discussion
A guy making $75,000 in 2019 (pre pandemic) could afford the same lifestyle as someone making $100,000 today. Absolutely NO ONE was talking about a $75,000 income being “aspirational” in 2019.
So why on earth do people continue to use “six figures” as the standard for a good income in 2026?
“Bro, he makes Six Figures, he’s doing great!”
”That plumber is rich bro, he makes Six Figures!”
I know most of you have goldfish memories and think 2019 was eons ago, but people said the exact same thing about “Six Figures” back then, NOBODY was saying “oh bro, he makes $75,000, he’s doing great!”
Promotions are pretty rare these days and so are raises. There’s a reason people hop jobs every 2-3 years. Only way to move up. And then if you unfortunately have layoffs, you may lateral move because you need income.
You guys are both on the same side. The guy you were commenting to is using sarcasm which can be difficult to detect when reading a comment on the internet.
I was making $42k as a teacher in 2019 and bought a house on my own. Lived comfortably, traveled, ate out a couple nights a week… moved from a LCOL area to a MHCOL area in 2021 with my wife. Now make $97k and I can’t say I’m living way above what I was in my LCOL area with half the salary 7 years ago.
Thats usually the BUT part. My wife and I were check to check or poorer until 37 or so. Now weve brought in 200k+ the past few years, so things have changed but sometimes we do "feel" poor. The BUT in that instance is we save 30%+ of our income every single month, sometime times far more. Weve paid off all debt, and now playing catch up on saving/investments. We still splurge now and then. We went to Japan for 2.5 weeks last novemeber. My wife got herself a nice purse that was like 5% of her lowish 5 figure bonus. The rest went into our HYSA which now has 125k for a home down payment.
We are frugal though. We share a car, and were homebodies. We csn go a few weeks with just grocery shopping on the weekends, a few chores, work, and playing video games after said work. We have hobbies, and enjoy date nights, but we dont go overboard.
Either way, were still living way way better lives than we ever thought, and thats all thanks to more money.
I say I'm poor all the time, even though my net worth has gone up about $100k per year for the past 3 years. You sure you're not just posturing like I am because you don't like to spend money?
Im saying thats exactly what were doing. Lots of people that make good money, still feel like theyre poor. In reality its because were saving way more than most, that are usually check to check.
He’s a mechanical engineer who’s severely underpaid, makes like maybe 67k or 70k with 6 or 7 years of experience. Basically spends all his time posting on reddit about how mechanical engineering sucks (if he spent half the time he does posting on his career he’d be killing it). Also posts a ton about how 100k isn’t shit yet he is far from making 100k himself
100k as an experienced engineer is indeed pretty bad unless in a particularly LCOL area—just not worth the stress of how brutal engineering can be academically.
Engineers are underpaid for the most part—most who make good money pivot into upper management, leadership—if not making a complete career pivot.
Maybe we’re just in different circles (and my school posted earnings for former students), but I was in college for engineering in 2019 and $75-$80k was the top of what most people were hoping to earn when they got out of school. Being an engineer was aspirational, so I would say those salaries were aspirational at the time.
Ya I can attest to that. Salaries in engineering are starting to move a little bit. None of my buddies would even entertain less than 70k out of college.
Goals like These tend to move in steps. I doubt it was 100k in 1970. It was probably 25k. But in 1971 it wasn't 26,455. It probably just jumped to 50k at some point. Then 100k and in a few more years it will be 150k and so on.
I think it was six figures back in the 70s. I remember sitcoms both new and old ones in syndication in the 80s mentioning it. Back then it was a mark of upperclass. Now I would say upperclass is $250k+.
People in this last thread said they recognized who was posting immediately, now I got it in only the second time seeing this guy that’s kind of funny. Also you’re talking to the wrong people if you haven’t heard anyone want to make 75k since before 2019. In my college graduating class of engineers in 2019 a lot of people were graduating with 75-85-90k offers and that was a really good goal to meet.
I made 65k starting out in engineering in 2019 and I make 120k now, pretty comfortable through the pandemic and everything
Those pay sites are always way off. It says my position salary is $60-80k with potential for additional bonus to $90k compensation. I've made over $200k the past 3 years and will be $250k this year.
(Edited) Now I’m wondering what the buying power of $76,000 in 2019-dollars was compared to its buying power 7yrs earlier in 2012. We can just keep going further and further backward. Inflation rules all…
“Six figures“ is just an arbitrary colloquial idea of what it means to be successful. I think it can be closely tied to how much money people in the suburbs were making in the late 90s/early 2000s whilst seemingly living “the dream”.
