There seems to be a bunch of reasons for not divulging income information ranging from contractual agreements to being boastful to self-pride to being non-anonymous...can I say that? non-anonymous?...to being a little scared.
Terri from Educating the Wheelers goes the non-anonymous route, thus too much info can be inappropriate. And
Jose feels it's cultural taboo. I feel that's true too.
Apollo says,
Everyone has an income some a little more then others depending on occupation or business savvy. I suppose we shouldn't value our self worth based on one's income. But given we live in a highly consumerism and materialistic society, it's difficult to ignore sometimes.
And
John who said,
For me it's an issue w/ pride. I make decent money for someone in my situation, but feel it's not good enough compared to some of my friends and family. I think if more bloggers out there set a trend of revealing their income, I'd feel a little more bold to do so. Maybe you've started something by bringing it up....
I think for me it's an issue with pride too...Not only in the sense of how I stack up to everyone else and them to me...I guess it really is a sensitive area...We can always look at our net worth and figure out ways to increase it, our incomes are a little more personal and sometimes outside our control...Maybe it's the fact that we never make enough...so we feel somewhat inadequate?
Maybe we should all take the perspective of
SingleMom,
I never understood what's the big deal. It's shielded like it's life or death info. If someone knew your salary, what could they do with the information? Tell someone else? Ok, so what?
Or we could be in a situation like
Kassy, and this topic really becomes moot...since income is not a secret.
Maybe one day we can share financial info without the worry of being judged. That'll be the day...It seems like financial blogging is a step towards that direction. Thanks for everyone's input!
4 comments:
for me it's partly contractural agreements, but I've given enough hints that people would be able to figure it out pretty accurately with a little math
I mentioned this in a blog post earlier, where I posted my actual salary-- Doing so in a corporate environment would just piss people off.
A lot of times people's wages are more a factor of what the market was like when they were hired vs. skill or merit.
This is a great discussion, thanks for bringing it up.
My blog is brand-new, but it just seemed natural to me to share my income since I was doing financial disclosure. When I know other bloggers’ income, it really helps me make sense of the other numbers they disclose. I think a lot of us look at blogs and compare ourselves as far as how well we’re doing at saving, frugality, etc. Someone who is making twice as much (or half as much) as us may not be a good comparison!
Plus, I think this is a taboo that we need to break down-- nobody should be judged based on how much they make! We are already breaking new ground by talking about how much we spend and save, so I think talking about our earnings is the next frontier.
I don't post my income on my blog because it is no annonymous for me. Many friends, family, and co-workers read the blog and also I have the other Young Professionals to worry about.
I think that it is important, but not the most important thing in financial discussions. I think that it is more important to talk aobut what percentage that you cna save and when you really start saving. We can only control our income level so much, but we can really control what money we spend and we can control when we start saving.
Post a Comment