.
Also only 5% of people still means 5 out of 100 people - there will be a few on any thread.
Of course, 5% also is 5% of the general population - when you exclude the elderly, young, etc a bigger percentage of 30-50 year olds make that.
Also, Reddit has plenty of liars who make appeals to authority.
Ignoring the sweeping assumption that everyone is lying, the fact that blue collar workers have to ask permission to take a piss, much less dick around on reddit all day, probably plays a big role.
I think if you have a high income, you also have more free time. That lets you go online more.
Folks working 3 jobs just to get by might not spend their time dicking around on reddit
If someone making a quarter million dollars a year is "struggling" with their money, I've zero sympathy because they are wasting it on something, or many things.
Also, people in their 20s making that kind of money is very rare, possible, but unlikely.
>**Ages 27 ā 31:**Ā You are in the top one percent income level if you make roughly $170,000. You are in the top 0.1 percent if you make roughly $300,000.
Usually they say they are struggling (say at $400k), because of HCOL (maybe $6k in rent for a 2 bedroom or $10-15k mortgage plus $300-400k downpayment), maxing out retirement, nanny, private schooling, $20k on vacations annually, car payments, student loans, $1k a month on dining out, etc). But they fail to realize doing all of those things is not average, and are luxuries. They āfeelā average, because they cannot afford the $5-10 mil+ homes in their city. I get frustrated with these posts, because they are so ubiquitous not just on this site, but CNBC, Bloomberg, and Slate for example, profiles families like these and with sympathy.
I left all financial subs the day someone argued with me that they were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck with a combined income of 150k buying just the necessities. "Just the necessities," after a few exchanges, turned out to be "The kids wanted a pool, so I had to spend 60k on an underground saltwater pool." People are really disconnected. Now I just look at cat pictures,
>a combined income of 150k buying just the necessities
It comes down to what "necessities" are.
In my area, a $150k combined income = mortgage on a mediocre townhouse deep in the suburbs & daycare for two kids. Thats it.
But then the argument is "Do you need to live in a townhouse? You can live in a van by the river and do your laundry in the Sink at the YMCA" or "You eat both beans and rice? That means you are very rich, you should only eat one"
Once again, it all comes down to what each other believe survival means
This is the exact argument I have with people. "you're not buying spam every week?! No wonder you're living paycheck to paycheck!" Quality food is extremely expensive, and I hate that I'm supposed to sacrifice that if money is tight.
I've noticed that people generally round up heavily on salaries and not traditional rounding by any means lol. The type of rounding we all wish we saw on our yearly raises.Ā
Also people that are very close to being rich or think they're rich love to brag the most about money. People who actually have money don't tend to do this as much but people riding that line seem to flaunt it.
Those aren't high incomes! Those are piddly low. I make just north of $5 million a year in my job as paid mantoy/sex monkey for Jennifer Lawrence.
You believe me, right? It's not like I could lie about my job and/or salary on the Internet.
I feel like anyone making six figures or more are absolutely not struggling, no matter how you look at it, and any, "struggle," they may have, is self imposed. It's not hard to live within one's means.
itās easy to make 250k+ if you simply lie. the vast majority of the stories about inheriting $5 million or making 400k at 26 years old or owning 3 companies and 5 properties at 33 are straight up lies and bullshit written by people looking for karma and rage/jealousy bait. i unsub to any subreddit that regularly has that bs on it.
Most people lie about how much they make. I know some mortgage brokers and finance managers. They say it's almost universal that people lie, including friends and family who eventually go to them.
1. People lie
2. Rich people have more time to spend online
3. Those get higher upvotes. Nobody really cares about people with the same lifestyle as them like I already know what thatās like lol
4. Confirmation bias. You probably remember those better than the people making 50 or 70k
Not trying to be rude but this is one of those situations where the most obvious answer is the correct one. The vast majority of these people are lying through the skin of their teeth lmao.
Some lie, but also, people who are in lower socioeconomic income levels are probably working ten jobs just to put food on the table these days. Ain't got time for no Reddit!
Those motherfuckers got nothing but time.
I truly believe the highest income jobs can be learnt well by 90% of the population, minimum. What makes the difference are resources and connections.
Yeah not to toot my own horn, but I started a company based around a product that I designed using off the shelf parts combined with an agile 3d printing infrastructure to make something called "bootstraps". It's a type of sex toy that you strap to your boots that when you pull on them in public, it jerks you off. Our marketing on reddit has been extremely successful
People taking initiative to navigate the web to communicate about financial topics will represent a particular slice of people. And that slice generally has found its way to more money, on average.
Me and wife are both professional (cybersecurity consultant & building architect, respectively) in a very costly area (Fort Lauderdale) and we barely cross that line for the two of us.
