I really marvelled at you guys and the salary you all can command. As a comparison, let me share my salary history. I joined the workforce immediately upon graduation in 1985.


1985: $1,600
1986: $1,700
1987: $1,800
1988: $2,200
1989: $2,400
1990: $2,700
1991: $3,000
1992: $3,500
1993: $3,700
1994: $4,000
1995: $4,500
1996: $5,100
1997: $5,800
1998: $6,400
1999: $6,900
2000: $7,600
2001: $8,400
2002: $9,100
2003: $9,700
2004: $10,200
2005: $11,000
2006: $12,300
2007: $12,900
2008: $13,600
2009: $14,650
2010 to now: $15,000

I have been with the same company for 32 years now. The monthly pay was relatively low, but when the profits were good, we were compensated with reasonable bonuses.

For those of you with high salaries at young ages, best to save your pay than spend them mindlessly. Forget that BMW or Merc, just settle for a Jap car or better still, take public transport.

Even with my low salary throughout my career, we were able to build up a reasonable networth of well over $6M over 32 years of continuous working and saving (& investing). For us, it is slow and steady does it!

Going forward, I see salary inflation with each new cohort of graduates getting higher and higher salaries. What this will lead to is inflation. Property and car prices will go up more, food and other commodity prices will also head up.

As I near retirement, I have to invest my money in assets that will appreciate in value, to at least match or beat inflation. Keeping money in FD is not going to work out well.