[quote=permabear]If I could add to that: My income personally has gone up during that period due to promotions, but I’m hiring people at the same salary that I was paid in 2000 for similar work. This is nominal terms, not inflation-adjusted. So I was making about 100k in 2000, and now I’m hiring people at 95k-105k. I don’t know how people at that salary are making things work, since it’s a challenge at 200k (if you want to eat healthy foods and save at a solid rate). Which is ludicrous.[/quote]
The answer to that question will be the same as your answer to someone making $500k/year asking how you can get bye w/ making just $200k/yr. BTW, to answer your question, it’s not hard at all. You just can’t be buying Luis Vuiton and Bentley. You have to settle with stuff from Kohl’s and drive a Huyndai instead.

Wasn’t 2000 the peak of the .com bubble? Or did you get paid that much after the .com crash? Were 6-7 years experience s/w engineers making that much after the .com crash?