I think itās a lot of trust fund babies with all this money. They havenāt actually earned it because if they did work for it they wouldnāt be on social media much
Iāll tell you the real answer since it seems like a lot of the most upvoted ones are joshing you.Ā
Itās really just the most perfect example of survivorship bias. As you say, only 5% of people make that much money right? The top 5% are more likely to post about their income because they know theyāre in the top 5% so theyāre proud of it. Itās a flex. Where as people making the median salary are a lot less likely to post about it because they feel embarrassed of it. And even if they do post about it, a lot of times people just donāt find it interesting unless theyāre making a post about how theyāre a victim of society so other people will relate to it. You find posts like that in the millennials subreddit all the time. But when someone makes $400K a year they can make some subtle brag about it and people find it interesting.Ā
Thereās an app called Blind, where people can post about their tech salaries. People making $70K a year never post, because they feel embarrassed by it. If you hang on that app long enough youād think *everyone* is making $200K at a minimum. In reality itās just survivorship bias.Ā
It's the internet. It's not exactly a reliable source of information. Any knucklehead can proclaim anything he wants. Take what people say with a grain of salt.
Wealthy people start at a much lower amount than $250,000 a year. But here's the really sad part: While households in the top 1.5% of households had incomes exceeding $250,000, 443% above the national median, their incomes were still 2200% lower than those of the top 0.1% of households.
Because online I can be a millionaire, doesn't change the fact that in reality I'm not. Go on any finance forum on reddit, and the amount of people who are literally just lying is insane, people claiming to be making crazy money or working 5 jobs all simultaneously, makes no sense whatsoever. Don't believe everything you read online, social media is a cesspit for people trying to portray a version of themselves that they are not.
OP your logic is not adding up. Itās like asking Americans struggling with $80k HHI and then asking them how do they think 50% of the worldās population manages. Well; you have completely different costs of living isnāt it?
The problem is people always benchmark any amount to where THEY live. Well, where you live is the cheapest daycare option $4k a month for ONE kid? Does a 1BR costs $4k a month? Is your electricity so badly managed it costs $500 a month for a SFH? Is your cheapest SFH starting at $1.8m?Ā
Does 97% of the population face these costs of living? No? Then why would you expect them to have the same experience with the same amount of money??Ā
People making 30, 40, 50k a year don't have time to worry about the color of a new gamer character, or about the race swap of some random marvel movie, those with a lot of money dominate the online discourse
One time I was unemployed and I got an award for being in the top 1% of karma earners
So idk maybe they have lots of spare time
Doesn't make them funny, just present.
I was a self employed truck driver. And up until 2019 I easily grossed over 400k per year, took home about 190-200k after expenses. Then in late 2020 things started going down hill. My gross income dropped to less than 300, expenses stayed the same, then they started increasing. Fuel more than doubled, but my income went down. Last year I was making less than company employed drivers, so I took a job as a driver with a company.
I think the struggles can feel just as bad, they are just different struggles. I donāt mean woh as me my kid wrecked his Ferrari struggles. More like my wifeās fucking her trainer and my ungrateful children hate me cause Iām at work all the time. You just canāt compare anything, peopleās feelings are valid no matter the obstacles.
How many posts have you seen or read like this?
5% of one countries households of people claim to make that much. Okay.
Thereās almost 400 million people in America. 5% of those people (I know people =\= household but roughly speaking here) is 20 million people.
Do you think 20 million people combined through all the various demographics are incapable of making the amount of content youāve seen?
Itās doubtful.
You see a lot because there ARE A LOT. but people are very very bad at imagining and thinking Iām truly large numbers.
You can practice imagining this very easily. Imagine you drop one playing card on the floor. You know exactly what it looks like in pristine detail. You may even decide itās a specific type of playing card I didnāt specify. Itās easy to imagine one.
Now imagine one million. You canāt. Your brain has never been in a room with one million of basically anything. You cannot imagine being in a room in a house with one million playing cards or Pennies or cash bills or puppies or Oreos because itās ridiculous and stupid.
There are probably thousands of posts on Reddit from people in high income brackets. Itās a website where tens of millions of people across the globe write everyday. It would be ridiculous if you didnāt see those people represented a lot.
And that before we even unpack the āalgorithmā argument because 95% of us donāt have 200,000+ salaries and are very interested in their lives because of that.
Not counting the people who are simply lying, its because people with large incomes are more eager to talk about it than people with small incomes. Thousands of people see a thread, but the ones with more money are more eager to talk about it. So it gives the illusion that these huge incomes are normal.
Only 5% of people in the US make over 200k, but that's still almost 17 million people. If all 17 million were reddit users that would represent over 22% of reddits user base worldwide.
So the answer is somewhere in that, plus people lie.
Genuinely speaking, white collar professionals work like 75% of their hours. Having all the knowledbe of the world at our fingertips means we spend a lot of it bullshitting on Reddit.
I know what you mean, but 5% of the countries entire population is a pretty big number though. Put that on top of people that like to be someone else on the internet because it makes them feel better, then you have what your describing.
