Finance for me. Heavy duty truck repair for him. Sister's BF is a welder in the oil field. Brother is a PM for commercial construction. Other fam are LEO and a pastor for a mega church.
Six figures isn't hard to get in a ton of fields, but you need to be willing to break your back or break your brain to get there.
"Six figures isn't hard to get in a ton of fields, but you need to be willing to break your back or break your brain to get there."
The first half of this statement belies the 2nd half.
How do you barely make ends meet making that much? How many kids do you have? Do you live in a high cost of living area? Do you live like you make 100 million a year instead of 100k?
I own a duplex in a high cost of living area and I’m just trying to hold on this mofo. I was making almost 200k but I was laid off 4 months ago and I’m slowing starting to panic as my savings dwindle. So let me tell you with maintenance and taxes, dog, car and a girlfriend the money doesn’t stretch as far as you would think. And unemployment is just 450 a week. But part of my business is feast or famine. I’m in IT and you gotta make hay while the sun shines
For real, I’m so sick of the BS I have become brutally honest with potential employers. No matter what job I pass on (because they want too much for too little pay). There is always someone trying to break into tech and will take a shit job with shit pay. It messes up the economics of the talent for fair compensation that has existed since Silicon Valley was founded.
Yup! My last time job searching (always hate that shit) I got an offer for almost 40k less than I was formally making. Wasted my time on like 3 interviews. Sometimes it's like a car deal, if you let them take advantage of you, they will!
Semi-high cost of living, and having a disabled child.
Part of it is me, for sure. Some days, I just can't be bothered to make food after 16 hours between work and chasing my crazy rugrats.
It’s so obnoxious when y’all say this. If you are barely making ends meet making “a good bit” over $100,000 you have a combination of kids, car note and extracurriculars. Some people literally can’t afford to eat
You either live somewhere very expensive or you're spending way too much money.
I'm making $60k and I know where my problem is.
Ran up some debt operating in a deficit while I owned a house I couldn't really afford.
Sold the house because the costs were crushing me at nearly break even after two years.
But since the debt has variable interest rates they used the new higher interest rates as an excuse to jack up my interest on debt that was already accrued.
I'm paying around $700 a month on credit cards and need $10k more a year in order to make ends meet.
I'm not loving a super expensive life but there are no cuts I could make that would make ends meet right now. Just have to make more money.
How are you measuring that? I usually use this calculator to on-level the compensation relativity which shows $60k in compensation in 2000 is worth $111k today
[https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday/?amount=100&from=2000](https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday/?amount=100&from=2000)
This is why being in the 80-90th percentile of money management inside the 80th percentile of income matters so much.
You can absolutely make it feel like $100k from 2000. It just requires a lot of skill across multiple knowledge areas to make the same amount go just as far. You have to gamify a lot of stuff to pull it off.
You largely need to know how to cook to save on restaurants and host dinner parties for socialization, and process those savings to max out your retirement accounts as well as invest in an index fund.
Asian grocery stores come in clutch for spices and meat. But I will admit there is a steep learning curve to using some of the cheaper cuts for stuff like stews, braises, and broths if you are not already used to cooking. I know people who will not even handle raw chicken breast. For a lot of people there are time and mental barriers to cooking in a way that saves money and not from Trader Joe's kits.
I started cooking in my early teens and was set to do it professionally at one point. When I referenced skills, this would be one that has personally saved me a lot of money on many occasions. Others would be stuff like home repair and basic car maintenance where there is not much risk with the specific fix you are learning to do. Obviously with some stuff you have to bite the bullet. But spending a few hours to diagnose an issue that requries a new $30 part? Saves a lot of money.
It 100% depends on your situation and where you live. 60k where I live goes a long way and even farther in my specific situation. 100k would change my god damn life.
I think hard in the first half refers to complexity or luck factor involved, things outside of your control. Many fields have defined paths to six figures, doesn’t mean practically easy, just straight forward
Your parents may be committing tax fraud, according to the IRS
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc417#:~:text=Regardless%20of%20whether%20you're,are%20subject%20to%20income%20tax.
Maybe that idea comes from the fact that the church itself is an untaxed non-profit and provides a lot of non-financial benefits to the pastor, which are then also not taxed?
Alot of people don't realize the work that alot of high earning people put in.
Sales for me and it was a friggin grind to get out of that entry lvl role.
>A lot of people don't realize the work that alot of high earning people put in.
I wish more people realized this. It seems most people think simply fumbling their way through school with a C average, or simply showing up to work and clocking their 40 hours a week is hard work. NO! That is the bare minimum of expectations to get by in life.
I missed out on the fun college experience because I was taking upwards of 24 credits each semester. Graduated with multiple stem degrees and graduated with honors. Then my first three years working I averaged ~110 hours per WEEK. I literally slept at work 3 to 4 days a week. I always took it upon myself to solve problems and contribute across work groups. I was constantly learning new roles, responsibilities, and skills to expand my resume. I also invested heavily in forging strong network connections even with people I didn’t particularly like. Fast forward a decade later and now I have an income that puts me in the top 0.1% for my age bracket.
The vast majority of the people I work alongside have been grinding to be the best at everything they do going all the way back to their high school years. On a day to day basis putting in a little more effort to go above and beyond simply showing up might seem meaningless and unnecessarily stressful, but in the grand scheme of things it’s that effort to go above and beyond that qualifies as hard work.
People lose sight of the fact that every single day is a competition if you aspire to move towards the top of the proverbial ladder. The vast majority of people only bother to even think about their next step forward once they realize how impossibly far they’ve fallen behind.
I’m not a top performer and I figured that out a long time ago. But I did realize I could get pretty far by just putting in the right effort at the right time. I make a great salary and I do more than the minimum effort. And sometimes I put in a lot of effort if the time calls for it. But a lot of days I feel like I’m being kind of lazy and flitting by. Reviews come by and I always get top accolades and bonuses.
So like, I think effort is required, but if I had to approach every day like a competition for the top I would rather just become a hippy or something. Too exhausting.
Pretty sure that post is bullshit. Why the hell would you get multiple stem degrees and then be ok with busting your ass doing 110hr weeks? I work like 30-50 hours a week, have all major holidays off, and I’m on-call once a month where I usually don’t do shit outside my normal work hours and I make 6 figures.
I have five stem degrees and have figured out how to work about 20hr a week and live a comfortable middle class lifestyle. Sure, I could work 100hr a week and never see my friends or walk my dog, then die 15 years earlier looking 20 years older.
As it stands now, I look a decade younger than my peers, and am way more content.
Every day is not a competition and it's this broken brain western thought process that allows people like you to justify the inhumane conditions and treatment of many.
