Another thing to factor in is being from a lower income area will distort your perception of what a large number is.  I come from a town where the per capita income is 20k.  My first &quot;real&quot; job was doing tech support at $16&#x2F;hr.  It felt like A LOT of money to me.  I thought I was getting overpaid, that sentiment followed me for years.  Today making 125k I still feel overpaid, though when I look at the value I produce for the company, and the numbers of my peers I know it&#x27;s not.  It took me many years to get to 125k because each step up the ladder felt pretty big to me even though it probably wasn&#x27;t compared to my peers.<p>Pay is very relative.  I look at my old high school buddies, they range from 25k-40k.  The first time I asked for 100k, I thought it was craziness.  Like no human being deserves that amount of money.  So it took me several years to build up to that number.