Author Topic: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?  (Read 1965 times)

wealthviahealth

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How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« on: July 12, 2019, 10:11:22 AM »
I am curious to hear how various salary increases have impacted peoples quality of life.
Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
Increased feeling of financial security?
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?

mistymoney

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2019, 11:54:31 AM »
I am curious to hear how various salary increases have impacted peoples quality of life.
Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
Increased feeling of financial security?
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?

felt appreciated and more secure financially, for sure.

not really upgraded lifestyle, maybe a few more minor splurges.

Did not impact stress, promotion - yes more money but more stress.

Zikoris

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2019, 12:22:39 PM »
Nudging our income from poverty-level to average brought our retirement age down to 35. There haven't really been quality of life changes as we've kept our lifestyle and spending consistent throughout the process, though our vacations have gotten a lot more epic over the years as I learned better ways to do those.

I wouldn't say there's been much of an emotional impact, though I do enjoy my job a lot more now since I'm not in a really toxic workplace anymore like I was at the start.

Gin1984

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #3 on: July 12, 2019, 12:29:45 PM »
Less fiscal stress for me as I feel I have more options.

MonkeyJenga

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #4 on: July 12, 2019, 12:38:39 PM »
Salary increases let me retire in my 30's, which has been pretty fucking rad. Sometimes they also brought validation, especially since I don't have an undergrad degree.

mcneally

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2019, 01:56:18 PM »
I was never super frugal by mustacian standards but a bit compared to peers (most visibly, I almost never ate at restaurants). From the time I was a recent grad, I said I'd relax savings a bit when I got to ~$300k, which I did. Increase in salary was less important in regard to my spending than net worth. Inflation adjusted to today's $, I went from from around $20k to 26k annual spending as a single, mostly housing (roommates, then cheapest apt available to nicer apt), occasional travel splurges, wardrobe upgrade last year and just less hesitance in smaller purchases.

My job isn't high stress but definitely less stress at work, now being half way to FI, which if I'm being honest is probably why I'm interested in FI at all. It wouldn't be as big of a blow if I lost my job and my replacement job was significantly worse. My ultimate goal is reasonably paid part-time work combined with ample leisure time (even when income is entirely unnecessary), not long-term travel or volunteering to walk dogs.

Schaefer Light

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2019, 03:53:46 PM »
My life seemed to get worse with every big (say 5% or greater) increase in salary.  The problem was having to do jobs that didn't suit me to get said salary increases.  I was least happy doing the highest paid job I've ever had.

js82

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2019, 09:02:58 AM »
Biggest changes for me(like many on these forums, I largely avoided lifestyle creep):

1. Savings rate went up.  And up.  And up.  Savings rate at my starting salary was maybe 15% - definitely wasn't maxing the 401k, much less the Roth.   Now it's 40-50% of a much larger number and I'm maxing all my tax-advantaged options plus investing the excess into a taxable account.  Granted, not really a quality of life thing(yet, but early retirement will be)
2. Peace of mind - not FI yet, but:
  2a. enough money in the bank means that I have financial flexibility/breathing room, which gives me the power to say "No" to things and more leeway to negotiate/go after things I want: for example, choosing to move to a new city that's better aligned with what I want.
  2b. high savings rate/cash flow means that I could absorb most common "emergency" expenses with a month or two's typical cash flow without having to dip into financial reserves I'd rather not touch.
3. I'm not exactly Spendy McSpendypants, but my budget for certain discretionary purchases that I enjoy(travel, athletic hobbies, electronic gadgets) has definitely gone up.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2019, 07:56:34 PM »
I am curious to hear how various salary increases have impacted peoples quality of life.
Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
Increased feeling of financial security?
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?

Personal perceived self-worth - I've always been arrogant so it's had no effect at all

External perception of self-worth - I think people think now that I'm "successful", but as far as I can tell, outside of a networking context at work, that is of no use

Increased financial security - objectively yes. Subjectively I've always felt secure so it's f no marginal utility

Upgraded lifestyle - moderately, mainly in the sense I can pay for luxury and convenience when I want to (which is sparingly)

Less stress at work - not really. The more you earn, usually the higher standard your work has to be. Sure, I could become lazy and 'stagnate' at my current income level but I'm not that lazy.

To be honest earning more income does nothing positive for me other than advancing my FIRE date. It's a net positive but I try not to think about it too much.

brunetteUK

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Re: How have Salary increases impacted your quality of life?
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2019, 03:39:15 AM »
I am curious to hear how various salary increases have impacted peoples quality of life.
Was this impact in personal perceived self-worth? External perception of self-worth?
Increased feeling of financial security?
Upgraded life style in anyway?
Felt less stressed at work? Felt that your hard work was now more "worth it"?

I went through 2 big jumps in salary. The first one gave me a huge boost to self-worth, kept looking at the email and could not believe they were offering me that figure. Became more blase for the second jump and believe I won't get that thrill again.

Biggest impact was peace of mind/safety. Now my rent is less of a percentage of my income and I feel safer and more secure. I can always buy less clothes, go fewer times to the restaurant etc but I feel very safe knowing I won't have to live in subpar housing, or have to flatshare with strangers, or put up with bad quality, cheapest option, unhygienic conditions.

I don't have to buy cheap things ever again! You know when you have little money and you have to buy the cheap stuff even though if you spent more it would actually last longer, give you more pleasure and actually same you money? But don't have the damn money. I haven't increased my expenditure, my yearly outgoings has remained the same £ figure but now I buy the next level quality and it makes me much happier. Also, since I can buy stuff, I no longer have the obsession that comes from not being able to have something.

Regarding work, the workload has decreased and the environment has gotten better, but the responsibility has increased. Overall, nobody gave me a raise for no reason and I was well aware stress/responsibility would go up, but it did so in a reasonable way so no complaints.