What would you do with a $124,000 Annual Salary

Guess I should have put a trigger warning in my post for you. Hope you can get the help you need boss.

It’s too little for a cushy existence, so I’d find a better job.

I already make that. Doesn't go as far as you think.

Rent is 3200 here in the Burg and the rest goes to Doordash and Uber. Basically nothing left over for travel or savings

This was my base with Nike a few years ago. I did nothing with it other than continue to contribute to my 401k and get my stock equity. I did move to a less expensive house (longer commute, but $500/mo less in mortgage). Just allowed me to not look at my bank account and have less stress.

Rob Mueller wrote:

Sayer of things wrote:

I’d try to get a better job. I live in NYC. Last year I made 200k, this year on track for 135-140k and am really feeling the difference.

All our records indicate you’re making much more than that, Eric. Where’s all the money going?

Okay, I LOLed.

Take flying lessons.

Buy a few used motorcycles and $5,000 worth of tools to fix them and $10,000 for trips.

Start a handgun collection and then try to figure out how to get rid of them without being irresponsible.

Start hiking and climbing and buy $5,000 worth of gear and $10,000 for traveling to the mountains.

Start cycling and buy $5,000 worth of gear, $5,000 for a couple bikes, and $5,000 for travel.

Learn how to ski and buy $5,000 worth of gear and $15,000 for traveling and lift tickets.

Get dental work done for health and for the ladies.

Spend $100 (including tip) for haircuts every two weeks.

Spend $hundreds a year on cologne and skin conditioner.

Get a professional wardrobe.

Spend $500 going out on the weekends, buying a round at every place you go to.

Spend $350 weekly eating out.

Spend $10,000 a year on vacations with the girlfriend and to go trout fishing.

Buy a Wall Street Journal subscription and never use it.

Build the ultimate PC with monitor for $10,000.

Spend $5,000 on trips, books, classes, and bottles because you think you're a wine connoisseur.

Help pay for sister's wedding, $10,000.

Pay off brother's credit card balance $10,000.

Contribute to a slew of charities because you finally can.

Runningart2004 wrote:

Pay more taxes.....:)

It’s interesting to me as you progress through life how your standards or benchmarks change. Coming from a dirt poor family I thought 30k a year was something special.

I’ve realized as my job and salary changed that all I do is have more money to buy more useless stuff to throw in a house that I only really use about 60% of. Who TF needs a formal living and dining room? Two extra rooms full of crap. 4th bedroom is a multipurpose room. Who needs that?

Even those making 100k are living “week to week”in some instances because of the false idea that they need to constantly increase the amount of useless crap in their lives.

Alan

That's true--I made 53k at Accidenture and that was good $ where I live and very comfortable, but I hated the culture. I make less at 38k but it's a lot less stressful; that said, I know I can do better and stick it out to move up.

Correct--even at 38k with no debt I can survive, I just have to pray that surprises don't come up or I get sick. I am able to save a few hundred each month ($600 or so) and throw it into my investments (index funds, Roth IRAs, etc.).

I am 37, will turn 38 in November. I lost a decade in my 20s (22 to 30) because I stayed at a newspaper job that I thought would hope I'd be able to grow with (feared job hopping even then) but the industry changed and I had to move from CLE to Columbus after they fired me in 2014. A lot of people were also hit hard in 2008 with the recession so I was just lucky to never lose my job in that time. I had looked at getting out at that time but I lived at home to save money and job prospects were nil even then.

The economy did improve after that, but only in certain industries.

I get the sense that a lot of people here are either Xers or Boomers in management, or young Millennials (24-26 to 33?), or even GenY (18-24) just out of undergrad starting their careers, or are in college.

lemalin wrote:

These thread are always hilarious, really brings out all the snobs who claim it's a pittance and impossible to live off.

Wake up and smell the coffee rich boys, that's a LOT of money by the vast majority of people's standards, significantly over double the national average

Yep. I tell people if I can survive on 38k (I have no loans other than a credit card bill, however, and no kids) and put some $ away each month, most of the runners I know can do even better with far better salaries than mine.

Mortgages are not a industry where you can make good $ unless you're a loan shark or LO.

theJeff wrote:

same boat wrote:

Same. I don't know how you people making 40k do it

My wife and I both teach high school. We have 2 kids, 2 paid off cars, an annually maxed out Roth, and recently paid off our mortgage. It has taken a lot of discipline, and the cost of living where we live is waaaaaaaaaaay lower than SoCal, but I find it hard to believe that people are genuinely struggling if they make 40k a year.

It depends. My fiancee got a pay bump from 42k to 50k this year and she's happy. Teachers work hard but if you stick with it you'll do well in that career. I'd be happy even at 45-48k a year, although that would be a huge jump from my current salary. At least I'm not in retail at age 37 lol!

I don't know; some of the people write very specific things that makes me think they are telling the truth. Some are trolling if they post something and it's obvious their math is wrong, however, or there are other inconsistencies.

But I've been on this board since college (2002-2006) and a lot of the people on this board are in STEM careers so their salaries make sense.

track chick wrote:

I would go fuccking beserk.

No, not really. I would save it all.

I'd love to buy a studio flat or one bedroom apartment in the city centre and try out living there for a few months.

I'd basically take out enough money each month to live on, a set amount. And then I would get a financial advisor and I would put the rest into a variety of things including a small amount in cryptocurrency (relatively new ones).

I would buy some new clothes. I would get my hair cut. I would get my toilet fixed, my sink fixed, my washing machine fixed, my ceiling fixed.

Someone here who gets it.

At 124k, I would be able to put more into retirement and save more than the $700 a month I throw into investments. Rent is going up where I live too, from $679/mo. to $719/mo. Living with a fiancée who makes 50k is nice though; combined we are at $88k gross in Columbus. We live modestly and drive used cars. I have a '14 Camry with 110k that I keep in great shape but I bought it used a year ago for $13k.

The downside is that she wants to have kids and get a house (and that will cost a lot of $ down the road).

Oh Please wrote:

This thread makes me feel inadequate! I make almost exactly the listed salary, and I always thought it was pretty good. I live in central Ohio, work for a big company, and I know that the majority of people here make less than that (job titles equate to pay bands for which salary ranges are public).

It helps that my wife also makes an additional 80k, so between the two of us, we have a nice enough life to where we can go on multiple vacations a year and have relatively nice things.

Unless I come up with the next big mobile app, I'm going to be stuck around this salary, as it is hard to make much more as a programmer (unless of course I go somewhere with much higher cost of living).

I empathize with you. I had friends who worked at Accidenture (not the real company name, but a tech firm in Central Ohio) and although the starting salaries for devs were good, the ceiling was capped at Level 7 (this company ranks you from 13-1, with 13 being your lowest level and 1 being the owner of the company) unless you were best buds with the managing directors.