This. It just never ends well. The only people I tell are coworkers with whom I'm close enough that I have their personal phone number for texting. Family: har

This. It just never ends well. The only people I tell are coworkers with whom I'm close enough that I have their personal phone number for texting. Family: hard no Friends: harder no Random strangers on the internet: maybe? People I barely know but will potentially see again: absolutely hard no never I also have a couple anecdotes: Family: Told my sister how much I make. Now my brother-in-law won't stop making random comments about money. They're not in poor humor, but it's uncomfortable. Friends: In high school, our friend group was held together by anime. So you had a weird cross-section of people in terms of academic achievement. My friend and I were basically the top two, and the rest of the friend group... let's say they didn't prioritize academics and though we two were a bit odd for trying so much. Anyway, we two go to college, fast forward four years and I graduate with an offer for 80k/yr (where I live, this is 2x median household income), and the standard offer is 50k. I told my friend, hoping that it would help her evaluate her offers. Instead, suddenly the entire friend group won't talk to me. I can understand where they're coming from, to some degree - fresh out of college I was probably making 4x their salaries. But I learned from the harm this caused. It wasn't a big deal, since we'd drifted apart after high school, as friends do, but it was still unfortunate. My peer friend had just accidentally revealed the numeric aspect of my offer, and she apologized to me after she realized how much it upset everyone else in the group. Dunno. I find it hard to calibrate. I now make more than double that offer, and yet know of many peers (principal/staff engineers) who make double or triple my current salary, and I don't fault them for it. Maybe it's just because I/we know our industry is kinda stupid (right now? for now?) and the money is sloshing around everywhere, so we don't take it personally when someone manages to get a sweet offer, and I'm happy - and proud!- that they manage to get such great remuneration. But I also know not everyone has these opportunities and I'm fairly privileged. But yeah. I have a very short list of folks I share with now.