Have you gotten a raise within the last 12 months?

[eirenecat]

I work in tech, and this past summer I went and interviewed at a bunch of other companies. The salary explosion in my field had rendered my then-current salary really behind market rate.

I got six job offers, brought the two highest ones to my current employer, and told them I intended to depart. They offered to match the Californi-payband salary of one of my competing offers, added an additional $5k to it, promoted me, and permitted me to become a permanent telecommuter. I decided to stay.

[albert648]

40% by changing jobs + permanent WFH.

[karpo1]

Changed job to competitor, +20%. Similar responsibilities

[cheeva]

So the poll tells me that over 75% of respondents have seen a decline in their real income over the last year. Considering that rent went up 25% and RE went up like 20% that's huge.

[albert648]

Originally Posted by cheeva

So the poll tells me that over 75% of respondents have seen a decline in their real income over the last year. Considering that rent went up 25% and RE went up like 20% that's huge.

Only if your mortgage payment is tied to the current market value of housing and/or you rent and your lease is up. My mortgage payment actually went down this year due to an escrow adjustment.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by albert648

Only if your mortgage payment is tied to the current market value of housing and/or you rent and your lease is up. My mortgage payment actually went down this year due to an escrow adjustment.

Just dead curious, how did an escrow adjustment lower your mortgage rate? Surely your property taxes would have increased which would theoretically make a cause for an increase of your escrow payments rather than decrease no? unless...you have much more affordable insurance or you overpaid?

@cheeva
As for salary vs mortgages, I'm still way ahead on the mortgage. I refinanced while interest rates were low saving me about $400 a month which was enough to offset the decrease of income from the primary job, then paid about 6 months in advance (and still continuing to pay ahead - I want to be a minimum of 12 months ahead) while working dual jobs to keep things secure incase the sky should fall again. In a way despite the slight loss of income I think I still came out very much ahead. My property value has almost doubled meaning I have a boatload of reserve equity, they are building a mix-use development less than half a mile from my house which will add even more value and convenience, and financially speaking even if I were to completely lose my job (which hopefully doesn't come to past) I would be able to float for several months without any real hassles (the cars are also paid in advance).

[Trainwreck20]

I doubt people included stimulus checks in their calculations.

Our gas/transportation costs plummeted. My car has had about 1,000 mi/yr on it the last two years and will easily extend the life of the vehicle by that much time. My wife's car has also seen reduced mileage, but really close to normal. We were basically able to live as a 1-car family.

No rent or mortgage, so no impacts there. Food costs have gone up, but we are eating out less, so still ahead in that area I suspect, but have not put pen to paper to know for sure.

Inflation in 2020 was 1.2 percent and 2021 about 7 percent, so that is just over 4%/year average over the last two years. In 2019, it was 1.8%, so that is ~3.3% over the three year period. I have definitely gotten more in raises than that.

The return on my 401(k) is +16% for the past year and +23% for past two.

[Need4Camaro]

I don't know if I could even manage lower than 1,000 miles every 2 weeks let alone a year

I'm eyeing a side gig that may mean travel to San Diego every month.

[albert648]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Just dead curious, how did an escrow adjustment lower your mortgage rate? Surely your property taxes would have increased which would theoretically make a cause for an increase of your escrow payments rather than decrease no? unless...you have much more affordable insurance or you overpaid?

The tax assessment on my house was more than what I paid for it. The county adjusted my assessment to the purchase price when I disputed the assessment last year. And my property tax rate went down slightly.

[dicipher]

I'm an independent contractor and also saw a large increase on private work (brick and mortar is the same, which is why I'm dropping that in the next 2 weeks). In addition, we refinanced our home which would have equated to $400 less on our monthly mortgage payment. We opted to take $40k cash out instead for furniture and to pay down higher debt. My wife was promoted so a nice increase for her and also received a large bonus. Life's pretty good right now.

P.S. Other cool things:

-Electricity cost went down significantly in our 2700 sf house vs 1100 sf apartment
-Practically no mileage on one car with the Mrs doing WFH, so gas costs down and vehicle depreciation down similar to Trainwreck
-Similar on Retirement fund return on stock market
-Not a big deal but paper gain on house since 2017 is roughly 65% (made it easy to get the cash out on the refi). This will result in higher property taxes but at least that's capped on a yearly basis (if for some reason we decided to leave, we would have netted over $200k by doing nothing but buying a house). Our other home just outside SF is up even more over that time frame