Financial happiness plateaus after a certain number.

5 years ago, I read this weird article on the internet that after you earn or make a certain amount of money, your financial happiness stays stagnant. I clearly didn’t believe that writeup. I mean who doesn’t like or needs more money? Right? The answer is much more complicated than that. Let me explain.

I will say, I come somewhere under top 20% of the earners (in the US). This did not happen overnight. I’ve gone through my own roller coaster of pay structures. It was hard as a undergrad, but somehow much harder as a grad student as I had to keep my lights on while also supporting myself.

This is an approximate earnings over the years starting from internships at school. Then it went lower and lower as I jumped ships for more internships. It was mainly because the field I wanted to work in, did not hire fresh grads right out of college. I needed more experience, and so I tried to get as much as I could under my belt even if it meant reducing and accepting job offers at a lower rate than the previous one. Was it fun? No.

Life as a grad student was hard, but I don’t regret it. I knew it would eventually pay off. It was/still is a niche field with a candidate expecting have knowledge to cover multiple fields while doing the job. Maybe that’s what drove me towards pursuing…