How much were you making at ages 25, 28 and 30?

They’re lying


Like everybody is broke now

It is never about how much you make. It's what you spend.

When I was in my 20's and early 30's, what I was making would be considered embarrassingly low today but I wasn't spending nearly as much as I do now that I make way more.

I wish I could go back in time and save/invest more back then but oh well, can only move forward.

Just throw at least 15% of each paycheck to your 401k and max out a Roth IRA if you qualify for it. If not, do a traditional IRA. Either way, max it out every month. Do these two things and you will be golden by the time you're 60.

Make it a habit and a priority to include these things into your monthly budget FIRST and then have fun with the rest.

I'm making way more today than ever before but somehow it still feels like we're living paycheck to paycheck due to a combination of things costing way more now and our willingness to spend more now. If we were to reign in our spending each month we could invest probably $2,000 more each month.

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Just throw at least 15% of each paycheck to your 401k and max out a Roth IRA if you qualify for it. If not, do a traditional IRA. Either way, max it out every month. Do these two things and you will be golden by the time you're 60.

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Correct. The biggest lifestyle “improvements” salary increases have allowed for (other than having a kid) is that I can save and invest considerably more.

I don't remember exactly but it looks like about 50k at 25 and 75k at 30 in today's dollars.

I do remember thinking at 25 that if I could only get my salary up to 40k at the time I'd be golden

Age 25: $87k
Age 28: $109k
Age 30: $131k


Damn, bring back the 90's. I don't even make $110k now.

25: $0

28: 110k

30: 300k

Better question would be how much were you saving.

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It is never about how much you make. It's what you spend.

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Absolute truth and something I've tried to drill into my kids' brains.

As a side note to that, some might say, "It's not about what you make. It's how many kids you have." I love my kids to death, but those frickers are expensive.

Amt. at the time / todays dollars
25: $70k / $103k
28: $150k /$210k
30: $160k / $213k

This was mostly all w2 income, until 30 I started to make some 1099 freelance income. Didn't invest smartly in my 20's but most people don't. Easy to have high income and low net worth when you don't have a real plan to accumulate assets. Also Didn't get married or start having kids until later so my priorities were different and I wasn't as focused on the long term.

Buying a house, owning businesses and commercial properties, I have had years where I felt less wealthy (less cash) but generated far more wealth. It takes time and maturity to learn how to balance being driven and generating cash, and having a long term outlook and discipline to develop wealth at the same time.

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If you're making $110k+ a year and you cant go on vacations or buy an iphone

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“Don’t” doesn’t mean “can’t.” The point is, I’d rather throw $10k at my mortgage than blow it on a Disney trip. I live well below my means and I’m not sure what salary I’d need to be at to not do so.