Here's my salary progression of the last five years as a 31-year-old working a very normal 9-to-5 job.

Here's my salary progression of the last five years as a 31-year-old working a very normal 9-to-5 job. Now in 2022, I re-entered the workforce, working in finance on a mortgage finance team, earning $85,000 a year. I really liked this job, but I knew it was not paying enough and not where I was going to stay long-term, so right away I started looking for different teams within the company that I could move to, hoping to bump my salary. This kind of worked and a year later I moved teams and my salary bumped up to $88,000 a year. 2024, my salary bumped up to $91,000 a year base. And again, since I've been at this same company now for three years and I've only seen a jump from 85 to 91, I knew that it was time to leave in order to get a large jump. In 2024, I started interviewing like mad and then in 2025, I finally get an offer and switch companies. I moved from the traditional finance side to the more fintech side, which pays a lot better and it's a lot more interesting. That meant in 2025, my salary bumped from $91,000 a year to $160,000 a year. So now in 2026, I'm still at the same fintech company, absolutely loving my job and earning $163,000 a year.