Like you said, skilled graphic designers are in high demand. As a software engineer, I made over 70k base my first job out of school in 2006, with similar perks

Like you said, skilled graphic designers are in high demand. As a software engineer, I made over 70k base my first job out of school in 2006, with similar perks. And this wasn't even at Google/Microsoft/etc. So I don't think if I were a good graphic designer now, I'd be stoked on 70k a year in most locales.