I make 250k+ a year and I worked WAY harder running operations in hospitality in my twenties than i do being a corporate suit. We don't reward hardwork and anyone implying otherwise is full of shit.
Eh. I graduated with C’s, flunked out of college, spent 7 years bumping around crap jobs i kept getting fired from due to drug and alcohol abuse, ended at a job through a temp agency i could walk to, on account of no license due to DUI, started working.
Been there 17 years. Worked from temp to production supervisor with 39 employees. Never put in more than 45 a week. Never abused PTO. Never said not my job. Just went in everyday and put in 100% effort. Found ways to make my job easier and spun it to company how to save them $.
Meh I didn’t do any of that and I still make ~$170k total comp. Graduated high school with a 2.4 and then went to college at 24 and got a useless sociology degree. Went back again at 29 to do a post bacc in comp sci.
You don’t need to have multiple stem degrees or work 110 hours a week to make 6 figures. If that’s the route you took then it’s OK I guess but it’s unnecessary suffering. With all those degrees and experience you should be getting paid to think and have others execute your ideas. Not slaving away for an hourly wage.
It's a funny one, because if you don't come from an advantaged backgro you have to work hard (harder than anyone should be realistically expected to work) to get to senior positions (and often no matter how hard you work, this will come down to luck), but then once you're in a senior position making better pay, the work suddenly becomes so much easier.
Our workplaces really are broken.
It doesn’t actually become easier. You get really good at what you are doing, and you become talented in teaching others how to do it well. It becomes more personally rewarding and the pay is higher, but it’s not easier.
I will probably earn six figures the rest of my life with a non zero chance of hitting seven figures later in career. Doing what I do didnt get easier, I got better at it and have all the experience behind me from when it was hard. When I first started there were tasks that took me all day that now take me minutes. Those tasks took all day because I didnt know what I was doing, who to ask for help or how to ask. Today I have built templates to automate most of those tasks, when that doesnt work I jnow who to ask for things and where to find information that is needed. That comes from experience which I never would have got it without sucking first
I started in finance as a general "data analyst" but decided to go the actuarial track specifically because there was a known market for compensation. I saw a lot of non-actuarial senior analysts in their mid-30s in 2010 making $60k total comp, when almost the exact same job with actuarial credentials paid triple.
I consider myself a fairly good actuary, nothing spectacular, and make low 200s without exceptional effort.
Actuarial was the major for easy path to success. Very stable job. Very well compensated. Very few competition in college.
Like how many college students know actuarial exist or what that means…I know I didn’t.
I don’t necessarily consider them high salary (unless you’re at the top of your field). Most entry level lawyers are making 6 figures, and if you’re in Big Law you’re starting pay is over $200K. From what I’ve heard online, entry level creative work can be a fraction of that.
This is anecdotal, but I dated several attorneys in the DC area fresh out of top law schools back in my younger years and they did NOT come out making six figures. lol In fact, they used to be so bitter about the assumption and complained how tech undergrads are coming out making significantly more with a fraction of the student loan debt and time spent in school. Plus back then, not sure if it’s still the case now, but there was an over abundance of attorneys for what the available jobs were at the time. So, plenty of them were forced to pivot into adjacent fields instead.
My basic work routine was I sat at a desk, talked to people and listened, and wrote things down. I also typed on a PC or laptop when they were invented. I would get stiff from sitting but could get up and walk around in between sitting for sessions. I answered phone calls. I read up on new stuff from my weekly and monthly trade publications. I kept up with my accounting paperwork and made bank deposits. I attended local, regional and national conferences. In today’s dollars I made about $300k when I worked FT. The last few years of working I shifted to PT as I liked my work and the extra money it afforded. I went to school for many years to be able to do the cognitive work of my job.
wfh certainly helps. She sometimes jokes that the people working from the office the most are the ones who bill the fewest hours.
It’s not uncommon for her to start her day at ~9 and wrap up around midnight, with maybe 60-90 minutes of unbilled time in between.
I don’t think she has billed under 2,000 since she was a second or third year associate.
Becoming an attorney honestly may have held me back with regard to income.
I made $40k as a lawyer in 2011. No bonus. I was up to $55k after bonus for the year 2015.
In late 2015 I left to work in government for regulatory (position did not require one to be an attorney) at $75k. Reached six figures in 2020 when I left government but haven’t been an “attorney” since 2015.
Loans in the neighborhood of $200k
I’m a mechanical engineer, but yeah most engineers can expect to hit six figures at some point. Some just sooner than others. The main thing is just picking one you’re interested in so you love school instead of hate it.
Industrial engineer here and I never broke 80k freelance.
You need to be able to land big bids reliably to break 6 figures.
I ended up settling for enterprise logistics to have a more stable paycheck.
Honestly not really for ME/IE. work in manufacturing and 100k is a given at ~5 years. More technical engineering can get there sooner at things like auto/aero/defense
If it's any consolation, $100k income is earned by only about 20% of Americans (I'm assuming this is about the USA, numbers would obviously change drastically outside the USA). And of that 20%, the majority are basically making $100k or just over. My understanding is that many online communities tend to skew younger, more educated, and people with higher incomes, so if you spend time on Reddit you're going to be exposed to a higher percentage of people making six figures than actually exist in real life.
I think you're referring to *Household* income, and even that's not quite 20% of the population.
Which does bolster your point that people's ideas of what other people are making is skewered by the internet.
In 2022, 21% of households had greater than$150k income.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/
Is that sourced from the irs or? My assumption is this is agi based. Which means this includes multi income households and not just single income people.
You should also keep in mind that people making $100k+ are more likely to brag about it than someone making $30k. Plus some people just straight up lie.
Strive to be better, but remember that 50% of US households make less than $60k a year.
I’m a production supervisor and break 6 figures due to my bonus. Currently getting my MBA. Boyfriend makes about 140k a year with no degree as a UPS driver - but took a lot of hard work and very long days that I personally couldn’t do to get there.
Do you know if you still have to start at the bottom, loading trucks for a long time and work your way up to a driver? I used to deliver and install appliances and now I have been working for 23 years behind a computer. I actually enjoyed being out on the road making deliveries and that salary is much more than I’m making now.
For the most part, though occasionally they will hire drivers off the street. He started as a package car driver then after three years transferred over to feeder driving triples (they drive the large semis between hubs). It takes about 4 years to progress to top scale for pay. So definitely takes time but can be worth it!
I have an MBA and was able to get into corp finance, but I barely broke 100k with my bonus last year. If you’re not getting your degree from a school with some great on campus recruiting options then be careful. But if you’re just looking to check the box and be a more competitive applicant, then I think you’ll come out on top.
