Reply #48: fear noted. Two things however...

[unpossibles]

1 - a 6% pay increase every year is not that common, at least in any company I've worked for. Not saying it doesn't happen, but loyalty is seldom rewarded and typical merit increases tend to be half or less of that, which greatly affects your end-point salary.

2 - I don't know many who will call $120K a year "rich" but I do have to admit I am sick of people complaining about how they "only" make 3 times what the average income is. My point being that $120K is not rich, but if you can't live on that minus your taxes then I have trouble feeling sympathy for you considering most of us manage to live on far, far less and odds are good that those of us making far less are working pretty damn hard themselves.

There are some other points as well, but those were my main sticklers.