<prompt> Human: About six years ago 2009 I started as an estimator at a small 4-5 milyr trade subcontractor company. When I started they did 90 residential work, only 10 commercial work. They hired me for my plan reading knowledge. I started doing a lot of commercial bids, and slowly started getting my foot in the door with some of the bigger local and regional GCs. I started winning some good jobs. Some were stinkers that lost a little money, a lot turned out great and made a lot of money. I started at a 50k salary. about a year later they started a dinky bonuscommission program that added about 10-12k. I tried to quite 3 years later and they freaked out and gave me about 30k more to stay, plus profit sharing. about 6 months after that they sold the business to a national company. This is where you think things would go to crap. anything but. The new commission program is unreal. 5 of profit on jobs that come in 20-25gp, 8 on 30-40, and 10 on 40 and up. Most of my work is 35-50 margin, and we talking some big damn contracts. It has taken nearly a year to work out the transition on jobs that were partially complete during the buyout, and find a good accounting method to track what profit was collected in the billing process by the original owner prior to the buyout and what was earned after. Well my commission check for March was 57,600. As of yesterday I have made 121,000 in 2016. Im on track to earn over 400k. And I think I will because I have a few contracts that are a million plus that will close this year, and dozens that are in the 300k - 800k range. all on track to come in at or close to 40. The problem is that it all seems too good to be true. Im waiting to wake up or have the rug pulled out from under me. I feel like they have a good reason to try to adjust my pay scale, or just find a way to get rid of me. Obviously I couldnt replace this income if something happened. Is there any way to protect myself from the corporate mentality to trim the expensive fat?My wife is happier than hell and really proud of me. We have 2 kids and frankly live in a crappy little 150k starter house. well she has gotten big eyes over the past month or 2, eyeballing 400k-600k houses. Im not throwing her under the bus here. I want the same thing. but I am just so scared to do it. We cracked at the beginning of the year and payed cash for a 2016 explorer for her and the 2 turds and I just bought a brand new F-150, cash as well. I really lack discipline when the savings account starts to have 6 zeros in it. what hard and fast rules would you guys set to keep it in check? I know a lot of people are gonna think this is a brag post. The truth is, it kind of is. I cant tell anyone I know that I am making this kind of money. I live in a college town where the median income is 33k. It would ruin or at least strain relationships if family and friends knew. as of right now they just think Im stupid for buying 2 brand new cars!  <response>: You should enjoy your success and not be scared to spend if you want to. But honestly it sounds like youre spending money because thats what people do. I mean, are a Ford Explorer and F150 your dream vehicles? Do you derive any lasting happiness from them? Or are they just extremely expensive and wasteful markers of an upper middle class lifestyle? There is a negative side of rushing out to spend money as well. You touch on it here: It would ruin or at least strain relationships if family and friends knew. as of right now they just think Im stupid for buying 2 brand new cars!If you keep spending money like this, youll have to either let your familyfriends assume youre borrowing to the limit or basically admit that you can easily afford these purchases. There is something to be said for stealth wealth. and frankly live in a crappy little 150k starter house. Did you feel that way before this money started coming in? I ask because I would think a 150K house in an an area with a 33K median income is pretty nice. I grew up in the midwest and Im not sure I would describe most 150K homes as crappy. Are they dream homes on HGTV? Nope. Are they perfectly fine places to raise 2 kids? Definitely. On the finance side, here is rough blueprint of what I think you should do:1. Pay off all consumer and student debt, if any2. Start savinginvesting at least half of your income. I know you can do this because you were living just fine Im guessing last year when you didnt make this much right? 3. First is to max out the jobs 401k. If your wife works, she should max hers out. The limit is 18K. 4. Do a traditional IRA. You can only put in 11000 as a couple so this is easy. 5. Taxable brokerage fund. Read up on investing here: This would also be a good opportunity to have a frank discussion with your wife about the future. You guys are sort of on the spend spend spend train, which is only natural for most people when money is pouring in. But you should ask yourself if thats what you want. There are tons of oil field guys who were making 100K in North Dakota, got laid off as the price of oil has dropped, and have nothing to show for it except a pickup truck thats about to be repoed. Instead, by dialing back the consumption, you can use these boom years because you just dont know if this will continue forever to lock in an amazing future. 