What do you think you're worth? This is the final in a series of articles addressing the eight different stages of the job search and the tangible things you can do to navigate them. Applying for a job today involves more than drafting a cover letter and scouring online job boards - in fact, if you are on a job board you should probably leave as soon as possible. Before you even start to look at what possibilities are out there, you need to answer some fundamental questions. First, and most important: how much money do you need to make? This simple question is actually rather complicated to answer if you are willing to move beyond the understandably instinctual response, "as much as possible." So how much is enough? What are you worth? Your answers will depend on a multitude of external and internal realities and beliefs that you have been learning and navigating throughout your life. You have to understand your relationship to money first, before chasing after an abstract salary figure. Below are some simple questions to serve as a starting point to help you figure out how much money you need to make: How much are your monthly payments including student loans or debt? How much do you need to pay for housing in order to be comfortable and happy? On average, what do your friends make? What do you feel a successful person your age makes? How much money feels like enough? Where did that idea of enough come from? What lessons about money did your parents pass on to you? How much money would feel like too little to you? What kind of life do you want to live? Consider these three questions to help you decide. What other pressures affect your earning potential? Which way do they drive your ideal salary number? Up or down? Considering these factors, what is that number? What did you make at your last job? A good rule of thumb is to aim for 20 per cent more than what you made at your previous job and negotiate from that point. Discover how long your money will last and compare this to your answers above. Are they in line? Set a low/medium/high estimate for your salary based on all of the questions above. As you answer these questions, pay attention to where you feel energized and where you feel blocked or resistant; spend some time exploring why and where these feelings come from. Often times, it is amidst these uncomfortable feelings that we find clues to help us understand what we need and what we feel we deserve. Remember that everyone will come up with totally different answers. Sites like Glassdoor provide some insight into what employees at top companies are getting paid, but they won't provide you with a concrete answer for what is enough for you: only you can determine that. If you approach the question of salary by carefully considering and evaluating your relationship to money, you will come to a clearer understanding of your career path, where you stand on it and which jobs to apply for. Once you've answered the questions above you will be ready to organize your job search in a spreadsheet and find a job title. Dev Aujla (@devaujla) is the author of Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money and Community in a Changing World, creator of the website 50waystogetajob.com, and the CEO of Catalog, a strategic advisory and recruiting company that works with companies that do good.