-----> What's your monthly income ? <-----

[akhileshbc]

Hi...

After viewing a recent thread in this forum, I was curious to know the income that you guys would get, per month.

Ok.. So, how much do you get ?

[GaryMazzone]

A good bit more then shown in that thread.

[akhileshbc]

A good bit more then shown in that thread.

$44,169 - $55,232 per year ?

[GaryMazzone]

Yes over $90,000 per year

[akhileshbc]

Yes over $90,000 per year

[techgnome]

You have to look at a number of factors though... $60k in some place like Omaha, NE doesn't equate to $60k in the Boston, MA area... You have to take into consideration cost of living adjustments. I just happened to have recently explored the D/FW area recently, which is how I figured out that the position in question was a Jr position. And if I were a Jr developer, I might jump at the chance. But, like Gary, I make a fair bit more than what that position offers... not as good as Gary, even after adjusting for location, but still do pretty well.

-tg

[GaryMazzone]

I'm actuall considering another position... Little further tavel to work but over 100K

[akhileshbc]

You have to look at a number of factors though... $60k in some place like Omaha, NE doesn't equate to $60k in the Boston, MA area... You have to take into consideration cost of living adjustments. I just happened to have recently explored the D/FW area recently, which is how I figured out that the position in question was a Jr position. And if I were a Jr developer, I might jump at the chance. But, like Gary, I make a fair bit more than what that position offers... not as good as Gary, even after adjusting for location, but still do pretty well.

-tg

I'm actuall considering another position... Little further tavel to work but over 100K

Do you guys saves it for the future( a small part of it ) or spends all of them ?

[GaryMazzone]

I put away some for retirement every check. About 4&#37;. My daughter seems to spend the rest.

[Hack]

I'm over 80K per year and for a job in a the state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, that ain't bad.

I don't save squat. Fortunately, I have a wife that does. I get a weekly allowance and she deals with the rest.

[CVMichael]

I agree with techgnome, there are too many factor to consider. You can't really compare the same income number all over the world.

I live in Toronto, and according to this, it is the 8'th most expensive city in the world.

Looking at the average salary for a developer in Toronto, my salary is actually pretty low . (I need to change my job)

[Hack]

I live in Toronto, and according to this, it is the 8'th most expensive city in the world.

I love Toronto! As Hockey is one of my favorite sports I've been to Toronto many times to visit the Hockey Hall Of Fame. I don't know where it ranks as the most expensive, but it can be "pricey" (that won't stop me from going back though )

[FunkyDexter]

I'm on roughly £46K per year so that's roughly £3833 per month before tax. £s are worth more than $s so I think I'm doing pretty well, certainly better than I ever expected to when I took up development as a career. If I'm honest, though, I think I'd happilly sacrifice a large lump of it to lose some of the responsibility I've got. It does feel a bit like I'm carrying the world on my shoulders at the moment.

I haven't been saving up until now but that's been because I'm been clearing down previous debt. My mum lent me a bunch of money to help me buy my first house (thanks Mum!) so I've been clearing that, along with student debt and some old credit cards/overdraft. I cleared my mum this month and the credit card/overdraft got cleared about a year ago. The student loan gets cleared this year (around June/July I think) so my disposable income is finally at the level when I can start seriously saving.

Oh, I have been contributing to a pension and making overpayments on my mortgage. I guess they count as saving.

[wossname]

My salary is in the form of bad dutch lager and mediocre russian vodka. It's not enough to get drunk on sadly.

[kareninstructor]

I am over 80,000 USD per year and agree with the locale as in cost of living. For instance if I lived in New York City I would not being doing well but here in Oregon live decently. What is important is we have jobs where many are struggling to stay afloat with no true relief in sight in many places.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Monthly salary is even more misleading. I have a variety of deductions, three of which are for retirement (perhaps four, depending on how you count them). Some of that is money in my control, some of it is not. In all of those cases, it is money taken out of my gross pay, and I live on only the net salary(actually, it's my .NET salary these days). So my gross salary is one thing (and after hearing from some of you, it really IS gross, but there are mitigating factors), while my monthly budget is quite another. I live in one of the cheaper parts of the country, and work public sector, so I make a whole lot less than the other posters here (I fall into that salary range mentioned in #3), yet I also put away about 10&#37; into one of those 3-4 retirement deduction categories, and still am living well below my means. For me, the quality of the job and the amount of free time is more important as long as my salary exceeds some level X. Since I passed X about $5K dollars back, and nobody has a better job (for a guy who likes to sniff rotting fish), I look at the lack of raises for the last four years (and already scheduled for this year), and realize that I could get more money by moving, but I would be hard pressed to be better off.

So what is my income? I guess I'd have to say that it is sufficient.