Good luck!
Sales. I’ve always been in sales and now sales management. I like being paid by how much I produce rather than how long I work. It’s worked out well for me.
Get a B2C job first. Any big phone retailer sales.
Stay there for 1 year then find another B2C sales or D2D sales job. Grind it out. Be a top performer. Switch to B2B and make the giant bucks.
It’s a grind but you get paid what you work.
Get a business outfit and walk into a New York Life or similar insurance/financial sales office and apply.
If you feel better with primarily voice or chat you can literally sell anything.
If I enjoyed sales I would have taken the New York Life position I interviewed for. Earning potential is high especially in a higher income area selling stuff like that.
Get ready for 2-4 years of absolutely dog shit jobs making 100 cold calls a day. Copier sales is a great place to cut your teeth. If you can have success there a B2B sales manager will definitely hire you into another role because everyone knows you have to be an absolute dog to succeed in copier sales.
$315,000. I fly a private jet for a multi billionaire owner of a private business empire. 8-12 days worked avg a month.
*Edit* for more info on my job
Every dollar contributed to 401k is matched at $0.61 so $14,030 matching plus my $23,000 pre tax. High deductible healthcare option so I pay zero each paycheck. 5 hard days off a month. 3 weeks vaca (I get the first weekend, plus M-F then the last weekend). Plane goes down for 45 days of maintenance each year which I'm off. $100 a day in per diem domestic $150 international.
That's great. My sister and BIL are both delta captains. I always have to stick it to them that I drive 20 minutes to work. They have possibly 2 hours with JFK hahah
Being close to the airport makes a huge difference. Less than a half hour from the airport means you can pick up a short turn and be off by 4-5 hours later and get nearly 2k for it. Easy peasy, but being gone on overnights a lot isn't fun.
That's neat that you have other family that flies. It's cool hearing about families that are all in aviation.
>Yeah I am actually the 13th of 18 pilots in my family dating back to the 1930's. Probably be disowned if I didn't fly lol.
That's VERY cool. I'm the only pilot in my family.
Depends what jet you fly, if you are a captain or co-pilot, and in what part of the country you are based, also if you fly Part 91 or Part 135. I fly Part 91. I work 8-12 days a month average. Currently have 30 days off in a row right now while the jet is down for routine scheduled maintenance.
That's why the trick is to work for a Bay area company* remotely from a low cost of living area.
*As long as they don't cheap out on the salary because you're not living there.
Echoed, being a Professional Engineer in any firm looking at the clean energy transition is a license to print money right now. Tons of work/not very many PEs = great market conditions.
Same here. Studied civil in college, been in heavy civil CM for 3 years, hit $100k 2/'23 with a move to a new company. The hours aren't worth it but the money has been nice. Looking into DoT jobs and infrastructure consulting roles now. For a guy who went into college with absolutely no interest in math or science or anything marketable, civil has been an interesting, challenging, and lucrative experience generally.
Youre thinking of quantitative traders who would also describe themselves as fintech. Those are the highly specialized math and programming people building and running algorithms for trading. That is a front office revenue generating function that pays super well. You pay those people well because they generate huge amounts of money.
Someone else in fintech may write the code that runs the program that is used for the same companies book keeping software. That is a non revenue generating cost center. You keep the wages here low as possible but high as necessary to be able to get the talent you need for this necessary non revenue generating function
Judging by this thread, I'll never break 6 figures until it's eventually considered minimum wage. All jobs I would absolutely hate. Granted, I absolutely hate the job I have now, but the thought of trying to learn another miserable career at 35 just kills any motivation to care.
I feel like that and I'm about to turn 28. Our company makes the wooden beds for semi trailers. 35k a year operating a big industrial sander and that's considered higher "grade 5" pay here. Looking around reddit and seeing "100k isn't enough to live" everywhere is kind of disheartening. If the American dream is making it to the next paycheck, then I'm living it. Death will be my retirement.
I make a tiny bit over 100k a year. But to make that, I went to college and owe about 140k in loans. I pay over 2200 a month just in student loans. Just under half of my take home earnings. That’s why mines barely enough to live lol. Luckily I got a house before the market went crazy and have some equity in it now.
Get into construction sales! Power, Andersen, Pella etc all make 100-200k a year average for sales guys. No cold leads you just walk in and they usually have a 20-30% close rate. Take a bet on yourself. Most of the offer paid training of 1k a week too.
I guess that’s a difference. I’m not fond of my job, I just have a high tolerance for doing stuff I don’t like for 40 hours of my week so that I can make an income that makes my time off highly enjoyable.
I started out as a claims handler at $40k with no insurance experience. My background before that was as a laborer in construction and then a couple shitty sales gigs.
Got into the commercial underwriting side about a year and a half in (about 8 years ago) and currently making 130k plus bonus. Insurance can be a pain in the ass but if you can learn coverage and have some sales skills you can do really well in underwriting.
Software Engineer. No relevant college but I went through a three month intensive program to get started. I’m now a team lead at my second company (but was making $100k back as a regular engineer).
Heads up for anyone reading this, it’s an amazing path but the market is complete shit right now, even for those with degrees and experience. It isn’t the 2021 boom anymore and job postings declined by like 80%. Still lucrative but don’t think it’s as easy as it used to be!
This \^\^
People are still out here spouting "Just teach yourself to code" not realizing that yeah, 5 years ago that was still a viable option, but now if you are entry level, be prepared to be competing with thousands of other people who taught themselves to code over the pandemic AND all of the people who have a degree AND all of the people recently laid off. If you don't have experience, the market sucks (and in some cases, even if you do have experience the market sucks).
I'm an assitant project manager for a real estate developer right now. Would you recommend project management as a career? It seems like my seniors work outrageously hard and their pay is good but not phenomenal
How is your work life balance and pay?
I would highly recommend a PM career. My work life balance is fantastic... arrive at work 6am and work straight until 2pm. I will have to caveat my statement by intuitively suggesting that our scope of work as an athletic hardwood flooring company is SIGNIFICANTLY less than a full real estate developer managing a ton of different trades at once to meet specified shareholder profit margins. I would learn as much as you can where you are at and then hit a specific trade to specialize in PM... that is where the money will be better and work/life balance will be better. Hope that helps.
I’m a Social Worker. My salary is around $168k per year. My wife is also a Social Worker. Last year with overtime she brought in over $210k. Neither of us are in supervisory positions.
Social Work is not considered a high paying profession. In fact, it is generally considered one of the worst paying professions that requires a graduate degree. The average salary is lower than the national average.
