# What's a "6 figure salary" today?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 23, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284 "2022-01-23T19:33:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284/81 "2022-01-26T18:19:02Z")

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> [@msmith537](#):
>
> That’s not entirely true. If you are starting a business or even running a small one you will need to know labor, facilitates and other costs. In my line of work leading complex IT projects, I need to know what various roles bill out at, which is directly tied to their compensation.

Not entirely, but my point is that these types of click-bait nonsense about, “oh, these rich business school kids don’t know what a truck driver earns!!11” are just hot garbage.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284/82 "2022-01-26T18:25:51Z")

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> [@msmith537](#):
>
> 2%? Well there’s your problem! The average return of the S&P is like 10%.
> 
> Although I do recall a scene from Succession where Tom is telling Greg that $5 million “sucks” because you are kind of rich, but can’t really do anything with it.

The difference is cash flow versus investment value. If you have enough money, you can live off your dividend and interest income and never have to cash out anything. That insulates you from market fluctuations. The right selection of investments means you can do better than 2% return. I am.

Anyhow millionaire has more of a symbolic value than an actual one. I remember that as a kid the end of the Game of Life was Millionaire acres, with a die cut mansion. Much nicer than million dollar houses where I live.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284/83 "2022-01-26T18:31:46Z")

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> [@Icarus](#):
>
> Not entirely, but my point is that these types of click-bait nonsense about, “oh, these rich business school kids don’t know what a truck driver earns!!11” are just hot garbage.

I literally have no idea what a truck driver earns.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-6-figure-salary-today/958284/84 "2022-01-26T18:33:28Z")

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[Also, are we talking a million US Dollars or Canadian? Because there’s a difference.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTK57dJc_pU)

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