“Every guy wants to make more money”

I’m still trying to get my hands on a copy of our appearance on the Steve Harvey show (apparently the producers don’t email back after they’re “finished” with you). We were on stage being interviewed for about 35 minutes. The segment, however, was only 12 minutes long. They had to cut out over 50% of what was talked about on the show.

As Steve was talking with us he got a little side tracked and started telling me every man wants to make more money, and that must be the case for a personal finance blogger. When I told him I didn’t necessarily agree with that sentiment, he challenged the point, almost trying to twist my arm in to saying I wanted to make more. We bickered back and forth, and I believe at some point I said something along the lines of “You are trying to get me to say I’m not happy with my income. That’s not true and I wont say I have a drive to make more.” He finally backed off.  

Girl Ninja and I already have a healthy income compared to US averages. What’s more, our expenses are fortunately very low in relationship to that income (no debt, cheap rent, no health issues, etc). I also don’t believe making more money would say anything about my value, drive, or goals. In fact, if I was driven to make more money then I think I would have to classify myself as greedy or materialistic.

Don’t get me wrong. If my boss called me and was like “Yo Ninja I’m gonna give you a fat raise because I think you’re pretty”, I would be creeped out that he called me pretty, but I would take the money in a second. Heck, if there was another job I wanted to do and it paid me more, I’d be all over that as well. But at some point, we need to realize our success is not measured by how many square feet our house is, the year/make/ or model of our car, or the number of zeros in our paycheck.

Steve could not comprehend my contentment. We already have more than we need, so if I made more, we’d just have more having more than we need. Haha.

I like my job. It affords me a lot of flexibility and a really cool title. If I’m going to take another job in the future, it better bring a lot more to the table than just some zeros.

What say you reader. Is your value decided by your paycheck? Anyone take a voluntary cut in pay (Girl Ninja did that when she decided to teach private school, to the tune of about $11,000 a year less)? What is the “perfect” salary for you ($50,000, $70,000 $200,000)?