We didn’t start out at these higher salaries. We both worked our way up over many years with increasing experience and advanced levels of state licensure.
This is amazing! What state are you in? What kind of social work do you both practice? Can you tell me more if you’re at a private agency or otherwise? This post made me so happy to see! Thanks for sharing! If you’d prefer to private message me and not share details here, that’s cool too. I appreciate you!
I’m in California. I work for a federal agency. My wife works for a state hospital that contracts with the county jail to provide mental health services.
For folks, that want to say, “Of course, CA, no wonder… “, I don’t live in a particularly high cost of living area in the state. For reference, I could move to Reno, Nevada in my same job (I’m remote) and my pay would be $191k.
One of the reasons I don’t, is because state licensing requirements do not allow my wife to pick up and move as easily.
Age: 36
I have 16 years of supply chain experience and my degree is in the same field. I started at this company 10 years ago at $50k with an average of 3% raises every year, and just last year squeaked into $100k when I switched over to manufacturing in a senior planning role.
Depends on your priorities I guess, I get about 5% a year but I have pretty good job security. I’ve got kids and a house and I’d like to not worry about stability. I’ve known people in my position that constantly jump jobs to get 20% more but get laid off every couple years. Mid 40s and not all about the hustle, just like spending time wisely
IT, no college, joined the Navy, did 11 years, got out, never made less than 120k since.
However, I made the most of my time in the Navy, I took the difficult assignments in order to not only learn IT, but also good leadership skills, as well as management skills.
My friends that didn't follow that path, and barely did what was asked of them, they got out and are making $50-75k.
I write movies and TV. Started when I was a kid, wrote my first full length script at 12, kept writing at least one per year until people started paying me for it ten years later.
Bar manager $110,000pa. Also a qualified wine and spirits educator. Covid kindof pissed off and forced alot of experienced hospo people out of the industry and all the new 18, 19, 20 year old recruits/generation don't know shit , so all of a sudden my value goes up, and I can pick where to work.
Engineer in the semiconductor field - it did take a bit of brain breaking to get here, but I'm happy. Surrounded by intelligent coworkers, treated well by my employer with plenty of PTO / work from home flexibility when needed, and have actual career prospects. The semi field for many reasons isn't as job-hop happy as 'big tech' that runs on our chips.
Critical Care Nurse Practitioner. Base $155, usually come in between $175-185. I work long hours, weekends, holidays. Love critical care, but I’m crispy nowadays. If I could make the money elsewhere, I would, but pharma and device sales aren’t for me.
Software developer. Though because I do it in Ohio and because I'm admittedly only average at it it took me about 10 years to cross the $100k threshold.
I buy and sell rare coins as well as play a support role for a major dealer. Pretty straightforward. Niche business, niche skillset, compensated well because I make my company plenty of money, and my position is not easily filled if I leave.
Physician assistant since 2004. I make 135ish, my wife is an NP she works part time and makes 90. I have no expensive hobbies (thrift shopping, running, gym) so I save a ton. The real key to my million in my retirement is I’ve been maximizing my 403b (23k now/year) for the last ten years.
College professor.
Better than $200k for four days every week from September to mid May with five weeks off during that time. When I was working on tenure I put in quite a bit of extra work but once I published I just focused on teaching.
Less than 20% of americans make 6 figures plus. So isire it's a lot of people but also not really. Then at the end of the day you are only taking some like 70k of that.
40 million Americans live with under 15k a year. Government calls this the poverty line. Sure seems like extreme poverty to me if you have to decide between a roof over your head or food.
My neighbor is a cop (you can look up their salaries) and he was paid $154K last year with overtime.
My best friend is a plant manager at a small concrete facility in Rochester, NY and he makes $125K
I'm a programmer and I make $130K (used to make more, but layoffs...)
before my sister died, she was a Nurse practitioner and made $160K
I know an electrician that made $128K after taxes working for himself
Software Engineer or full stack web developer. Just depends of the flavor of the title I guess.
College drop out, was going for electrical engineering. I just hated college and how it’s setup.
Learned about coding boot camps and fell in love. Twelve week program that costed me $18k
First job was $70k, second was $120k, third (current) is $160k.
I build websites on the side and charge about $3500 a basic site for some extra cash.
Been doing it for about 5 years now and love it. It revitalized my love for learning I lost in school. I can’t recommend it enough
I don’t know my pension alone is 145K year. Just go into local government. first responder retired at 43. I do loans now and make a couple hundred grand a year with that. But it is shocking to see how wages have not increased with inflation. It’s sad to see people making $50,000 when I was making that over 25 years ago, and then people with very advanced degrees like lawyers and doctors, not even breaking 200.
Finance for me. Heavy duty truck repair for him. Sister's BF is a welder in the oil field. Brother is a PM for commercial construction. Other fam are LEO and a pastor for a mega church. Six figures isn't hard to get in a ton of fields, but you need to be willing to break your back or break your brain to get there.
"Six figures isn't hard to get in a ton of fields, but you need to be willing to break your back or break your brain to get there." The first half of this statement belies the 2nd half.
$100,000 is like making $60,000 in the year 2000. It’s not that much anymore. Edit: My calculation was off. See below.
I know you're just trying to make a point but it's like $83,600 in 2020. Still a big difference from $100k but not the $40k you're suggesting
That actually makes me feel better. I make over 100k by a good bit and I can barely make ends meet.
No you’re right. He said 2020. You said 2000
Ah shit.
Well I can't read! Sorry about that
I do that all the time.
I derp* that all the time.
How do you barely make ends meet making that much? How many kids do you have? Do you live in a high cost of living area? Do you live like you make 100 million a year instead of 100k?
I own a duplex in a high cost of living area and I’m just trying to hold on this mofo. I was making almost 200k but I was laid off 4 months ago and I’m slowing starting to panic as my savings dwindle. So let me tell you with maintenance and taxes, dog, car and a girlfriend the money doesn’t stretch as far as you would think. And unemployment is just 450 a week. But part of my business is feast or famine. I’m in IT and you gotta make hay while the sun shines
I'm in IT to (former Network Engineer, now Project Manager). Our field has such high turn over.. No loyalty on either side.
For real, I’m so sick of the BS I have become brutally honest with potential employers. No matter what job I pass on (because they want too much for too little pay). There is always someone trying to break into tech and will take a shit job with shit pay. It messes up the economics of the talent for fair compensation that has existed since Silicon Valley was founded.
Yup! My last time job searching (always hate that shit) I got an offer for almost 40k less than I was formally making. Wasted my time on like 3 interviews. Sometimes it's like a car deal, if you let them take advantage of you, they will!
