<p>There’s a thread in the CC cafe, but obviously they haven’t experienced the real world like you adults have. Some of those guys are crazy, but this subforum actually has the experience to discuss something like this.</p>
<p>It depends on what you mean by ‘good’. I saw a study once that said most people thought they’d be fine if they made 10,000 more than what they currently made. So if someone made 18k, they thought they could live pretty good on 28k, but someone who made 60k thought it would be great if they could get 70k. I would guess that those numbers would go up as incomes went up. So someone who mades 175k wants 200k, not 185k.</p>
<p>Bill Gates did not derive his fortunes from salary alone either. Stock options and grants put a lot of MSFT folks in those lakefront houses, LOL.</p>
<p>It depends on where you live. To me a good yearly salary enables one to own a house, ideally with one bedroom per kid and two full baths, two cars (or have access to good public transportation and just have one car), enough yard for a small garden, enough extra money to be able to pay for music lessons and other basic extra curricular activities. Enough for a newspaper subscription and internet. I’d like a vacation once a year too. And enough left over to save for retirement and college.</p>
<p>I’ll just be happy when my husband finishes his doctorate and gets a job so I don’t have to bite my nails about being the sole breadwinner forever.</p>
<p>It would be <em>nice</em> to have a few extra thousand to sock away into the retirement, home down payment, and future childrens’ college accounts every year. As it were, it’s nice that we’re only a few months away from paying off all consumer debt. For just the two of us, my salary is comfortable. When we add kids to the mix, a reliable second car and another salary would be very nice to have.</p>
<p>The obligatory $100K that’s beneath so many of the people posting in the CC cafe thread would be downright cozy! (For Houston, at any rate.)</p>
<p>The ‘good salary’ definition depends on a lot of variables so for one person to state a hard figure is meaningless.</p>
<p>For the majority of people a ‘good salary’ means enough so they -</p>
<ul>
<li>can have comfortable housing (which depends on where one lives - ex: NYC versus a small town in Indiana)</li>
<li>can support their family regarding food, clothing, healthcare, and other necessities (which depends on the size and needs of the family)</li>
<li>can afford reliable transportation (which depends on whether they need a vehicle or can use public transportation)</li>
<li>can have reasonably satisfying entertainment (which depends on individual desires - movies, plays, going to the beach, low cost domestic vacations vs. expensive overseas vacations)</li>
<li>can save some reasonable amount of money for a buffer for unplanned events like job transitions</li>
<li>can save appropriately for retirement (which varies with where the retirement location would be and the retirement lifestyle)</li>
<li>the income necessary for an individual will also depend on the combined income of the household - i.e. 2 incomes of $50K is equal to one income of $100K (minus some extra costs in attaining the extra salary) </li>
</ul>
<p>So, what’s a ‘good salary’? To figure that out you’ll need to make a small spreadsheet for the above metrics, figure out a budget given individual circumstances, and see what the answer is.</p>
<p>A good salary I assume to mean to good standard of living which is highly dependent on cost of living and the life/career stage of the person. For a person starting out in life, $100,000 in NYC is excellent, not as great when you are in your 50s with 2 college bound children and you don’t have much in way of assets.</p>
<p>I read the other thread- it will be interesting to see how those views change when reality hits. I notice no absolute numbers here, too many high ones there. Ah, maturity.</p>
<p>Yeah, this thread is definitely more in touch with reality than the other thread is, populated with HS sophomores and juniors who think that anyone can make 250k given you graduate any college and living anywhere in the U.S.</p>
<p>I’m not a working adult yet, but even I know more than that…</p>
<p>Case example: Son was a short term contractor for X company. Paid ~$1600/mn= $x. He banked 90% of the $x because the position was overseas, all expenses paid.</p>
<p>Case example two: Son is a short term hire for same X company. Being paid 4$x previous amount. He will be fortunate to bank 2$x because of taxes and expenses.</p>
<p>Case example three: Son had no salary for one year, But had $x income.</p>
<p>I am glad I read that thread, now I don’t feel so bad , one day my 19 year old casually announced to us "I would like to make $10,000 a month … " then, looking at our silent visage continued “… Is that ok ? Is that too little ? …”</p>
<p>We were trying not to laugh outright in her face. BTW, this kid said, when we were discussing her future - no law school because she didn’t want to work too hard. :rolleyes: (Nothing from the science area, since she does not like science)</p>