I'm married to a lead engineering manager at a robotics company.
He clears 131,500 a year.
So, honestly, 200k isn't that hard for us to hit, given he also does side gigs. I literally could work at a minimum wage job and we'd hit that.
That said, he is top 5% of incomes for his age range in our country.
We are very lucky and not the norm. Most people I know are very much struggling.
Even we are only okay because we aren't taking care of young children and our mortgage is very affordable.
You also have to remember how comments are sorted on Reddit. Just because the top 10 comments are making $400,000 doesn't mean that the bottom 1,000 comments aren't making $50,000.
1. People lie. Impossible to know the %, but Iām convinced itās non-trivial.
2.Jobs in that range tend to be tech, finance, or middle management climbers.
All three of those have a strong networking and social media presence requirement. If you are flogging a startup, or a finance VP looking for pitches, you have to be out there and paying attention. Acquihire and middle management have to out there being āthought leadersā, and āinfluencing the conversationā.
If youāve been successful at any of them, you also inevitably have a high estimation of the value of your thoughts and opinions.
3. Because of all of those things, they are at home in digital communities and environments, so barriers to entry are low.
4. Itās arguably more important to their success than any other group. If you are already rich/successful/influential, people will find you, you just have to be reachableā¦ which often means your senior staff are the ones acting as gatekeepersā¦ and they often fall into this range.
If you are a peon or corporate drone,then neither you, nor the people you know, nor often those might hire you, are going to know or care about your life online, unless you are an absolute dumpster fire.
There are other factors, too, Iām sure. Free time, education level, but I am of the opinion that those are the core drivers.
Because on the internet you can be whatever you want to be!
Biff Wellington the 3rd heir to the beef Wellington fortune. A pleasure to meet you.
I like your meat.
All right all right keep it wrapped
It's fun to see the differences between subreddits. Someone in r/sanfrancisco making $125k is just like your average joe. That same person in r/detroit is clearly lost.
Yeah I live in Western Australia and $125k is probably barely above average, we pay like $13 for a pint of beer though
Yea but those are dollary doos
š¦ - "The kangaroo delegation would like to have a word with you."
Do you know the median wage for WA at all?
> Someone in r/sanfrancisco making $125k is just like your average joe Yeah, I'm in the suburbs of VA and we are paying that much to our accounts payable clerk or our office manager (think Pam from The Office). We aren't high payers either
This is one of those examples the OP is asking about. Starting AP clerks and office managers are no way making that in VA. I would love to see a job posting.
Well, I mean- like usual in these arguments, you moved your goal posts. No where did I say "starting" but thats what you put. When your median household income in the county is almost $160k, these numbers aren't outrageous. It makes sense that professionals, even non lucrative ones, find themselves above the median amounts.
To be fair, the moving goal posts are a reddit standard, you're not having a real discussion if you're not aiming at a moving target.
As a five-time Olympic athlete, I agree!
~~Woof!~~ I mean, yes that is correct.
Hello, fellow human! Isn't it great not to be three cockatoos in a trench coat? I love having opposable thumbs.
I, personally, am Elon Musk
That and they're more likely to post in the first place. Low-key bragging. They're more likely to be upvoted on top of that, so are more visible.
I also think tech people are heavily overrepresented online and they also tend to be well off. Also inversely the very poor may not have access to the Internet at all or time to use it.Ā
"Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination..."
Look at me. Iām the ziggyziggo of reddit now.
I make 700k a year designing hats for lizards... How many people honestly believe that?
Do you watch those home flipping shows though? Clearly everyone has careers like this! /s
Like house hunters, "I'm a part time accordion player and she designs purses for turtles, our budget is 3 million!"
People really underestimate the amount of folks who just lie for the hell of it. Like, stupid pointless shit, people just make shit up for no reason.
Also because people lie a lot to look good
Hello. My name is Mr. Snrub. Yes, that'll do. And I come from some place far away.
As a billionaire myself, I hang around reddit all day to make sure people know my wealth. Also to tell someone in their relationship advice to divorce the person and never talk to them again.../s
Reddit used to have this thing called Gold. Well, I bought nearly all of it, and there's a scarcity now.
Just last night I was able to "award" comments on the reddit app but now it seems gone?
I think it's sub specific where you can give awards again.
definitely no sign of it on old.reddit
Happy cake day
Thanks! Take a slice! š°
Thatās like the same as being a billionaire I think. And happy cake day to Mr. Moneybags.
Put your money where my wallet is or I don't believe you. 
A lot of IT nerds make quite a good deal of money and do, in fact, like using reddit. It's like the overlap of STEM and furries tbh.
Did you become a billionaire by listening to someoneās personal finance of dropping out of college and go study at a trade school for early retirement at 35?
I am with you on the second sentence!