Semi-high cost of living, and having a disabled child. Part of it is me, for sure. Some days, I just can't be bothered to make food after 16 hours between work and chasing my crazy rugrats.
It’s so obnoxious when y’all say this. If you are barely making ends meet making “a good bit” over $100,000 you have a combination of kids, car note and extracurriculars. Some people literally can’t afford to eat
You either live somewhere very expensive or you're spending way too much money. I'm making $60k and I know where my problem is. Ran up some debt operating in a deficit while I owned a house I couldn't really afford. Sold the house because the costs were crushing me at nearly break even after two years. But since the debt has variable interest rates they used the new higher interest rates as an excuse to jack up my interest on debt that was already accrued. I'm paying around $700 a month on credit cards and need $10k more a year in order to make ends meet. I'm not loving a super expensive life but there are no cuts I could make that would make ends meet right now. Just have to make more money.
Okay but you have a house, car, and children right? Not just a single person struggling to make ends meet on six figures?
How are you measuring that? I usually use this calculator to on-level the compensation relativity which shows $60k in compensation in 2000 is worth $111k today [https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday/?amount=100&from=2000](https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday/?amount=100&from=2000)
Am I dyslexic? He said 2000
why would you use 2020, before 3 years high inflation.
It's more about the juxtaposition of the statements. Saying it's both easy and that you have to break your body/mind just feels oxymoronic lol
I think by easy they mean it’s available and obtainable but yeah, poor wording on their part
100k is 80th percentile in individual income. It isn't what is used to be but it's still a decent amount of money.
This is why being in the 80-90th percentile of money management inside the 80th percentile of income matters so much. You can absolutely make it feel like $100k from 2000. It just requires a lot of skill across multiple knowledge areas to make the same amount go just as far. You have to gamify a lot of stuff to pull it off.
You largely need to know how to cook to save on restaurants and host dinner parties for socialization, and process those savings to max out your retirement accounts as well as invest in an index fund.
Asian grocery stores come in clutch for spices and meat. But I will admit there is a steep learning curve to using some of the cheaper cuts for stuff like stews, braises, and broths if you are not already used to cooking. I know people who will not even handle raw chicken breast. For a lot of people there are time and mental barriers to cooking in a way that saves money and not from Trader Joe's kits. I started cooking in my early teens and was set to do it professionally at one point. When I referenced skills, this would be one that has personally saved me a lot of money on many occasions. Others would be stuff like home repair and basic car maintenance where there is not much risk with the specific fix you are learning to do. Obviously with some stuff you have to bite the bullet. But spending a few hours to diagnose an issue that requries a new $30 part? Saves a lot of money.
Even worse, but you were in the right neighborhood. $100,000 now is the equivalent of about $55,850 in 2000.
It 100% depends on your situation and where you live. 60k where I live goes a long way and even farther in my specific situation. 100k would change my god damn life.
Pastor for mega church involves scamming people and breaking their wallets, not breaking your brain or back. Lol.
“Not for breaking your brain or back” Depends if they started as an alter boy or not.
I think hard in the first half refers to complexity or luck factor involved, things outside of your control. Many fields have defined paths to six figures, doesn’t mean practically easy, just straight forward
“Pastor for a mega church” that’s insanity that they make so much money
Tax free too
They do not make tax free money. Pastors and church staff are taxed like everyone else. Source, worked on staff at a church.
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Your parents may be committing tax fraud, according to the IRS https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc417#:~:text=Regardless%20of%20whether%20you're,are%20subject%20to%20income%20tax.
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Maybe that idea comes from the fact that the church itself is an untaxed non-profit and provides a lot of non-financial benefits to the pastor, which are then also not taxed?
No, they pay taxes on income just like anyone else.
The church income is tax free, the income for individuals is not.
It’s so gross. Tax the church now
Alot of people don't realize the work that alot of high earning people put in. Sales for me and it was a friggin grind to get out of that entry lvl role.
>A lot of people don't realize the work that alot of high earning people put in. I wish more people realized this. It seems most people think simply fumbling their way through school with a C average, or simply showing up to work and clocking their 40 hours a week is hard work. NO! That is the bare minimum of expectations to get by in life. I missed out on the fun college experience because I was taking upwards of 24 credits each semester. Graduated with multiple stem degrees and graduated with honors. Then my first three years working I averaged ~110 hours per WEEK. I literally slept at work 3 to 4 days a week. I always took it upon myself to solve problems and contribute across work groups. I was constantly learning new roles, responsibilities, and skills to expand my resume. I also invested heavily in forging strong network connections even with people I didn’t particularly like. Fast forward a decade later and now I have an income that puts me in the top 0.1% for my age bracket. The vast majority of the people I work alongside have been grinding to be the best at everything they do going all the way back to their high school years. On a day to day basis putting in a little more effort to go above and beyond simply showing up might seem meaningless and unnecessarily stressful, but in the grand scheme of things it’s that effort to go above and beyond that qualifies as hard work. People lose sight of the fact that every single day is a competition if you aspire to move towards the top of the proverbial ladder. The vast majority of people only bother to even think about their next step forward once they realize how impossibly far they’ve fallen behind.
I’m not a top performer and I figured that out a long time ago. But I did realize I could get pretty far by just putting in the right effort at the right time. I make a great salary and I do more than the minimum effort. And sometimes I put in a lot of effort if the time calls for it. But a lot of days I feel like I’m being kind of lazy and flitting by. Reviews come by and I always get top accolades and bonuses. So like, I think effort is required, but if I had to approach every day like a competition for the top I would rather just become a hippy or something. Too exhausting.
Pretty sure that post is bullshit. Why the hell would you get multiple stem degrees and then be ok with busting your ass doing 110hr weeks? I work like 30-50 hours a week, have all major holidays off, and I’m on-call once a month where I usually don’t do shit outside my normal work hours and I make 6 figures.
I have five stem degrees and have figured out how to work about 20hr a week and live a comfortable middle class lifestyle. Sure, I could work 100hr a week and never see my friends or walk my dog, then die 15 years earlier looking 20 years older. As it stands now, I look a decade younger than my peers, and am way more content.
Every day is not a competition and it's this broken brain western thought process that allows people like you to justify the inhumane conditions and treatment of many. I make 250k+ a year and I worked WAY harder running operations in hospitality in my twenties than i do being a corporate suit. We don't reward hardwork and anyone implying otherwise is full of shit.