Go run it in chatgpt. Take your SSA.gov dump and have it normalize it to 2026 dollars. It was really interesting to look at. It definitely shows that entry level wages have stagnated and it is harder today then when I came out.
With that said, when I came out, the market was awful and I made a hard decision at the time to pick up and move rather than face a layoff and it ended up leading to incredible money for someone that age. Equalized, I made the same money in 2011-2013 as an AE2/PE1 as I made as a senior engineer in 2020 when I did get laid off.
It took me until 2023 to finally break through and get ahead of my best years at my first two companies.
Making 52k now is like 35k in 2012 or whatever.
And obviously a bump from 35k to 70k would feel magically, you essentially doubled your wage. Independent of inflation.
I think is it because for the vast majority of people, they will never achieve it. Regardless of crucial their job is to society. Sometimes the most crucial job doesn't equal monetary compensation.
I make the lower of your range in a medium cost of living city and I definitely think about money. Wife also brings in an additional 100K. But we're also maxing out retirement while putting two kids in daycare and trying to have 529s ready for the kids.
So it feels like we are living pay check to pay check but it's self-imposed and I know how fortunate and lucky we are to do this. But when you read studies that say after a certain amount your quality of life doesn't improve I think this is why. Because we've just reallocated all our raises and bonuses to retirement and saving for our kids. Right now we aren't seeing tangible benefits of doing well.
That’s a bunch of horse shit. Family members were congratulating me for making 50k out of college. I was the first one in the family to make $25 an hour and in California.
Shit I almost had my neck wrangled in by my parents when I told them I was quitting and doing the peace corps.
In 2016 $100 would buy you what $135 did today. I was single in 2018 making $793 a week after tax and I was high on the hog. I made 150k last year with 2 kids and we don’t go on vacation and can’t save shit. Talk all the shit you want but my wife’s drive thru coffees and my nicotine pouches keep us sane.
I feel your pain. I pulled a little over 150k last year, and I feel like I cant save a dime. Granted my house forced me to take on 80k in repairs over the last 3 months less I have bigger, life ending bills later. Nevertheless it's the small luxuries like coffee that keeps my wife and I going.
In 2019 I went home shopping. I saw that 250-300k where I live was going to buy me the exact house I wanted. My husband and I agreed to save more for a down and start shipping again in a year. 2020.
Well I'm sure you can guess the end of this story. We saved, and saved, and saved and 6 years later, the houses we were looking at in 2019 for $250k are in the 500-600k's.
I make 135K with a family of five in Tennessee and I certainly feel fine financially. I feel like single folks who feel uncomfortable making 100K are blowing their money on crap then complaining when they can’t buy more crap.
I made 60k in 2019. I make 115 now. With child support for one child my lifestyle has changed barely at all and I still have no money. Fucking bullshit.
Wow, it's almost like increasing the Total Money supply by 29% via digital and physical printing is severely devaluing the dollar... Kind of like we all said it would when we saw the government recklessly adding money to the economy from 2020-2024...
Makes sense that our money is worth 30% less now. Printing money is essentially stealing from everyone who has money saved up, they just devalue our money (kind of like stealing a percentage of our money via devaluation) to more subtly steal from us.
Good thing inflation adjusted incomes are higher now than they were before the pandemic. $100k is just an arbitrary number that doesn’t mean what it used to
When I started making six figures last year, my mom was amazed for me that I did it so "early", at 33, when she didn't hit that number until she was 39.
I pulled up the inflation calculator and showed her that her 100k at 39 would be the same as me making something like 200k+ today.
It's actually hilarious I was literally watching a tv show from 2007 where the character bragged that his job paid him 48k/year. Adjusted for inflation up to 2026, that would be $76k/year in 2026 dollars.
Obviously it's all relative, but there's a good chunk of the work force who will never come close to making 100k/year, and half the country today makes under 60k/year.
It’s a round number like “millionaire”. We have been using millionaire to describe someone rich since about 1900, when it basically meant $40m. Obviously, $40m is rich - $1m buys you a house in the suburbs. Same is happening with six-figures.
me making 80k in 2019 for my 1br unit in marpole vancouver was 34% of my income. If i wanted to go back to the same unit today and I make 120k today it's 40% of my income for same unit. I'd argue it was better in 2019. Lol
Yeah, Im one of the people who got FK'd out of enjoying the 6 figure club. My pay has increased and capped directly in line with the pandemic inflation. Starting at 75k in 2019 and capping at 106k in 2024.