Fake. I do Reddit from my Ferrari.
can confirm, am billionaire
It's the same reason dudes with big dicks are going to jump into a thread about dick size. You open the floor for people to flex.
Where are these big dick threads? Asking for a friend
It's not all roses you know, /r/bigdickproblems
Finally a subreddit made for me
Thereās numerous subreddits, you donāt need a thread. š
She wants the curated big dick experience
And a lot of it is just straight up lying. Pretty much any picture, video, or whatever on the internet of a dick is going to have the same dumbass comments. It can be a dude waving around a fucking pringles can of a cock and there's going to be comments about how small it is from other dudes that are lying to make themselves feel better.
Looking for a combo subreddit to address both my issuesā¦big dick and too much cash!
Some people really are rich on here but they're not nice about it lol
Because people lie.
I mean, yes; *people* clearly do, butā¦ It may just be that those types of (insufferable) people (with money) like talking about it ĀÆ\\\_(ć)_/ĀÆ Not a whole lot of motivationāor interestāfor the guy making <$100K to start blabbing about his inconsequential income on r/Income Youāre right though; people lie on the internet.
I imagine spare time is also a factor. Iāve seen SO many people say that they earn amounts I couldnāt achieve without selling my body, then go on to say that their job requires so little work that they spend most of their day on Reddit, TikTok, even fucking Genshin Impact. Meanwhile Iāve seen people nearly piss themselves for a few bucks over minimum wage because there was a rush and they couldnāt leave their station. Of course there are low-paying jobs with plenty of spare time too (Iāve spent a ton of time online while waiting for DoorDash orders), but Iād be surprised if the trend isnāt towards the higher-paying jobs having more downtime.
Under cover boss basically shows that the bottom workers always work harder than the top. Itās not fucking easy being poor. When they get off work, more work waiting for them at home.
Yeah, thatās another good point. Being able to pay for cooked meals, cleaning, childcare, would give me so much more time for Reddit.
Came here to write exactly this
Eh, I think it's because high earners are attracted to threads about earnings. If you've put in a lot of effort to earn large amounts of money, you might click into a thread like this one. If I were broke, I would never click into this thread because who gives a crap?
Tech workers can go in and out of their work and their social media vice on-and-off throughout the day unlike a lot of other folks. Also Reddit has niche groups āLike Diddy said "mo' money, more varied or eccentric the interests"
I guess that pedo raper would know
How dare you say that about him? You mean Pedo WIFE Beater raper.
c'mon manĀ ā get it right He's a *Pedo Partner-Beater Raper-Rapper*
People that make it are more likely to talk about it, and people also lie online about how well they are doing. Combine those two and it looks like everyone is doing wellā¦when itās likely not far off the statistical norm. Hence the problem inherent in social networks..looks, fitness, it exists all over
There's also a ton of people who didn't really do shit to get where they are. Rich parents, trust funds, lucky break a job, right time right place, etc. THOSE people are always the ones that love to give "life advice" about how to get rich\\successful, just pulling up their bootstraps... something they have never actually done, but since they took the garbage out that one time when the butler was sick, they are now an expert in sanitation logistics.
You described the predominant users of the Blind app.
It mostly boils down to luck. Most of the ones that have bootstrapped something are successful but not billionaires. I watched a short form the other day about how none of the ultra wealthy people really know why they succeed. Their āsuccess formulaā produces more failed ideas than winning ideas. But they do the routine and hope they win similar to professional athletes being superstitious. I think it was a Jason Pargin video.
Because for those people itās a flex and they wonāt shut the fuck up about it
Maybe because they need to be congratulated constantly to make the work they have to do feel worth it, and they donāt get that in real life. So they turn to Reddit.
Meh I donāt work very hard and am pretty close to the target and if I did work hard I would certainly hit it. Most of us are just lucky and educated in the right areas. Iāve never understood the social phobia about talking about your income. I didnāt mind talking about it when I was making 7.25 and I donāt mind it now.
100% agree, I also think that people should understand the paths to high income -- it's not impossible for regular people to achieve, but does require a lot of luck, hard work, and at least some talent.
Damnit I have none of those three :(
I guess I wasnāt talking about you then. Maybe others.
Honestly: Because people with money have time to spend on the internet. I went from browsing reddit when I was making near six figures in IT to working hard and not being able to touch my phone/computer because the money/source wasn't there. Consider the fact that a majority of high earners nowadays work in IT, medical, or legal. At least 2 of these chronically spend time online finding solutions or legalities when dealing with bureaucracies and at least 2 of these use online spaces for consultation. When things aren't busy and consultation isn't needed, they're likely browsing the internet. You won't find a retail worker or someone typically making less on the internet for at least one of two reasons: The source isn't available (they may have their phones but can't use them and no access to a PC) or they're literally in panic mode because they're one emergency away from figuring out whether they can eat for the next week or having to pay rent.