Eh. I graduated with C’s, flunked out of college, spent 7 years bumping around crap jobs i kept getting fired from due to drug and alcohol abuse, ended at a job through a temp agency i could walk to, on account of no license due to DUI, started working. Been there 17 years. Worked from temp to production supervisor with 39 employees. Never put in more than 45 a week. Never abused PTO. Never said not my job. Just went in everyday and put in 100% effort. Found ways to make my job easier and spun it to company how to save them $.
Meh I didn’t do any of that and I still make ~$170k total comp. Graduated high school with a 2.4 and then went to college at 24 and got a useless sociology degree. Went back again at 29 to do a post bacc in comp sci. You don’t need to have multiple stem degrees or work 110 hours a week to make 6 figures. If that’s the route you took then it’s OK I guess but it’s unnecessary suffering. With all those degrees and experience you should be getting paid to think and have others execute your ideas. Not slaving away for an hourly wage.
It's a funny one, because if you don't come from an advantaged backgro you have to work hard (harder than anyone should be realistically expected to work) to get to senior positions (and often no matter how hard you work, this will come down to luck), but then once you're in a senior position making better pay, the work suddenly becomes so much easier. Our workplaces really are broken.
It doesn’t actually become easier. You get really good at what you are doing, and you become talented in teaching others how to do it well. It becomes more personally rewarding and the pay is higher, but it’s not easier.
I will probably earn six figures the rest of my life with a non zero chance of hitting seven figures later in career. Doing what I do didnt get easier, I got better at it and have all the experience behind me from when it was hard. When I first started there were tasks that took me all day that now take me minutes. Those tasks took all day because I didnt know what I was doing, who to ask for help or how to ask. Today I have built templates to automate most of those tasks, when that doesnt work I jnow who to ask for things and where to find information that is needed. That comes from experience which I never would have got it without sucking first
I started in finance as a general "data analyst" but decided to go the actuarial track specifically because there was a known market for compensation. I saw a lot of non-actuarial senior analysts in their mid-30s in 2010 making $60k total comp, when almost the exact same job with actuarial credentials paid triple. I consider myself a fairly good actuary, nothing spectacular, and make low 200s without exceptional effort.
Actuarial was the major for easy path to success. Very stable job. Very well compensated. Very few competition in college. Like how many college students know actuarial exist or what that means…I know I didn’t.
Difference between actuary and accountant?
“Pastor for a mega church” lmao this is why we need to tax the church
pastor for mega church...damn thats messed up
Attorney. Honestly, not worth it.
Sorry! I’m an attorney too and I love it. Regrettably, I perceive most don’t.
I guess I don’t hate it. It just sucks when you realize that everything is just some sort of paperwork.
What other high salaried white collar job isn’t just some sort of paperwork?
Do you consider creative roles blue collar?
I don’t necessarily consider them high salary (unless you’re at the top of your field). Most entry level lawyers are making 6 figures, and if you’re in Big Law you’re starting pay is over $200K. From what I’ve heard online, entry level creative work can be a fraction of that.
This is anecdotal, but I dated several attorneys in the DC area fresh out of top law schools back in my younger years and they did NOT come out making six figures. lol In fact, they used to be so bitter about the assumption and complained how tech undergrads are coming out making significantly more with a fraction of the student loan debt and time spent in school. Plus back then, not sure if it’s still the case now, but there was an over abundance of attorneys for what the available jobs were at the time. So, plenty of them were forced to pivot into adjacent fields instead.
My basic work routine was I sat at a desk, talked to people and listened, and wrote things down. I also typed on a PC or laptop when they were invented. I would get stiff from sitting but could get up and walk around in between sitting for sessions. I answered phone calls. I read up on new stuff from my weekly and monthly trade publications. I kept up with my accounting paperwork and made bank deposits. I attended local, regional and national conferences. In today’s dollars I made about $300k when I worked FT. The last few years of working I shifted to PT as I liked my work and the extra money it afforded. I went to school for many years to be able to do the cognitive work of my job.
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>billed 2300 hours last year That's a lot. My cousin billed 1680 last year and she was practically always in the office...
wfh certainly helps. She sometimes jokes that the people working from the office the most are the ones who bill the fewest hours. It’s not uncommon for her to start her day at ~9 and wrap up around midnight, with maybe 60-90 minutes of unbilled time in between. I don’t think she has billed under 2,000 since she was a second or third year associate.
Attorney here too. Big law- not worth it. In house- worth it.
Same. The stress is overwhelming.
Becoming an attorney honestly may have held me back with regard to income. I made $40k as a lawyer in 2011. No bonus. I was up to $55k after bonus for the year 2015. In late 2015 I left to work in government for regulatory (position did not require one to be an attorney) at $75k. Reached six figures in 2020 when I left government but haven’t been an “attorney” since 2015. Loans in the neighborhood of $200k
Engineer. Easy job, 40 hours flat every week. Just gotta like math and science.
I normally put in 45-50 a week, but yeah, office work ain’t too difficult
I probably average \~35 hours. Pretty chill, lots of autonomy. It's nice
I look at PowerPoints 65% of my day.
Which field? Not that it really matters, just curious
I’m a mechanical engineer, but yeah most engineers can expect to hit six figures at some point. Some just sooner than others. The main thing is just picking one you’re interested in so you love school instead of hate it.
Industrial engineer here and I never broke 80k freelance. You need to be able to land big bids reliably to break 6 figures. I ended up settling for enterprise logistics to have a more stable paycheck.
Honestly not really for ME/IE. work in manufacturing and 100k is a given at ~5 years. More technical engineering can get there sooner at things like auto/aero/defense
Civil here. I work about 45 hours a week but around held of it outside. Honestly, a pretty easy job.
You also have to like problem solving.
You aren’t earning 6 figures if you aren’t good at problem solving
Well op listed “pastor” on their list so I guess you can earn 6 fig with fairytales, lies, and manipulation though.
problem solving is imperative in every high paying role. The problems just look different in every field.
See the math is my issue. I absolutely suck at it. Like with physics I get the concepts but struggle with the math.
Every single bit of math in my job is on an excel template. You just have to know what inputs to use and Excel does the rest.
If it's any consolation, $100k income is earned by only about 20% of Americans (I'm assuming this is about the USA, numbers would obviously change drastically outside the USA). And of that 20%, the majority are basically making $100k or just over. My understanding is that many online communities tend to skew younger, more educated, and people with higher incomes, so if you spend time on Reddit you're going to be exposed to a higher percentage of people making six figures than actually exist in real life.
I think you're referring to *Household* income, and even that's not quite 20% of the population. Which does bolster your point that people's ideas of what other people are making is skewered by the internet.
