I think the biggest problem with equivocating or lying in general is that you're not truly owning up to your actual situation. OP didn't get offer 70k; he got o

I think the biggest problem with equivocating or lying in general is that you're not truly owning up to your actual situation. OP didn't get offer 70k; he got offered 65k. Maybe that's what he's better worth or maybe he did a poor job interviewing for that job. Regardless, he got offered 65k and that was his reality. Now instead of owning up to it, he changed it to a nicer sounding number -- 70k. This is where things get interesting. Why not 75k? What's the harm if you're lying anyway? Perhap he didn't think it would be believable because he didn't think he was worth that much. If the employer actually checked his facts, they would have known he was lying and got annoyed. Yet it's fascinating to me that he went for 70k -- a mere 5k more. OP - I went from making ~100k/yr to 175k/yr because I knew I had the power in the relationship and was probably not tricked by same things you were. I built value in myself and in the work I was doing, and therefore when it came time to negotiate, I shot for the stars and never backed down. I sound about your same age and never had to do it by lying or equivocating or any of these silly games. I did it by building value in myself. This is all you can truly do at the end of the day and then it's about staying firm in what your value is worth. Games will always be games and they are sprinkled with the fairy dust of "5k more" here and another small lie there, but they will never be able to match someone who is truly genuine through and through. These are the types where if they're not worth 70k, they work to make themselves worth 70k (whether thru negotiation or value-building or both). That's the difference and that's why some people don't like to lie.