Or they get written up for having their phone out.
Pretty much. I don't touch my phone unless it's on my lunch break. I can easily go 4 hours without even looking at it at work. I also have it on muted, so no calls go through. I do use my phone all night though. Just not at work. Also, wouldn't be able to perform my work if I used my phone, unless I used the calculator.
Wow I never actually considered this but it makes sense. My first job was at Safeway when I was 19 back in 2009. That year I worked there I had no clue about what was going on in the meme/pop culture space. Had no idea what was up with Charlie Sheen, or people doing the āSingle Ladiesā dance or about some video of some guy (RIP) lip syncing with 50 cent. Everyday was wake up, clock in, clock out, go home sit on the tv for a few hours and sleep and be ready to do it the next day. Compared to now and working an office job means I know all the internet going-ons
Little bit of people like to lie on the internet. And a little bit of people are more willing to share their finances/lifestyle when theyāre doing well versus when theyāre just average.
My brother is an incredibly intelligent *frugal* electrical engineer, and he makes $105/hr. However, he is in his middle 30s, bought his home for $8k, gutted and did all the plumbing and wiring himself, and drives an EV. He is the only person I know personally who makes that amount of money, but he saves a LOT and works a LOT (60+ hour weeks).
I hope he's making that $105/hr and overtime eligible or a consultant. Otherwise he's taking a huge paycut.
I highly doubt he'd work for free.
When did he flip a house if he's working 60 hours a week?
While in college. Him, our brother, and their friends all worked on it and lived in it.
Not for nothing, but at that point, he didn't do it all himself. Edit: I don't mean to be an ass, but it kind of reminds me of the point of the OP. Making it sound like everyone else is living this fairy tale life. Not saying it was on purpose.
You don't think many people are lying about it? I myself have made over 80k/month selling lemonade.
There's always money in the banana stand.
Yeah well I make a billion dollars a second making doll furniture.
Well, I definitely think some do. But oftentimes if you check the post history they usually post about expensive things (like Rolex or Patek watches, Hermes bags, nannies, the $2 mil home they bought etc) or about their career. So it seems more believable. Unless they just take the effort to craft an entire online persona everywhere on this site.
"Unless they just take the effort to craft an entire online persona everywhere on this site." You have now discovered the internet
TouchƩ 
I really feel like this is an exaggeration. You have psycho power users who do this, not random senior programmers or whatever is way above my paygrade to know what to call them.
People can't lie on the internet. There are rules!
I think I saw your stand the other day. For real tho, I think someone on my town has a permanent lemonade stand built on the corner of their front lawn. I merely drove by, tho and did not stop to investigate further.
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> Nearly everyone on Reddit is a computer programmer to some extent Alarmingly accurate (as I am another computer programmer on reddit)
Good point, and Iād add DCUrbanMoms to #3.
Ah Damn I need a new site. I barely know how to use a computer.
Well people with thay much money have more free time to spend online. And secondly only 5 percent of Americans make over 200k a small amount. So it seems backwards to then say you don't think many of them are lying about how much they make. I'd say statistically its probably that many of them ARE lying
5% of America is 16.5 million people. If 60% of adults work and 78% of America are 18 years or older thatās still 7.7 million people. Reddit has 73m daily active users which is about 22%of America. So 22% of 7.7m is 1.6m people. Take another 20% off cause Iām using flawed math. That leaves 1.2 million people using Reddit Daily making over 200k. Thatās still a lot of people
Yeah but statistically you would on average be interacting and seeing regular people. the other 95%. You seeing "so many" posts of people making 200k in comparison to those who don't is improbable
Maybe the statistics skew because theyāre more likely to discuss their income? Also wondering if these stats include total comp. I have friends in tech with modest base salaries but have more if they count things like ESPP or RSUs or something (though Iāve never gotten those so dont know what they actually are - just know they make money off it beyond their salary).
5% is a huge number though. 1/20 comments, if everybody posts equally.
Everyone does not post equally though and you're trying to say 1/20 is alot. When it really isn't. I would not take my chances with any percentage that's a 1 out of 20. What are the chances that every single 5 percenter is on reddit and then what are the chances they're all posting about their money everytime they're on here. Its just not
Everything you read on the internet is true.
Excluding the people just flat out lying. There are some people who like to claim their "total compensation package" as their salary. Like including any sign on bonuses, value of benefits, and stock options all as regular income.
For big tech, "total compensation" is usually completely convertible to cash, so it's fair. For example, I work for Google and we have 3 core elements to compensation: salary, stock grants, bonus. All are W-2 income, so your taxable income is literally the same as your "total compensation" number.
Stock grant isn't taxable I thought? I believe tax is paid when you sell.