[techgnome]

That's true... my net has gotten better since I've finally moved out of the Tax-Me state and to somewhere else that has a much more reasonable income tax rate. Unfortunately Uncle Sam still has his hands in my pockets and takes too much. Personally, I wish I had the option to have my SocSec payment dropped into my IRA instead. I'd get a much better ROI.

Anyways, another way in which $$ talk isn't equal - benefits... two jobs ago, I was making X, with OK benefits... costs kept going up though and were having to pay more out of pocket, so it's a net loss. At the next job, I made 90&#37; of X.... BUT they kicked in a lot in regards to benefits, including insurance and 401k, etc. So even though I was making less gross, it was made up for in benefits. That actually became a problem, as insurance costs once again start to rise. By the time I left two years later, I'd only made back a very small portion of the missing 10%. This time around I used the Rod Tidwell route of "show me the money" ... wasn't quite that direct about it... but that was the attitude I was going for. Benefits are nice, but if I was going to have to move, I wanted it to be worth the effort. And it paid off... made back that missing 10% and another 20% to boot. And I still have benefits.

-tg

[CVMichael]

Talking about taxes... Last year I paid close to $18000 in deductions (30% of my gross salary), that includes pension + federal tax + a few others that I have no idea about...

And on top of that, we have 13% tax on anything we pay money on.

[kareninstructor]

I work for the tax man, Oregon Department of Revenue. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me to fix their taxes I will be so well off.

[techgnome]

I don't want taxes fixed. They aren't broken... I want them eliminated.

-tg

[JuggaloBrotha]

I currently make double what I need to actually live on, that's after all the monthly deductions too.

[Siddharth Rout]

There is a saying in India....

Never ask a woman her age and a man his salary

Sid

[kareninstructor]

I don't want taxes fixed. They aren't broken... I want them eliminated.

-tg

Same here, hey wait a minute that will put me out of a job.

[honeybee]

Well, a few years back I was kinda happy with whatever I got, but nowadays my income is much lesser than what I think I deserve

.

[FunkyDexter]

I work for the tax man

Boo!

[namrekka]

Half or twice 0$.
Hmm.....I wonder...

[BackWoodsCoder]

I work for a startup company so my salary is a lot less then what I could reasonably ask for, but the potential for future advancement as well as all the other positives of working at a small startup help me forget a bit about the smaller rate I receive. As someone already mentioned I'm just happy that I was able to find a job after graduating. Besides if the software does take off I'll be living pretty comfortably afterwards.

I'd be interested to see the salaries of people who recently graduated and managed to find a job as well as how they're handling their student debt. I'm buried right now without even a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, I'm lucky if I can throw some pocket change into a drawer to save at the end of the month.

[CVMichael]

During college I had a part-time job. I was able to pay all my classes, books, food, etc... and I had left over to save money too...

When I finished college, I had no student loans, and no dept at all...

[abhijit]

My salary is in the form of bad dutch lager and mediocre russian vodka. It's not enough to get drunk on sadly.

Looks like you are getting a better deal. I am being paid in apples and nuts.
I have to brew my own liquor.

[techgnome]

What little college education I have I've either paid for myself or got tuition assistance with... so I don't have any student debt... my wife on the other hand... has a fair amount that we're still paying off. Which by itself wouldn't be too bad if we hadn't had crappy insurance a couple of years ago when the kids were born... the older one is paid off, we own her out-right... it's the younger one that we're still making payments on. With what I'm making now though, I fully expect to be completely debt free in a couple years, with the exception of a mortgage. And maybe a car, if we pick up a new second car. Even then, we should be able to save up enough to buy something out right if we wanted to.

-tg

[GaryMazzone]

I'm pretty lucky in that regard. No debt other then monthly credit card bill (which we pay off every month) and mortgage. Cars are paid for right now (have been for the last 5 years), but will need to get another soon my daughter starts driving in a year.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I paid off my college debt by about 35, and bought a house a year later so that I could be back in debt. I did manage to pay down college debt while in grad school, though.

BWC said: "Besides if the software does take off I'll be living pretty comfortably afterwards."

Better watch it. I switched to software and started living a little too comfortably. It's a sedentary lifestyle. Now I work on a treadmill with an hour spent lifting weights, just to stay in shape.

As for taxes, who really cares? My gross pay is not the amount that my employer pays to retain my services. That value is MUCH higher. Then I see various things being deducted from that gross value (some of which are optional), and the end result is my net pay. Out of the net pay, the single largest expense is my home mortgage, but the reason that is the largest is because I am overpaying it by a hefty amount. Remove that voluntary overpay and gas might cost me more than the mortgage (actually, food might cost more already). Is that mortgage truly part of my net pay, or is that just another expense taken out of the gross pay just like my 401K contribution? After all, I live in a larger house than I need, and the actual payment is higher than it has to be, and it would take positive effort to stop it. So even net pay is a fiction.