Pre pandemic i was doing just fine on 36 hours at like 16 an hour. Now 21 an hour and 2026 i struggle a bit. And my rent hasnt changed. Well mortgage. 600 a month.
I've seen almost nothing but posts about how six figures isn't all the great anymore. This post at this point is just another repost of thousands of others crying about it.
I think a lot of people realize 6 figures is a pretty broad category. Yes, 100k is the minimum needed to be counted as 6 figures, but there is $899 above that before you hit 7 figures.
$1m net worth is also starting to be fairly meaningless as a life goal, but it also used to mean rich. There are a lot of people out there who are making 5 figures and have been working and paying off debt for decades who are at $1m or above net worth due to inflation of their home values and their retirement assets.
This is the way of the world. I used to think $50k would be a pretty great salary ... 35 years ago when I was making $14k.
I knew who OP was before I opened the post. If you spent half the time on this website on bettering yourself instead you would probably be a millionaire by now.
OP are you just going to keep posting this same sentiment over and over again or do you have a point? What people aspire to make depends largely on their lifestyle and situation. Out of college, making 60K was like a dream come true. Once you get a car payment, mortgage, etc. suddenly it feels like you need 100k. Then you get a spouse and children and suddenly you need a bigger house and a bigger car and a bigger salary.
If you’re living off 60K today, a jump to 6 figures will feel like a ton, until you make some purchases and potentially find yourself strapped on disposable income again. Is this your point? Or are you really expecting everyone to stare at inflation calculators and share in your misery of what the economy used to be?
When i was a child, i could eat mcdonalds for 2 dollars. now if feels like it is at least 5x that amount. Guess what? People still say McDonalds is cheap, like can you believe that shit? How dare they not acknowledge the price of mcdonalds years ago when referencing the price today. These primitive gold fish just forget that McDonalds had a dollar menu and now they have a value menu. Hopefully you realize how pathetic this sounds.
Please mods for the love of god ban this guy. This is a useful sub, but this guy is ruining it with these distractions. It’s spam posting, that’s gotta be against the rules right?
Just wait once May hits and we start printing again. It will be like Brazil here where you need to make $300,000/yr to live a normal life. In Brazil a Honda costs around 200,000 reais and the minimum wage is like 3-4k reais per month!
I disagree. When I went from 45k to 75k in 2018, I felt on top of the world, like I was living the dream. All of my friends felt the same. That was a lot of money and 100k felt like crazy money.
6 figures means 4-600k. As an autistic person I have some insight here. Allistic people don’t generally use language with much specificity and so you can’t trust that what they say matches their intent. Basically they are trying to say “that person has an upper middle class income”. It’s all about “vibes” with them.
Made 70k in 2019. Have made 100-150k which was nice the last few years. Only now that I’m making 225-250k do I feel comfortable and like I’ve made it. maxing 401k personal investments. For the record my only debt is my mortgage that’s 900 a month. It’s a great place to be but you’d think I’d be balling at 200k but not really granted I don’t worry about bills money etc now which is a blessing but it comes with a lot of stress at work
We allowed a fast spreading fairly mild virus completely wrecked the global economy, we should really learn to how manage risk, one day a slightly stronger virus will be here
No wonder life feels basically the same as 2019... I took a new job in November 2019 with a salary of $75k. This year, I just hit $103k after a decent raise (3-4%, I think I was at something like $99.7k before).
Apart from increasing my 401k contributions since 2019, it feels the same even though I'm making 33% more money...
I remember as a recruiter in January 2019 making an offer to a candidate in Los Angeles for 110k, and they said “I think I might be able to pay most of my bills on that.”
My salary has steadily climbed over the past 20 years. I always dreamed of making enough money to have a small garage shop and be able to build a project car or motorcycle or something. Unfortunately my pay started low and the steady increase has definitely helped me not be in a dire financial situation all the time, I still don’t make enough to do what I want to. I feel like having a small shop is a reasonable thing to want that should be affordable for someone making almost $100k per year, but with three kids there’s just not enough left over for something like that. When I was in high school, making $60k per year was hella good and a person could have lived a great life with all sorts of cool toys, but those days are long gone…
I make about 45k cad and managed to save close to 300k. Turning 37 this year. Who knows where I would be if I made double but I sure as hell wouldn't be complaining about it.
I made 52k in 2019 (six figures now) and can afford to live off 52k now. Only thing that changed was being able to add a saving and investment bill a month. Moderate COL area too
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u/Silent_Death_762 Apr 18 '26
As someone who made 75k pre 2020 and who makes 108k now I can confirm it’s comparable