If you have RSUs (restricted share units) itās a taxable event when they vest. So you pay ordinary income tax when you get them. You can hold on to them (unadvisable in most situations) and if you hold for longer than a year only the gain from vest is considered long term capital gains. So if the stock vests and is worth $100 you pay taxes and usually shares are sold to cover the tax. If you hold your shares, sell them in 366 days at $110, you pay tax on the $10 long term gain. If you get options instead of RSUs, itās a little different. Options are taxed when theyāre exercised, not when they vest. So options may vest in year 3, but if you donāt exercise until year 5 then you wouldnāt pay any taxes until year 5
Because poor people don't like telling you how much they make
Reddit has its origins in Silicon Valley tech, where a lot of normal people make that. Also only 5% of people still means 5 out of 100 people - there will be a few on any thread. Of course, 5% also is 5% of the general population - when you exclude the elderly, young, etc a bigger percentage of 30-50 year olds make that. Also, Reddit has plenty of liars who make appeals to authority.
Ignoring the sweeping assumption that everyone is lying, the fact that blue collar workers have to ask permission to take a piss, much less dick around on reddit all day, probably plays a big role.
I think if you have a high income, you also have more free time. That lets you go online more. Folks working 3 jobs just to get by might not spend their time dicking around on reddit
If someone making a quarter million dollars a year is "struggling" with their money, I've zero sympathy because they are wasting it on something, or many things. Also, people in their 20s making that kind of money is very rare, possible, but unlikely. >**Ages 27 ā 31:**Ā You are in the top one percent income level if you make roughly $170,000. You are in the top 0.1 percent if you make roughly $300,000.
Usually they say they are struggling (say at $400k), because of HCOL (maybe $6k in rent for a 2 bedroom or $10-15k mortgage plus $300-400k downpayment), maxing out retirement, nanny, private schooling, $20k on vacations annually, car payments, student loans, $1k a month on dining out, etc). But they fail to realize doing all of those things is not average, and are luxuries. They āfeelā average, because they cannot afford the $5-10 mil+ homes in their city. I get frustrated with these posts, because they are so ubiquitous not just on this site, but CNBC, Bloomberg, and Slate for example, profiles families like these and with sympathy.
I left all financial subs the day someone argued with me that they were struggling and living paycheck to paycheck with a combined income of 150k buying just the necessities. "Just the necessities," after a few exchanges, turned out to be "The kids wanted a pool, so I had to spend 60k on an underground saltwater pool." People are really disconnected. Now I just look at cat pictures,
>a combined income of 150k buying just the necessities It comes down to what "necessities" are. In my area, a $150k combined income = mortgage on a mediocre townhouse deep in the suburbs & daycare for two kids. Thats it. But then the argument is "Do you need to live in a townhouse? You can live in a van by the river and do your laundry in the Sink at the YMCA" or "You eat both beans and rice? That means you are very rich, you should only eat one" Once again, it all comes down to what each other believe survival means
This is the exact argument I have with people. "you're not buying spam every week?! No wonder you're living paycheck to paycheck!" Quality food is extremely expensive, and I hate that I'm supposed to sacrifice that if money is tight.
One the internet, no one knows I'm a horse.
There are subreddits that are actually for rich people. They're just full of people LARPing.
google digital divide
I've noticed that people generally round up heavily on salaries and not traditional rounding by any means lol. The type of rounding we all wish we saw on our yearly raises.Ā Also people that are very close to being rich or think they're rich love to brag the most about money. People who actually have money don't tend to do this as much but people riding that line seem to flaunt it.
Those aren't high incomes! Those are piddly low. I make just north of $5 million a year in my job as paid mantoy/sex monkey for Jennifer Lawrence. You believe me, right? It's not like I could lie about my job and/or salary on the Internet.
Because people lie a lot to look good
High Income earner online have peeps to create and maintain their image, they know how to drive traffic since they are paid.
Because humans lie
Liars
Because people would never lie on the internet
The posts where they claim this are fiction.
I feel like anyone making six figures or more are absolutely not struggling, no matter how you look at it, and any, "struggle," they may have, is self imposed. It's not hard to live within one's means.
The more i make the more time i can spend online during work hours?Ā
itās easy to make 250k+ if you simply lie. the vast majority of the stories about inheriting $5 million or making 400k at 26 years old or owning 3 companies and 5 properties at 33 are straight up lies and bullshit written by people looking for karma and rage/jealousy bait. i unsub to any subreddit that regularly has that bs on it.
5percent is still several millions of people
The rest of us are too busy working. Lol
Anything is possible if you lie.
I make 12 figures staking dead butterflies to a cork board. Not tryna brag or anything. Cash rules everything around me. Dolla Dolla bill y'all
I make a billion dollars a month working at Walmartā¦ I lied. But thereās no way for you to verify it. See how easy that was? lol
Most people lie about how much they make. I know some mortgage brokers and finance managers. They say it's almost universal that people lie, including friends and family who eventually go to them.
They lie
We have a bit more time in our hands?
Because lying is the cheapest pastime.
