s/o - How much did you expect to make?

[zarapipe]

Ha, more than I do now!!

Partly my own fault for picking a major that doesn't pay well. I am currently in grad school, and even with my grad degree I know I won't make more than 40K starting out. It is sad.

I am jealous of my brother who is currently in pharmacy school. What was I thinking?

[noodleskooze]

I thought I'd be making more. I had no clue how little teachers (small, private school) make. I also thought I'd marry someone who would be making a decent salary, but I married a teacher, so...yeah. But we have enough.

[aspentosh]

I graduated 6 years ago and I thought I'd be making what I do now when I graduated. Instead I was making just under half. (FWIW, my salary now is not that awesome.) I had no idea what I'd be making now... Probably another $15-$20k.

[Deleted]

Living on minimum wage ($4.75/hr, $500-700 per month with no benefits) when I started living on my own at 19, my current salary is a lot more than I ever hoped. LOL.

[Awkward]

I really thought my first job out of college would pay in the 30k range. Haha no. I'm on my third job out of college and still not quite making that. Majorly disappointing.

I also thought that with the strong engineering program at my school that I'd marry well. I picked a philosophy major. :-(

[80sjunkie]

In HS, no clue. In grad school, I thought I would make less than I make now. Salaries have gone up significantly since then (2003).

[Deleted]

more than I do.

[HoneySpider]

I don't think I had an expectation of a certain # right out of grad school, but I did change my career from broadcasting because I didn't want to be working for peanuts. Not making much now, definitely less than I thought I would be at this point in my career and 9 months away from having a doctorate.

But, I also live in LCOL now. I have to keep thinking that my big pay out will come some day

[Melissa W.]

In high school I didn't have a clue. I thought I would be training horses and giving riding lessons but when I got into college, got a job as summer bank teller, and just grew up a little, I opened my eyes to things.

As far as after college, I knew what I was going to be making in accounting and finance. I did a lot of research, had friends in the field, and my own work experience.

[fbf2006]

I don't think I really thought about it since I had no idea. My only thinking was that at least it would be reasonable since I studied economics/accounting. I just assumed jobs in those professions would pay well enough.

[kadams767]

I started out higher than I expected to after law school. Compared to my actual starting salary, I thought I would make a bit more than I make right now (ie. I assumed I would be over $100k by now). Unfortunately, wage freezes for a few years while the economy tanked slowed down my growth potential. I am glad to have held onto my job, though, and I am not far under $100k, so I can't complain much.

[itsjustabbey]

I was actually pleasantly surprised by my first career job salary. And I'm a teacher! In HS, I had always heard how poorly teachers are paid, so I expected to make 25k or something. I made much more than that, in my first year.

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2012 10:23:33 GMT -5 d0ri said:

Living on minimum wage ($4.75/hr, $500-700 per month with no benefits) when I started living on my own at 19, my current salary is a lot more than I ever hoped. LOL.

This. My frist real job I was already making more $ than my parents ever made so I am happy.

[mbcdefg]

I never really thought about it. My parents were never open about their salaries.

I was offered $24k at my first job out of college and thought I was such hot shit

At my current job, I'm making a bit less than I have in the past few years. But I'm in a better position because this is FT, and the last few jobs I had were contract so I was never really that secure (plus two of those jobs didn't offer health plans so I had to pay for my own until i could get on MH's).

The highest FT salary I earned was at a job where I liked the work, but I absolutely hated the people and wound up crying on the drive home nearly every day because I was treated so badly. I'm making a little less at this job, but the people are nice and treat me well and throw me a compliment every now and then, so it's definitely worth a small pay cut in that case. My time and happiness is worth WAY more than money to me.

[ejpint]

I had no clue. I thought maybe $30k, but that sounded like sooooo much money when I was 20. I was pleasantly surprised when my starting salary was closer to $40k, but quickly learned how fast that money goes! I'm doing much better now than I thought I would in high school/college, but now my goals are significantly higher!

