Level of trust

I find that just one indicator of how close you are to a friend is whether or not you feel comfortable discussing private matters such as your personal finances/approximate level of income/total compensation. When I do get into this topic with certain people, I appreciate the fact that I do not feel like we are competing or trying to "one-up" each other. Rather, we could be commiserating together about our level of compensation vs our peers in the same industry or keeping in check as to what we should be receiving or just understanding each other's investment philosphies.