1973… my starting salary was $5800. I lived in northern NH and felt mighty wealthy. Rent was $100 a month, and my car payment was $30. I was a very poor college student so $5800 seemed like a lot. That might have included my summer job too…
I made around $15K in the mid 80s but got free lunch and a free metro pass. Much less than my engineering and accounting friends back then. I remember they’d go on trips skiing out West and such that husband and I would have to pass on because it wasn’t in our budget.
It all worked out very fine and partially due to the budgeting skills we learned in the lean years. While those friends are still working, we’ve been early retirees since our 40s. 
I’ve been saying that on cc for years, or at least until the politics forum got shut down. I’ve mentioned it once or twice since, but then I would get dinged by a Mod for being political – except that I had a minor in Health Economics.
My first job was with PW in 1992 and I made $31K which was very decent for my state. I stayed with them and moved overseas ultimately switching to EY in 1998. Made partner after a few years and eventually retired at 40 in 2009.
Goal was to live off of earnings which we have been able to do so far. I record net worth at the end of each month and as long as we have at least what we had when I retired (adj for inflation) we do not budget. Once or twice a year we track all expenses for a month to see how spending is going. Wife and I are both frugal so this works for us.
[QUOTE]
Fancy!
Is the goal of a show like that to sell paintings? Get commissions? Get more widely known?
I know nothing about the art world. It’s a strange place, from what I’ve read [\QUOTE]
The answer is partly sales. If the gallery doesn’t make money from her, she is less likely to have another show there. But, the aim is in part to enhance her reputation, which comes from reviews and curators and collectors seeing the show. So, the strategy is about reputation maximization. So, she’d rather sell to a known collector (even at a lower price) or at a low price (or even free) to a museum than sell to just anyone off the street. She doesn’t take commissions as she thinks they harm her creativity.
It is a bit hard to reconstruct years, but here’s my guess. I took a year off in grad school to work but don’t have any idea what I was paid. I got my PhD at age 25 but started teaching at a business school at age 26 (I think) at the grand salary or $52K.
Now a business major going to a “big name” firm may start at $70K or more.
ETA- comp sci May start at 100K or more.
Both of these are validated, real life salaries of multiple students graduating in 2018.
I started in 1983 at a mutual fund company in Phila at $12.5k. Editorial assistant job at a publishing company in NYC paid the same; decided to get some hard skills and work some writing into my work. Was making $30k at a benefits consulting firm by 1989 while supporting DH through grad school. Then came the kid years, FT/PT at a small pension firm, and health issues. So much for a nice increasing salary slope.
DH made $24/yr as an accountant/ financial systems analyst for a Fortune 100 in 1983. Wharton got him a $4k premium over the usual salary grade.
The year I did my internship (1979-1980) they raised the salary… from $3900/year to $5250/year. Then I got a fellowship the next year that paid… $7000. I thought I was rich! Then, my first job as a newly minted Ph.D. (mid 1981) paid $27K, which they upped to $32K after the licensing exam. Until then, the new graduates were earning around $17K, so this was considered a major coup! I had some grad student loans (despite having a public health service traineeship/scholarship) and dutifully paid back, IIRC, $106/mo for 10 years. I still have the payoff papers.
Speaking of PhDs, the sad fact is my husband’s post-docs in hard science field earn less than the kids graduating with 4 year degrees in other fields.
This is extreme and probably not found outside of the Bay area or maybe NYC.
Average starting salary for comp sci majors is mid-60’s I believe.
^that is painfully sad, @1214mom. In this day and age, with training funding being slashed, insurers not wanting to reimburse for interns working under supervision, programs are struggling and students are being saddled with debt that will be hard to pay off due to the declining reimbursement issues. 
Not sure. Could have been 27 when I started.
In 1982 I made $10 hour to shovel mud and slop off of old barges in the Hudson River so they could be raised and towed away. Today there is new construction development going up and some of the day laborers are making about the same??
I enjoy still working part-time. DH has been wanting to retire, but he’d work just as hard with his volunteer activities. And the private healthcare insurance around here stinks. And this: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-case-against-early-retirement-11555899000
Academic postdoc positions do not pay well. I went to my boss and lobbied for a salary adjustment or a young man who was hired out of a postdoc and was lowballed by adding a $5k to his postdoc salary. That was below what our BS degreed associates were making at that time! (I saw a copy of his pay stub and was appalled; I had nothing to lose because I already had another job lined up - I was not fired after that, lol).
$100k for a fresh out of school comp sci grad is low end for Bay Area. OK for Seattle. BSc biochem get started at $50-70k here depending on the employer.
@jym626, I still love working full-time (running consulting firm, co-founding startup, teaching one week executive course at university, non-profit board and other pro bono activities). A sage friend has said that we need community, meaning and structure as a basis for mental health. I think two of three works but with only one of three, people have difficulty. My work gives me a clear sense of meaning as well as intellectual and functional satisfaction – I’m thrilled that the ideas I have created really help. The startup definitely contributes to meaning. Work also provides a community (these are small firms but also cause me to be in the broader community of my field). The work also provides some limited structure – meetings and trips --although I don’t really to to the office much anymore.
I do think my engagement with the world will keep me alive longer.
My mother is 95 and sharp as ever. Apparently, she does hard crosswords ever day as an ongoing mental challenge. Plus she reads the NY Times and watches TV news and rails at Trump. I would have thought that could hurt her health, but she is generally doing very well. She also goes to the gym 3 days a week.
If you are enjoying your work, that’s great.
I think a lot of assumptions are made about retirement that just aren’t true for many. I’ll leave it at that.
@doschicos Don’t leave it at that, elaborate please.
The salaries I quoted are in the DC area, graduating from public college. I was actually surprised that NYC salaries were not much different for friends who went there. In at least one case, salary was lower for named business place in NYC (Can’t remember if it was KPMG or Deloitte, but if not, something like that).
My son with the math degree started out making less, but his friends who were 2016 graduates in computer science also made close to and over $100k (that’s only a “pool” of 2, but they did not go to Silicon Valley or any other place known to have great salaries).