You can be honest with friends without telling them your exact paycheck.

Honesty is about not lying, which is different from full disclosure. Your income changes how people treat you, and once it is known it cannot be unknown. Keeping it to yourself is no more a deception than not reading your diary aloud. There is a wide stretch of ground between secretive and completely open.

Have a short answer ready for when the subject comes up, something true like it is enough for now. Decide in advance who, if anybody, gets the actual number.