You know, it's funny. I am starting to not remember the drowning, crushing sensation of being neck deep in debt and feeling hopeless in terms of my financial future. Don't get me wrong though. I still worry about money, but only as much as it makes sense to do so.
However, I am reminded of the despair earlier today when I was talking to a couple of co-workers of mine. One told me how the spouse likes to control all the money (even though this co-worker is interested in the budget, good with numbers, and is a conservative spender). The other co-worker is having serious issues about the spouse hiding debts from this co-worker because the spouse is afraid of a divorce due to money troubles after being recently laid off. And the debt amount is huge too....
Yes, I'm deliberately using gender-neutral terminology here. 
But that's because, believe me, it can happen both ways.
Both co-workers make reasonably more money than I do, but here's what kind of blows my mind. Relative to the level of money issues they have at home, and the amount of debt they have to deal with, they actually keep much, much less than I do! Nevermind that, it doesn't seem like they have any financial peace at all!
Wow. Of course, hearing their stories brought back a flood of memories about my own trials and tribulations, but then it occurred to me just how lucky I am right now. They're the past! I no longer have headaches and twitching eyes due to stress and depression over my financial future.
On a related note, I decided to check out payscale.com to see if I am indeed making as little as I am. Much to my shock, I am actually above the high range of my profession! Seriously, I think payscale.com might be shooting a bit low there.
Now, that doesn't mean I still make bank or anything like that, but I guess I can't really complain too much either.... For now, it would seem that I am doing better than my poor co-workers, who are really are good people and I feel bad about the position they are in.
I think it also shows that the recession is far from over. Certainly not on a personal level.
Relativity
August 4th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
August 5th, 2009 at 01:18 am 1249435138
August 5th, 2009 at 04:26 pm 1249489615
I think salary by itself is a useless metric, so I like that it asked about benefits, etc., which is a big piece of the pie for me. It was very interesting.
On the flip side, it had a tab to see if higher degrees were worthwhile. I assume this took into account region. I clicked on the tab and for my field you make LESS with higher degrees (most of them). Specifically in the state I live in. I already KNEW that, but the fact that this website had enough data to point that out blew me away.
Anyway, I was impressed by the site.