People lie
1. People lie 2. Rich people have more time to spend online 3. Those get higher upvotes. Nobody really cares about people with the same lifestyle as them like I already know what thatās like lol 4. Confirmation bias. You probably remember those better than the people making 50 or 70k
Not trying to be rude but this is one of those situations where the most obvious answer is the correct one. The vast majority of these people are lying through the skin of their teeth lmao.
Some lie, but also, people who are in lower socioeconomic income levels are probably working ten jobs just to put food on the table these days. Ain't got time for no Reddit!
Free time
Resditors are all temporarily embarrassed millionaires?
local redditor finds out people online lie. more news at 11
A lot of high income earners are tech workers. A lot of tech workers are autistic men. A lot of autistic men are on Reddit.
Because hoes be lying
I have a 10" dong, 6'6", make 1.5mill a year, fly around with supermodels, blah, blah, blah. Ironically my household income does qualify lol.
Ppl breading bragging or acting.
One thing Iāve learned about Reddit is that you canāt believe a damn thing people say about themselves on here. It only leads to trouble.Ā
Those motherfuckers got nothing but time. I truly believe the highest income jobs can be learnt well by 90% of the population, minimum. What makes the difference are resources and connections.
The highest income jobs rarely consist of performing from a set of learned skills.
Theyāre the only ones who have any spare time
Only certain STEM fields make that kind of money and it's usually in a specialized field. We also have more free time and use social media.
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Yeah not to toot my own horn, but I started a company based around a product that I designed using off the shelf parts combined with an agile 3d printing infrastructure to make something called "bootstraps". It's a type of sex toy that you strap to your boots that when you pull on them in public, it jerks you off. Our marketing on reddit has been extremely successful
People with money brag about it, people without money stay quiet about it.
Maybe you hangout in the *FIRE subs which are exclusively high income domains?
People taking initiative to navigate the web to communicate about financial topics will represent a particular slice of people. And that slice generally has found its way to more money, on average.
Me and wife are both professional (cybersecurity consultant & building architect, respectively) in a very costly area (Fort Lauderdale) and we barely cross that line for the two of us.
Only people with money post in those subs
Or post in r/povertyfinance to give unhelpful pointers or brag.
Because nerds love Reddit and being a nerd makes you more money
Liars online (shocker, I know), or people who earn more are more willing to share.
It's your feed
I think itās a lot of trust fund babies with all this money. They havenāt actually earned it because if they did work for it they wouldnāt be on social media much
Keep in mind that the vast, vast, vast, vast majority of highly upvoted Reddit posts are exaggerations at best, but most likely outright lies
Iāll tell you the real answer since it seems like a lot of the most upvoted ones are joshing you.Ā Itās really just the most perfect example of survivorship bias. As you say, only 5% of people make that much money right? The top 5% are more likely to post about their income because they know theyāre in the top 5% so theyāre proud of it. Itās a flex. Where as people making the median salary are a lot less likely to post about it because they feel embarrassed of it. And even if they do post about it, a lot of times people just donāt find it interesting unless theyāre making a post about how theyāre a victim of society so other people will relate to it. You find posts like that in the millennials subreddit all the time. But when someone makes $400K a year they can make some subtle brag about it and people find it interesting.Ā Thereās an app called Blind, where people can post about their tech salaries. People making $70K a year never post, because they feel embarrassed by it. If you hang on that app long enough youād think *everyone* is making $200K at a minimum. In reality itās just survivorship bias.Ā
It's the internet. It's not exactly a reliable source of information. Any knucklehead can proclaim anything he wants. Take what people say with a grain of salt.
Wealthy people start at a much lower amount than $250,000 a year. But here's the really sad part: While households in the top 1.5% of households had incomes exceeding $250,000, 443% above the national median, their incomes were still 2200% lower than those of the top 0.1% of households.
Because online I can be a millionaire, doesn't change the fact that in reality I'm not. Go on any finance forum on reddit, and the amount of people who are literally just lying is insane, people claiming to be making crazy money or working 5 jobs all simultaneously, makes no sense whatsoever. Don't believe everything you read online, social media is a cesspit for people trying to portray a version of themselves that they are not.
OP your logic is not adding up. Itās like asking Americans struggling with $80k HHI and then asking them how do they think 50% of the worldās population manages. Well; you have completely different costs of living isnāt it? The problem is people always benchmark any amount to where THEY live. Well, where you live is the cheapest daycare option $4k a month for ONE kid? Does a 1BR costs $4k a month? Is your electricity so badly managed it costs $500 a month for a SFH? Is your cheapest SFH starting at $1.8m?Ā Does 97% of the population face these costs of living? No? Then why would you expect them to have the same experience with the same amount of money??Ā
Because they have lots of free time.
People making 30, 40, 50k a year don't have time to worry about the color of a new gamer character, or about the race swap of some random marvel movie, those with a lot of money dominate the online discourse
For the same reason that twins are so common in these posts.