[chessie]

I had no clue really, I was so excited to finally make 9 an hour, then when I was an intern they paid me 15 an hour, i was on cloud 9. But I was brought up in a LCOL situation.

[krystee]

I majored in English and journalism, so low salary expectations were drilled into my head. I am pleasantly surprised by my salary eight years out (not six figures, but higher than I hoped for!).

[joenali]

Aug 16, 2012 10:21:59 GMT -5 noodleskooze said:

I thought I'd be making more. I had no clue how little teachers (small, private school) make. I also thought I'd marry someone who would be making a decent salary, but I married a teacher, so...yeah. But we have enough.

I'm a teacher and I married a teacher too! We are certainly not destitute and we do fine, but it would be great if we could make a bit more. I'm sure most people think that though.

[explorer2001]

I remember thinking I should able to comfortably raise a family on $60K. I make more than that now and still feel like things aren't easy as a single person. I couldn't imagine adding kids and daycare. Of course I have a crap ton of debt from my exH so that's a significant part of it. ::sigh::

[Deleted]

Salary.com says I can expect $81k in Chicago with <1 yr experience given the ranking of my master's program. The difficult part will be finding a hospital job in Chicago - they are hard to come by.

Honestly I will be happy making $65k or above. I will check back in two years from now and let you know whether I was delusional or not. :-)

[Deleted]

I never really had any exact specifications. Perhaps if I would have had shittier salaries for my young age I would have been more inclined to finish my degree sooner.

[mrssavy42112]

I expected to make about $8K/yr more than what I actually started with, so not that far off. Fortunately I've been promoted since then, but was hoping to move faster.

[amandakisser]

I thought my actual starting salary right out of college would have been around $30k, but I was making $25k. However, I have almost quadrupled my salary in the 7 years I've been out, which I NEVER even fathomed. It's funny how $60k seemed like SO much money when I was 22, but now that I make more than that, it actually doesn't seem like that much when you take away 401(k), health insurance, life insurance, STD, savings, etc.

[sweetptater]

I thought I'd be making twice what I actually started at. It took me 6 years to finally reach that number.

[lmb5109]

My first job out of college in summer 1999 was $27k. I never thought I'd get to $100k and hopefully I'll be there in 2 years.

[froggy76]

I really don't remember what I thought when I was in school. However, when I started working, I didn't expect that I'd be making 3-4 times as much 9 years later. If I had known that, I probably would have pictured a much more extravagant lifestyle than I'm living now.

[shoeless]

I didn't think I would make as much as I do now. However, I moved from a LCOL to a HCOL area. My standard of living (home size, savings, etc.. ) are about where I thought they would be by this point in my career. However, if I had kids I would say that my standard of living would be less than I imagined since daycare costs are so unbelievably high.

[grosnl19]

When I was in college I expected to start making $60k upon graduation (BA in Accounting). I graduated in 2001 and started in a Big 4 public accounting firm at $39k (MCOL). Last year I left my audit job (private sector) making $90k 10 years after graduation...not bad in my opinion.

Now I make $0 as I am not allowed to work here in Spain ^o)

[adlove]

Sadly I've only had one "real job" during college and a few years afterwards. After taxes I took home 2k a month which was plenty enough for me to live on my own comfortably.

Since marriage we've moved around several times so we've been a single income household. My husband's salary started out higher than either of us expected, which has made the single income thing a lot easier.

[M]

I'm making quite a bit more now at 26 than I had hoped to make by the time I turn 30.

At the end of college, I hoped to get an analyst job making $50k starting. I got an offer with HUD in LA but I really didn't like California so I turned it down. Instead, I started at $30k+commission (~$50k first year as I built my book of business) doing mortgages. The money was nice compared to living paycheck to paycheck in college but it was boring and redundant so I quit when we had a hefty safety net and we started our own business.