Comments on: Speed Up or Shift Up: Thinking About Your Income Path

By: EA

EA — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:40:18 +0000

Your graph is great if everyone gets a flat raise, but typically in corporate america the raise is a percentage of your salary. E.g. everyone gets a 2.5% cost of living raise and high performers get another 2 or 3% on top of that. Percentage raises on top of higher starting salaries make the lines on the graph diverge even more towards the right side.

By: Shanti

Shanti — Sat, 10 May 2008 21:53:47 +0000

This is all assuming, however, that you’re working in corporate America, or at the very least for a larger company.

I work for myself running multiple businesses. At 22 I make around $40k/year. Yes, maybe not that high of a salary – but considering I live on $15k, my relative savings each year is huge compared to most all of my peers who are just graduating college and going into jobs that pay $26-$30k/year. And unlike those people who work hard at a regular job, I don’t have to worry about when my next raise is going to come, or if I’m going to outperform the competing employees for the next higher position. There is a lot of liberation in working for yourself, if you can pull it off.

Because I have a reliable, steady source of income for the main business, the rest of my “raises” and “bonuses” are directly related to how hard I work, and how smartly I work. I may have a degree in Italian and a useless conservatory degree in opera, but it’s my BRAIN that really determines how much I can earn in a year, and how much I can save.

While a college education is important, it’s not the end-all, be-all of wealth building, and of moving along the earning potential of your life. I’d like to stand up and be an example of working on one’s own and doing well, and ever better, all by the labor I put in. I can be done, and it’s a lot less stressful than working with and against your co-workers all the time – as I’ve found, anyway.

By: Dave of Applied Prosperity

Dave of Applied Prosperity — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:18:48 +0000

When prosperity is dependent upon others (i.e. employers or the market), then self-reliance is never a possibility; which self-reliance is a necesity for economic independence and financial freedom. Self-reliance resides in the mind. Certainly making oneself more employable is a great strategy, but it’s only one strategy. Creating value is the key; and those who educate themselves on how to run a business (for example) have the freedom to create value on their own scale. Now, it’s the market who decides the value you create, and you’re compensated justly every time (I see a LOT of your posts concerning “fairness” of salary, etc. Fairness is based upon what parties agree upon). Even if employed, having a plan for your money and being educated enough to create value with that money, perhaps a side business or investment stemming from your OWN mind and thinking rather than what is available and offered by someone else; these are the mindsets of prosperity. Prosperity implies creation of value. Creation implies original thought; whether applied to a job or one’s own ‘thang’. Either way, it would be a great challenge and exercise to discover one’s own path of creativity instead of only seeking one’s greatest advantage within someone else’s creative infrastructure. My two cents.
–Dave Charbonneau, C.E.R.

By: zach @ Pennywise

zach @ Pennywise — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:37:46 +0000

“must. . . have. . . *any*. . . degree. . . ”

Blindly seeking out some bullshit degree will only help you so much. What you want is knowledge that few people have, or that people will pay a mint for. What about pipefitters and welders and electricians? They don’t take degrees, but it is a rigorous process.

Example: I have no degree, but I can make plenty of money working at the trades.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:46:14 +0000

Never graphed it before today and hadn’t quantified how much more I make since I started out.

I have a linear line until I changed jobs for a better career move. My income dipped that first year but turned parabolic thereafter.

The dollar amount that took 5 painful years to save up (for a house) I can now put towards my retirement yearly.

I think if your demo graph showed compound increases in income the income gap would be outstanding.

By: jessica

jessica — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:15:39 +0000

Don’t forget that (at least in aerospace engineering) you should be keeping tabs on what the market conditions are and perhaps always have a copy of your resume out there for potential job offers with better compensation. Contractors are pros at this. They always know what the top rate is and if they’re not making it, they will be soon!

By: Jude

Jude — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:35:11 +0000

This is similar to the thought process I had when I was deciding whether to go to grad school earlier this year. On one hand, I would not make money for a year and have to take out at least some student loans. When I realized that after a year, the salary increase would be $20k and would grow larger with time, however, my decision became easy!