“A friend asks you how much money you get paid. What do you say, and why is it taboo to talk about our earnings?”

My kids are 3½ and 2. I’m literally elbow deep in poop! The parents at mothers’ group, sometimes that’s all we talk about. We bad?

My troublesome questions are “Who did you vote for?” and “How much do you earn?”

I love talking, arguing and moaning about politics. But who I actually mark the numbers against at the ballot box is top secret. My wife thinks she knows, but she’s guessing.

Salary is taboo because it shouldn’t be relevant. Why should it matter to others what you earn? When it comes to income, I never used to ask or tell. It’s partly plain manners.

That’s changed in recent years. As a financial adviser, I have to ask what clients earn – it’s crucial to giving advice. But if a friend asked me, it’s not that I won’t tell them, it’s that I couldn’t tell them.

Damnit! I don’t know what I earn!

A profit and loss statement gives me one figure, but my accountant gives me another. (They’re never even vaguely similar.) And what I can take out of the business is actually more dependent on how much I want to reinvest back into it.

Thankfully, I’m not alone. Australia has two million small businesses. Our incomes change month to month. Some months are inevitably negative. But earnings are often a trade off for lifestyle and other benefits.

Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and a licensed financial adviser.