Do you remember your life clear as day before you started making a six figure salary?

I make a 7-figure salary… if we count the pennies, too. I haven’t made a 6-figure salary since I worked part-time during high school. I remember some of those days…

I’ve never made 6 figures.

I’ve never made 6 figures and it’s extremely unlikely that I ever will. But then it’s harder to make 6 figures in the UK than it is in the US. To get 6 figures here you pretty much have to be a CEO or a celebrity.

Well, I’m still living that life…( twirls tip of pointy mustache )

Sure, I remember all of the times of my life, each has its charm. It’s all transient, and I mean ALL of it!
I have been on the rags to riches fence several times over. Nothing changes. One day you have the big house, the cars, the “stuff”, and all that changes is the space gets smaller, the “stuff” is not as grand as it once was, but YOU are exactly the same.

Do NOT get hung up on your ideas of “making it ” easy come, easy go. There is NO “making it”..stay humble, or you’re gonna fall really hard. I have friends now divorcing because their millions of dollars in assets and income has taken a nose dive in this economy. Once you’ve tasted humble pie it sets you straight, let me assure you!

Have fun with it, but don’t attach your entire identity to the big bucks, the higher you go the harder you fall, when you fall. Base your identity on your integrity, that’s all any of us take with us when the lights go out.

Words of wisdom from one who has been on both sides of every fence there is.
Stay humble.

I do make six figures now, but didn’t achieve that until my mid-thirties. However I was in an intense professional educational track where I basically knew that I’d have a good income some day, so I didn’t mind being temporarily poor. When I was 26 my take-home pay was only $650/month & it was the first time since leaving home that I didn’t have a roommate. I remember eating a lot of mac & cheese, buying cheap, shlocky furniture, etc. Kind of an extended adolescence. I’m lucky that I didn’t have to live with a lot of uncertainty & angst over my future, during those lean years.

Ain’t there yet lol.

Seriously?

My first thought when I read this question is “Is this a joke?”

I do not make six figures.

I made six figures for six years. The result was not being around much when my kids needed me.
I work much less now. I am happier.

There was a period in my life when I was working for Exxon when I broke into the six-figure range, but it’s not something I remember with any degree of fondness. The f****** company owned me! My last six months there, I worked ten and tewlve hour days ( and sometimes 14 or 16 ) for six entire months! The last straw was when they wanted me to move to Houston ( I was living in North Carolina at the time and had 5 children in public schools ). I quit. For my family it was a really great decision, but obviosly I suffered financially and it was the end of my career. It was also the beginning of the end of my first marriage, but at least she waited until the kids were out of school.

I have been both poor and comfortable. My husband has now reached the 100,000 mark, but we are partially or completely supporting 11 people in two households, with 3 cars, so it doesn’t really seem like that much, and we put a substantial amount in savings for our retirement years.

My husband does but I don’t. With his retirement pay and his current pay. But I will say it doesn’t make your life any happier. Only more comfortable. Everything in life is give and take. When you’re younger you want to be able to be care free money wise. When you get older you may make it to care free, money wise but you long for the days of energy and great health.
Thats why they call it, climbing the ladder. In the beginning your eager to sprint and can’t wait to be able to take in the view.. Along the way you wish for a platform for you to get off and rest because the climb is long. Eventually you may get to the top and all you want to do is rest. Screw taking in the view.
You look all the way down and wish you had appreciated the view (journey) a little bit more and had more time for it.

Never made six figures, never wanted to.

Never made six figures, probably never will. I don’t feel remotely poor now. I feel incredibly lucky, in fact.

This question strikes me as weird and completely tone-deaf to the majority of people’s money situation.

^ Word.

I make six figures for thirty years on end now.
A pity though that it takes me approx. six year salaries to get that number.

Yes. I didn’t cross that line until nearly the end of my career. In Silicon Valley it’s not an unusual amount. However, you can make half that in a lot of other places and see it go further against your cost of living than it does around here—even if you live very modestly, as we do.