[OC] 25 years of my earnings adjusted for inflation show raises that didn’t increase purchasing power and a late inflection point

First time posting. A friend suggested this sub might appreciate this, so I’m sharing.

This chart shows 25 years of my earnings adjusted to current-year dollars using U.S. CPI. Figures are rounded, and job labels generalized to preserve anonymity, but the data and trends are accurate.

A few patterns stood out once everything was converted to real dollars:

• Despite multiple raises and promotions, my inflation-adjusted earnings returned to roughly the same ~$74k level (in today’s dollars) five separate times between 2008 and 2021.
• Nominal income growth masked long stretches of real wage stagnation.
• The most recent upward break represents the first sustained move above a ceiling I had previously hit multiple times.
• For additional context, my current salary (~$106k) has purchasing power roughly equivalent to about $66k in 2000, which helped explain why milestone salaries can feel less transformative than expected.

The inflection point coincides with completing a master’s degree and a leadership-focused professional credential. The effect was not immediate, but it aligns with the first sustained break above prior real-income peaks.

Sharing as a single data point rather than a universal claim. Adjusting long time horizons for inflation was clarifying for me, and I hadn’t seen many personal examples visualized over multiple decades.

Happy to clarify methodology if helpful.