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Mestroyer comments on Grad Student Advice Repository - Less Wrong
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All of these are true for me (or could be true if I applied to grad school again, and this time accepted offers like ones I rejected this time), but I am not going to get a PhD, because an MS in my field (computer engineering) is sufficient to get the high paying jobs I want, so I can start making lots of money for effective altruism sooner.
Your experience isn't just true "for me", it's true statistically. A Master's degree in most STEM fields (IIRC) is an investment, and a better investment than you can find in the market if you're smart enough. A doctorate in most (all?) fields is partly a consumable - it leads to higher expected starting salaries, and even higher salaries than one would have had by spending those PhD years accumulating job experience, but not enough higher to make up for the lost income during those years.
Of course, a PhD is valuable in more ways than just income, and I don't regret mine despite some delays which make the above economics worse. But everyone should know what they're getting into.
Sure, the PhD is on the whole an income-reducer, whether because of the opportunity cost for those years, or because of the reduced income afterwards.
It's only worthwhile if you enjoy it enough that the reduced income doesn't bother you.