If an average engineer ask $40 for 1 hour work and you're ready to do it in $10 then THAT BECOMES THE THRESHOLD FOR THE COMPANY next time no matter how good an engineer or developer is they will ONLY PAY $10 to him BECAUSE you have set those standards by working for that cheap.Please I request you stop doing it.
Everything competitive market. If someone else can do a job cheaper than you without compromising quality, then of course anyone wanting that job done will go to the cheaper company. Asking someone to not do a job for less money just so that you can get paid more is a stupid thing to ask. At the same time, you can refuse to do jobs if you don't feel that you are getting paid adequately and wait for someone else to do it.
As for the topic at hand, like what has been said Wordpress is not a forum software, though there are forum plugins available for it. If you want a forum, free software like PhpBB or SMF (what Bitcointalk runs on) is probably your best bet, with custom plugins/code for your needs.