Blahblahblah, I don't support your statment " if you are doing it for the money, you won't survive PhD". Surviving PhD is not a big deal if you are good at research/statistics and have good skills to write thesis. Every person is a social being and people always tend to seek power, prestige and privilege. Money is one of the key factor in eveybody's life. I don't think you have heard anybody saying "Ok... this much money is enough for me now..." It's attribute of a human being. Without this, success in your life stops.

Now, to the main point.,

Here's what it looks like for my kind of job in Denver, CO:

Salary for Computer related job ---75th percentile--> 84K

Salary for Asst. Professor Computer Science--75th percentile --->99K

It looks like 15K difference per year. Now, if I work for 4 years instead of pursuing PhD, I will be earning 84K X 4 = 336K in 4 years. To make up that amount, I will need to work 22.4 years after taking Asst.Professor job.

Do you think it is worth ? What'd you do ? Would you go for PhD in this case ?