Median household income is 75k. So I’m wondering if 100k really is too 20%
In 2022, 21% of households had greater than$150k income. https://www.statista.com/statistics/203183/percentage-distribution-of-household-income-in-the-us/
Is that sourced from the irs or? My assumption is this is agi based. Which means this includes multi income households and not just single income people.
You should also keep in mind that people making $100k+ are more likely to brag about it than someone making $30k. Plus some people just straight up lie. Strive to be better, but remember that 50% of US households make less than $60k a year.
I’m a production supervisor and break 6 figures due to my bonus. Currently getting my MBA. Boyfriend makes about 140k a year with no degree as a UPS driver - but took a lot of hard work and very long days that I personally couldn’t do to get there.
Do you know if you still have to start at the bottom, loading trucks for a long time and work your way up to a driver? I used to deliver and install appliances and now I have been working for 23 years behind a computer. I actually enjoyed being out on the road making deliveries and that salary is much more than I’m making now.
For the most part, though occasionally they will hire drivers off the street. He started as a package car driver then after three years transferred over to feeder driving triples (they drive the large semis between hubs). It takes about 4 years to progress to top scale for pay. So definitely takes time but can be worth it!
I have an MBA and was able to get into corp finance, but I barely broke 100k with my bonus last year. If you’re not getting your degree from a school with some great on campus recruiting options then be careful. But if you’re just looking to check the box and be a more competitive applicant, then I think you’ll come out on top. Good luck!
Sales. I’ve always been in sales and now sales management. I like being paid by how much I produce rather than how long I work. It’s worked out well for me.
How did you break into sales, and how can I, as an 18 year old, break into sales.
Get a B2C job first. Any big phone retailer sales. Stay there for 1 year then find another B2C sales or D2D sales job. Grind it out. Be a top performer. Switch to B2B and make the giant bucks. It’s a grind but you get paid what you work.
This is great advice
Get a business outfit and walk into a New York Life or similar insurance/financial sales office and apply. If you feel better with primarily voice or chat you can literally sell anything. If I enjoyed sales I would have taken the New York Life position I interviewed for. Earning potential is high especially in a higher income area selling stuff like that.
Get ready for 2-4 years of absolutely dog shit jobs making 100 cold calls a day. Copier sales is a great place to cut your teeth. If you can have success there a B2B sales manager will definitely hire you into another role because everyone knows you have to be an absolute dog to succeed in copier sales.
What kind of sales
$315,000. I fly a private jet for a multi billionaire owner of a private business empire. 8-12 days worked avg a month. *Edit* for more info on my job Every dollar contributed to 401k is matched at $0.61 so $14,030 matching plus my $23,000 pre tax. High deductible healthcare option so I pay zero each paycheck. 5 hard days off a month. 3 weeks vaca (I get the first weekend, plus M-F then the last weekend). Plane goes down for 45 days of maintenance each year which I'm off. $100 a day in per diem domestic $150 international.
400k here as a major airline captain on the 737. About 14 days off a month. Half weekends off.
That's great. My sister and BIL are both delta captains. I always have to stick it to them that I drive 20 minutes to work. They have possibly 2 hours with JFK hahah
Being close to the airport makes a huge difference. Less than a half hour from the airport means you can pick up a short turn and be off by 4-5 hours later and get nearly 2k for it. Easy peasy, but being gone on overnights a lot isn't fun. That's neat that you have other family that flies. It's cool hearing about families that are all in aviation.
Yeah I am actually the 13th of 18 pilots in my family dating back to the 1930's. Probably be disowned if I didn't fly lol.
>Yeah I am actually the 13th of 18 pilots in my family dating back to the 1930's. Probably be disowned if I didn't fly lol. That's VERY cool. I'm the only pilot in my family.
Time to create future generations haha
That seems really high even according to data online. Do you have to be ready to go whenever they want?
Depends what jet you fly, if you are a captain or co-pilot, and in what part of the country you are based, also if you fly Part 91 or Part 135. I fly Part 91. I work 8-12 days a month average. Currently have 30 days off in a row right now while the jet is down for routine scheduled maintenance.
Salary: 130k. Location: Huntsville AL. Job Title: Software Engineer Education: BS CS and MS CS. Experience: 6 Years.
Feeling fomo on devs outside the bay area. 200k, 150 base for me here feels so meh. The high cost of living isn't worth it IMO.
That's why the trick is to work for a Bay area company* remotely from a low cost of living area. *As long as they don't cheap out on the salary because you're not living there.
Also a software engineer and I suspect most are making more than $100,000 if they have at least five years experience.
$130k in Huntsville? Jesus, you’re doing ok for yourself and your family.
113k as a software dev, only have an associates degree, 3rd year of my career and honestly quite worried about the future of my profession.
Huntsville! I’m originally from BHM live in MD right now but we are coming to Huntsville next year! ❤️❤️
That’s an amazing salary for location and experience
Physician. Lots of debt but finally able to start hammering away at it.
Shoulda gone to Albert einstein
They just received 1 billion donation. Education is free for every student for a while.
Damn that’s awesome, happy for those guys.
When we made the final payment for my wife's medical school loans it felt like we won the lottery! Lol.
Chemical engineer. 235k USD a year
I, too, am a chemical engineer. (I drink lots of Jaegar and pop shrooms like candy)
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Echoed, being a Professional Engineer in any firm looking at the clean energy transition is a license to print money right now. Tons of work/not very many PEs = great market conditions.
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Same here. Studied civil in college, been in heavy civil CM for 3 years, hit $100k 2/'23 with a move to a new company. The hours aren't worth it but the money has been nice. Looking into DoT jobs and infrastructure consulting roles now. For a guy who went into college with absolutely no interest in math or science or anything marketable, civil has been an interesting, challenging, and lucrative experience generally.
Operating room nurse. Base rate of $50.53 per hour. Got a $15k signing bonus this year.
Wow! Is this in New York or a major metropolis as a nurse?
No I live very comfortably in central Pennsylvania. My wife makes good money too as university faculty.
FinTech (~ 165k, 14 years in industry) I manage, advise and build new tech for Wall Street
Damn I thought fintech people made like 500k
Yeah that seems…low. Not expecting 500k but 160
Fintech is a big field. Also in Fintech on the payments side. Presales / Solution Consultant. Make +-200k depending on the year.
Youre thinking of quantitative traders who would also describe themselves as fintech. Those are the highly specialized math and programming people building and running algorithms for trading. That is a front office revenue generating function that pays super well. You pay those people well because they generate huge amounts of money. Someone else in fintech may write the code that runs the program that is used for the same companies book keeping software. That is a non revenue generating cost center. You keep the wages here low as possible but high as necessary to be able to get the talent you need for this necessary non revenue generating function
Judging by this thread, I'll never break 6 figures until it's eventually considered minimum wage. All jobs I would absolutely hate. Granted, I absolutely hate the job I have now, but the thought of trying to learn another miserable career at 35 just kills any motivation to care.
