So, I have 3 kids under 10, and I live in NY. Pretty high col, kids are expensive, and my wife has a bit of a spending problem, so hopefully that give it some context, we were comfortable but not saving much.

My TC at the beginning was ~160k at the beginning of 2020. I started taking the medication, and started the contracted work, basically right at the beginning of Covid, like March/April . I had a rate of $125/hr, and ended up averaging ~70k/yr over 2020 and 2021. I also got a promotion from senior -> staff at my regular job in early 2021, which brought that salary up to 185k...all adds up to:

pre 2020: 160k
2020: 230k
2021: 245k

Then, there's the new job, this year, which is absolutely ridiculous... (Tbh, I don't like having it in my post history so I'm going to delete this whole comment tomorrow, lol.)

august 2022: 585k (initial offer: 250k base, 255k/yr equity, 80k bonus)
10/28/22: 660k (stock has grown 30%)

I did like 8 or 9 interviews, 3 offers. 2 of them where around 300k, which was basically what I was shooting for, but then the last one was that, so I took it. Wild shit