> That's because I think, in the long term, it'll play out better for me to have spent my 30s well than to have ratcheted up my salary but not really know anyth

> That's because I think, in the long term, it'll play out better for me to have spent my 30s well than to have ratcheted up my salary but not really know anything. Maybe, but it's far from an obvious conclusion. From a purely economic/financial perspective, it's much preferable to increase your salary as early as possible. Since in most organizations pay raises have a ceiling expressed as a percentage of comp (eg, 10%--either implicit or explicit), the base level of your salary early on in your career has a huge effect on your total lifetime earnings--similar in effect to investing a sum of money at age 35 vs 25. Sometimes having a high salary history/requirement can even give you instant credibility ("a person making $400k must know what they're doing")--some people can bluff through their entire careers that way. That said, it's probably best to balance pure financial opportunism with "soft" concerns like actually enjoying your day to day work and growing as a person/professional.