I was just over at one of my favorite blogs, It’s Just Money, hosted by a person I’ve coined LAMoneyDude, and he had a post titled, “Living Paycheck to Paycheck: Reality vs. WTF.” In case you didn’t know what WTF means, here’s a link.

The term “living paycheck to paycheck” definitely has a different meaning depending on who you are and whether you’re looking at it from above (making more) or below (making less). For me, it means being able to survive on the money you bring in every week. No luxuries, just necessities. Apparently to some, it means spending up to how much you make each week…hmph.

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I always wondered what do the folks in India get paid. Well, I found this article that talks about how India is dealing with wage inflation.

“During Infosys’ earnings call the previous week, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani addressed the twin topics of wage inflation and employee attrition, saying that the company will increase starting salaries from $5,122 to $5,763, a 12.5 percent increase, on average.”

Check it out in its entirety.

As a fairly recent college graduate starting salary is probably one of the main factors I looked at when deciding what I wanted to study–along with my interests and job availability. I admit it, money was a deciding factor in my degree. Hey, nothing wrong with that…financially, what makes sense? But in the end, money didn’t win out. My passion for teaching and a rewarding career is what won out…for my degree…but I ended up in a computer job even after all the planning…

Why am I revealing my starting salary? It’s my salary from many years ago, so it’s not as relevant today (i.e. My coworkers finding out is not as bad). Is it close to what I’m making now? I leave that for you to discover. I can let you know that I currently work one full-time job and hold a part-time job as well. So hah, now figure out my salary.

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Originally, I had wanted to become a teacher. A high school biology teacher. And I will one day! But what eventually happened is completely different from what I thought would happen. Life has its funny ways, doesn’t it?

I had tons of experience in computers. I worked my entire college career at the university help desk. Not to mention an internship doing various computer related duties, a computer repair job during high school and working a major computer retailer for one summer. The help desk gave me experience with computers and with customer service. I also took computer programming classes. If you can’t tell, I enjoy computers. I never intended to make a career out of it though…maybe a side gig consulting or a few projects here and there, but not a career.

Well, in my senior year, a friend asked me if I wanted to come along with him to a career day event the following week, and I said okay. I worked on my resume, dressed up a bit, and went to school. We went to the career day event and there was my future employer. That’s how I got my first real job–the job I still do today. Keep in mind this was during the dotcom boom. I do software support for a computer company.

I graduated with a minor in Computer Science. My major? Nutrition.
Starting salary: $61,500.00.
My job: Software Support (officially a Software Engineer)

This is why I believe that work experience >>>>>>> Your degree.

Anyway, there you have it. Why nutrition? A couple of reasons: 1) My scholarship required majors in certain areas, and 2) it was a pre-med program, which offered me another option of pursuing med school if I wanted. Don’t send me nutrition questions though, please. Trust me, you don’t want my advice.

I guess in the end, I really went into college pursuing a degree that left me with as many options as possible. I knew the gist of what I wanted, but I don’t mind riding the wave per se. I guess I just go whereever life takes me.

I don’t enjoy support, but it’s livable, especially with the flexibility it is providing me. Do I see myself doing it for the rest of my life? No…

So I’ve thought about this some more…does college pay? From my personal stand point, I definitely think it does. My friends that have a college degree are financially much better off than my friends that don’t. Let me summarize some of what I see…

Friend 1
4yr College Degree, spent 2 years at community college, 2 years at regular
College cost: ~$10,000
BA Management Info Systems
~$65,000/yr

Friend 2
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$60,000
BA Education
~$40,000/yr

Friend 3
2yr Associates Degree
College cost: ~$10,000
Graphics Design
~$12/hr (~$24,000/yr)

Friend 4
No degree, attended some college
College cost: ~$2,000
~$9.00/hr

Friend 5
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$10,000
BA Human Resources
~$70,000/yr

Friend 6
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$10,000
BA Management Info Systems
~$55,000/yr

Friend 7
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$10,000
BA Management Info Systems
~$45,000/yr

Friend 8
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$10,000
BA Management Info Systems
~$70,000/yr

Friend 9
4yr College Degree
College cost: ~$60,000
BS Computer Science
~$90,000/yr

You can clearly see that having a degree seems to have meant better jobs. Of course, my oberservations are skewed since most of my friends finished college…And most of them are from the same college! The kicker is, we’re all satisfied with life…for the most part, the ones that are making more are often still dealing with the same money issues as those who are making less to some degree…no pun intended.

Some related links:

Don’t get over-educated @ MightyBargainHunter.com.
College - A Financial Decision That Changed My Life.
Is College a Worthless Investment?

There seems to be a bunch of reasons for not divulging income information ranging from contractual agreements to being boastful to self-pride to being non-anonymous…can I say that? non-anonymous?…to being a little scared.

Terri from Educating the Wheelers goes the non-anonymous route, thus too much info can be inappropriate. And Jose feels it’s cultural taboo. I feel that’s true too.

Apollo says,

Everyone has an income some a little more then others depending on occupation or business savvy. I suppose we shouldn’t value our self worth based on one’s income. But given we live in a highly consumerism and materialistic society, it’s difficult to ignore sometimes. 

And John who said,

For me it’s an issue w/ pride. I make decent money for someone in my situation, but feel it’s not good enough compared to some of my friends and family. I think if more bloggers out there set a trend of revealing their income, I’d feel a little more bold to do so. Maybe you’ve started something by bringing it up…. 

I think for me it’s an issue with pride too…Not only in the sense of how I stack up to everyone else and them to me…I guess it really is a sensitive area…We can always look at our net worth and figure out ways to increase it, our incomes are a little more personal and sometimes outside our control…Maybe it’s the fact that we never make enough…so we feel somewhat inadequate?

Maybe we should all take the perspective of SingleMom,

I never understood what’s the big deal. It’s shielded like it’s life or death info. If someone knew your salary, what could they do with the information? Tell someone else? Ok, so what? 

Or we could be in a situation like Kassy, and this topic really becomes moot…since income is not a secret.

Maybe one day we can share financial info without the worry of being judged. That’ll be the day…It seems like financial blogging is a step towards that direction. Thanks for everyone’s input!

I’ve noticed that most financial blog sites don’t reveal income. I thought that was interesting. PFBlog.com writes about why he doesn’t do it here.

Bloggers have anonymity, and bloggers can talk about our net worth, yet income is taboo? I’m not quite sure why that is. I’ve actually debated whether to disclose my income, but having to over come my hesitation on posting my net worth is step 1, I guess. There are some good arguments in favor of posting incomes, such as being able to correlate savings rates to income. Or does posting your income really just “show off”?

In due time, I may post my income. Any opinions on why income is not revealed?