As for taxes, if those were shifted out of sight, as is my employers contribution for health insurance and other costs, then I would appear to get a modest check from the government each year. Would my taxes then be negative? On the other hand, if I were to say that they were still there, but were hidden, then why would I not say that about the other costs? And if I do notice the other costs, I can hardly miss the fact that my health care costs DWARF my taxes.

Nor can I quantify the benefits I receive from the taxes. There are nice roads for me to drive on, kids are in school (hopefully) becoming semi-productive members of society so that they can help pay for my lavish retirement. If my house catches on fire, there's a fire station just down the road. And the list goes on, even if I only include the things that are important to me. I also recognize that other people have other priorities, and don't really object to paying a bit more so they get the services they want while I get the ones that I want. After all, I am well aware that the amount I pay in taxes is largely up to me. I could have pursued any career I wanted with the exception of a few that require certain physical abilities. I decided to become a biologist for reasons I don't regret. That's not exactly a high paying career. Am I not then primarily responsible for the amount that I receive in net pay? Am I not primarily responsible for the amount I pay in taxes because of my choice of location, job type, and lifestyle? Why complain?

[techgnome]

Why complain? Because for what I was paying, I wasn't getting anything in return except more begging for more money. Nebraska has one of the highest tax rates - since moving to SC, I've seen some relief since their rate is lower... as for the federal govt... let me have my SocSec money and drop it into my IRA... so far I'm getting a better ROI on my IRA than I will off of SocSec... plus I personally think that spending at the federal level needs to be reigned in significantly. But that's a topic for a different thread.

-tg

[GaryMazzone]

tg Try New Hampshire (that is where I'm at) now state income tax. But Property tax is high

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's where I grew up. Have they added a sales tax, or do you still lack that as well? In Idaho, we have them all: Sales, income, and property tax, though the property tax is trivial compared to NH.

[NeedSomeAnswers]

In the UK we now have 20&#37; VAT or Sales tax. (its just gone up from 17.5)

Our Income Tax starts at 20% but can go up to 50% depending on your salary (to be fair you have to be earning over &#163;150,000 or around $240,000 to hit that rate) also its banded you get the first &#163;6000 - &#163;7000 untaxed, then you pay 20% on the first x amount then 40% on the next band and then 50% on anything higher.

Council (or Property Tax) i pay about &#163;90 a month (about $140) although it depends on the size and location of your house.

[BackWoodsCoder]

Better watch it. I switched to software and started living a little too comfortably. It's a sedentary lifestyle. Now I work on a treadmill with an hour spent lifting weights, just to stay in shape.

Yah, I've been learning this the hard way. I've dealt with more muscle cramping, knee pains, and other assorted afflictions in the past two years then I have almost my entire life. I never really was much for exercise to begin with, most of my activity came from going out dancing on the weekends before a gig or just for fun. Once I got really involved in school though I had no time for it and now it seems my physical activity consists of playing some golf now and then and walking my dog on occasion.

Wish I had the ability to write code while working on a treadmill, just won't be able to happen in my office. One of my resolutions was to start exercising, but as someone who's never done it it's a daunting task to tackle. It's just one of those things where you have to make it routine, otherwise you'll spend more time rationalizing why it's ok to NOT be exercising rather then just doing it because it's part of your day.

By "living comfortably" i meant more on the finance side of things. Most months I'm lucky if I have 100 bucks disposable income. I guess I should point out I shouldered an additional 75,000$ worth of debt to help my family. So my loan payments are 2-3x more expensive then what they should be. It's hefty, but I'd rather have the stress of it rather then see my mom and pop live in the back of a car.

[GaryMazzone]

Still not income tax or sales tax (unless in a resturant or hotel). Just the kinda high property tax.

[Shaggy Hiker]

By "living comfortably" i meant more on the finance side of things. Most months I'm lucky if I have 100 bucks disposable income. I guess I should point out I shouldered an additional 75,000$ worth of debt to help my family. So my loan payments are 2-3x more expensive then what they should be. It's hefty, but I'd rather have the stress of it rather then see my mom and pop live in the back of a car.

That's good of you, but it did make me laugh. My parents sold their house about ten years back and switched to living full time in a TINY RV while traveling around volunteering. The reason for the small size was that they wanted to be able to take it anywhere that a car could normally go. So you might say that I DID see my mom and pop live in the back of a car for many years. Interestingly, that RV, despite the tiny size, cost more than my house.

[kregg]

I earn &#163;0. Just thought you all should know.