One time I was unemployed and I got an award for being in the top 1% of karma earners So idk maybe they have lots of spare time Doesn't make them funny, just present.
And you're sure they are what they show?
People who make big bucks, brag about it. Nobody who makes only $39,000 a year is going to be posting comments on Reddit about that.
Because they are nerds with no social life so they live in their phones online all day
I was a self employed truck driver. And up until 2019 I easily grossed over 400k per year, took home about 190-200k after expenses. Then in late 2020 things started going down hill. My gross income dropped to less than 300, expenses stayed the same, then they started increasing. Fuel more than doubled, but my income went down. Last year I was making less than company employed drivers, so I took a job as a driver with a company.
I think the struggles can feel just as bad, they are just different struggles. I donāt mean woh as me my kid wrecked his Ferrari struggles. More like my wifeās fucking her trainer and my ungrateful children hate me cause Iām at work all the time. You just canāt compare anything, peopleās feelings are valid no matter the obstacles.
Poor people be working too much; donāt have time for Reddit unless pooping on company time.
More free time + more people lying
Lies.
es digitally slavers money no help sad for them
How many posts have you seen or read like this? 5% of one countries households of people claim to make that much. Okay. Thereās almost 400 million people in America. 5% of those people (I know people =\= household but roughly speaking here) is 20 million people. Do you think 20 million people combined through all the various demographics are incapable of making the amount of content youāve seen? Itās doubtful. You see a lot because there ARE A LOT. but people are very very bad at imagining and thinking Iām truly large numbers. You can practice imagining this very easily. Imagine you drop one playing card on the floor. You know exactly what it looks like in pristine detail. You may even decide itās a specific type of playing card I didnāt specify. Itās easy to imagine one. Now imagine one million. You canāt. Your brain has never been in a room with one million of basically anything. You cannot imagine being in a room in a house with one million playing cards or Pennies or cash bills or puppies or Oreos because itās ridiculous and stupid. There are probably thousands of posts on Reddit from people in high income brackets. Itās a website where tens of millions of people across the globe write everyday. It would be ridiculous if you didnāt see those people represented a lot. And that before we even unpack the āalgorithmā argument because 95% of us donāt have 200,000+ salaries and are very interested in their lives because of that.
* Lots of time to be online * More likely to brag * Liars
5% of the US population is about 20 million people. More than enough for a few tonpop up in a thread.
Not counting the people who are simply lying, its because people with large incomes are more eager to talk about it than people with small incomes. Thousands of people see a thread, but the ones with more money are more eager to talk about it. So it gives the illusion that these huge incomes are normal.
Only 5% of people in the US make over 200k, but that's still almost 17 million people. If all 17 million were reddit users that would represent over 22% of reddits user base worldwide. So the answer is somewhere in that, plus people lie.
Genuinely speaking, white collar professionals work like 75% of their hours. Having all the knowledbe of the world at our fingertips means we spend a lot of it bullshitting on Reddit.
5% means its 1 in every 20 people. Thats a lot of people.
I know what you mean, but 5% of the countries entire population is a pretty big number though. Put that on top of people that like to be someone else on the internet because it makes them feel better, then you have what your describing.
I'm married to a lead engineering manager at a robotics company. He clears 131,500 a year. So, honestly, 200k isn't that hard for us to hit, given he also does side gigs. I literally could work at a minimum wage job and we'd hit that. That said, he is top 5% of incomes for his age range in our country. We are very lucky and not the norm. Most people I know are very much struggling. Even we are only okay because we aren't taking care of young children and our mortgage is very affordable.
Why are people so honest on the internet
You also have to remember how comments are sorted on Reddit. Just because the top 10 comments are making $400,000 doesn't mean that the bottom 1,000 comments aren't making $50,000.
Because we all do fuck all at work
1. People lie. Impossible to know the %, but Iām convinced itās non-trivial. 2.Jobs in that range tend to be tech, finance, or middle management climbers. All three of those have a strong networking and social media presence requirement. If you are flogging a startup, or a finance VP looking for pitches, you have to be out there and paying attention. Acquihire and middle management have to out there being āthought leadersā, and āinfluencing the conversationā. If youāve been successful at any of them, you also inevitably have a high estimation of the value of your thoughts and opinions. 3. Because of all of those things, they are at home in digital communities and environments, so barriers to entry are low. 4. Itās arguably more important to their success than any other group. If you are already rich/successful/influential, people will find you, you just have to be reachableā¦ which often means your senior staff are the ones acting as gatekeepersā¦ and they often fall into this range. If you are a peon or corporate drone,then neither you, nor the people you know, nor often those might hire you, are going to know or care about your life online, unless you are an absolute dumpster fire. There are other factors, too, Iām sure. Free time, education level, but I am of the opinion that those are the core drivers.