how long does it take to reach my salary cap

In many professions, there are no such thing as salary cap. Many people can continue to move up in their career and make more money than what they made before. However, a majority of companies might possibly implement annual increase cap when they do annual reviews of people's performance. If you are staying in the same job, you might only get annual increase of 3-5% as dictated by company increase policy.

Hi Kaleb,

When I worked for the city of San Antonio, they implemented a pay plan where the employee would reach their max pay at 10 years. This was great, until employees in years 11-20, rather than appreciating the high pay in the early years, were frustrated by no additional increases.

Depending on your profession, you can continue to move up throughout your career, either, with the same employer, or, by changing employers. There is not normally a hard "Cap." From a financial planning perspective, many people are in their peak earning years around the age of 45. But, that varies by field. There are also unforeseen setbacks, including loss of job. The bad economy from 2008-2018 hit many peak earners really hard.

If you are looking at financial planning and trying to get a head start on things, I offer a couple of pointers:

1. Learn about emergency funds, and start working to set one up. You should have enough available cash (in money market type accounts, or savings - not invested) to cover 3-6 months of expenses. You will come out dollars ahead if you borrow from yourself rather than pay interest to someone else!
2. Start investing now. Pay yourself first. Even if it is just $25 a month. If you have it taken from your paycheck you will never miss it. When you get a raise, increase the amount you are investing.
3. Bills: If you end up with multiple bills, make a plan to pay them off. Either start with the smallest, or, start with the one with the highest interest rate. Once one is paid off, put the extra money towards the next bill, and so on.

You are to be commended for thinking about these things now!