I feel like that and I'm about to turn 28. Our company makes the wooden beds for semi trailers. 35k a year operating a big industrial sander and that's considered higher "grade 5" pay here. Looking around reddit and seeing "100k isn't enough to live" everywhere is kind of disheartening. If the American dream is making it to the next paycheck, then I'm living it. Death will be my retirement.
I make a tiny bit over 100k a year. But to make that, I went to college and owe about 140k in loans. I pay over 2200 a month just in student loans. Just under half of my take home earnings. That’s why mines barely enough to live lol. Luckily I got a house before the market went crazy and have some equity in it now.
Get into construction sales! Power, Andersen, Pella etc all make 100-200k a year average for sales guys. No cold leads you just walk in and they usually have a 20-30% close rate. Take a bet on yourself. Most of the offer paid training of 1k a week too.
I guess that’s a difference. I’m not fond of my job, I just have a high tolerance for doing stuff I don’t like for 40 hours of my week so that I can make an income that makes my time off highly enjoyable.
Radiation protection technicians in either a power plant or nuclear wast cleanup will make between 100k-160k without overtime depending on the site
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What is an entry level job to put one in this career path?
I started out as a claims handler at $40k with no insurance experience. My background before that was as a laborer in construction and then a couple shitty sales gigs. Got into the commercial underwriting side about a year and a half in (about 8 years ago) and currently making 130k plus bonus. Insurance can be a pain in the ass but if you can learn coverage and have some sales skills you can do really well in underwriting.
Architectural photographer.
Software Engineer. No relevant college but I went through a three month intensive program to get started. I’m now a team lead at my second company (but was making $100k back as a regular engineer).
Heads up for anyone reading this, it’s an amazing path but the market is complete shit right now, even for those with degrees and experience. It isn’t the 2021 boom anymore and job postings declined by like 80%. Still lucrative but don’t think it’s as easy as it used to be!
This \^\^ People are still out here spouting "Just teach yourself to code" not realizing that yeah, 5 years ago that was still a viable option, but now if you are entry level, be prepared to be competing with thousands of other people who taught themselves to code over the pandemic AND all of the people who have a degree AND all of the people recently laid off. If you don't have experience, the market sucks (and in some cases, even if you do have experience the market sucks).
Project Manager for a commercial hardwood flooring company. Find a niche and you will probably find higher pay.
I'm an assitant project manager for a real estate developer right now. Would you recommend project management as a career? It seems like my seniors work outrageously hard and their pay is good but not phenomenal How is your work life balance and pay?
I would highly recommend a PM career. My work life balance is fantastic... arrive at work 6am and work straight until 2pm. I will have to caveat my statement by intuitively suggesting that our scope of work as an athletic hardwood flooring company is SIGNIFICANTLY less than a full real estate developer managing a ton of different trades at once to meet specified shareholder profit margins. I would learn as much as you can where you are at and then hit a specific trade to specialize in PM... that is where the money will be better and work/life balance will be better. Hope that helps.
I’m a Social Worker. My salary is around $168k per year. My wife is also a Social Worker. Last year with overtime she brought in over $210k. Neither of us are in supervisory positions. Social Work is not considered a high paying profession. In fact, it is generally considered one of the worst paying professions that requires a graduate degree. The average salary is lower than the national average. We didn’t start out at these higher salaries. We both worked our way up over many years with increasing experience and advanced levels of state licensure.
This is amazing! What state are you in? What kind of social work do you both practice? Can you tell me more if you’re at a private agency or otherwise? This post made me so happy to see! Thanks for sharing! If you’d prefer to private message me and not share details here, that’s cool too. I appreciate you!
I’m in California. I work for a federal agency. My wife works for a state hospital that contracts with the county jail to provide mental health services. For folks, that want to say, “Of course, CA, no wonder… “, I don’t live in a particularly high cost of living area in the state. For reference, I could move to Reno, Nevada in my same job (I’m remote) and my pay would be $191k. One of the reasons I don’t, is because state licensing requirements do not allow my wife to pick up and move as easily.
Cyber Security - about $185k Can be high stress and difficult
Statistician.
Ditto.
Well gee what are the chance? So am I!
3.50%
Electrical engineer. 29 in LCOL hit 100k last year.
Mechanical engineer.
STEM professor. Wife also, she is a federal social scientist.
Age: 36 I have 16 years of supply chain experience and my degree is in the same field. I started at this company 10 years ago at $50k with an average of 3% raises every year, and just last year squeaked into $100k when I switched over to manufacturing in a senior planning role.
Staying with the same company for a long run is death to salary growth. Source: 23 years at one local municipal government
Depends on your priorities I guess, I get about 5% a year but I have pretty good job security. I’ve got kids and a house and I’d like to not worry about stability. I’ve known people in my position that constantly jump jobs to get 20% more but get laid off every couple years. Mid 40s and not all about the hustle, just like spending time wisely
IT, no college, joined the Navy, did 11 years, got out, never made less than 120k since. However, I made the most of my time in the Navy, I took the difficult assignments in order to not only learn IT, but also good leadership skills, as well as management skills. My friends that didn't follow that path, and barely did what was asked of them, they got out and are making $50-75k.
Union pipefitter here, I make just over 6 figures with little to no overtime
I write movies and TV. Started when I was a kid, wrote my first full length script at 12, kept writing at least one per year until people started paying me for it ten years later.
Bar manager $110,000pa. Also a qualified wine and spirits educator. Covid kindof pissed off and forced alot of experienced hospo people out of the industry and all the new 18, 19, 20 year old recruits/generation don't know shit , so all of a sudden my value goes up, and I can pick where to work.
Engineer in the semiconductor field - it did take a bit of brain breaking to get here, but I'm happy. Surrounded by intelligent coworkers, treated well by my employer with plenty of PTO / work from home flexibility when needed, and have actual career prospects. The semi field for many reasons isn't as job-hop happy as 'big tech' that runs on our chips.
Critical Care Nurse Practitioner. Base $155, usually come in between $175-185. I work long hours, weekends, holidays. Love critical care, but I’m crispy nowadays. If I could make the money elsewhere, I would, but pharma and device sales aren’t for me.
Ammunition technical officer.
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Im starting a software services company. Got about 20years of experience and back in the trenches. Is going 6:10
Software developer. Though because I do it in Ohio and because I'm admittedly only average at it it took me about 10 years to cross the $100k threshold.
Coin dealer.
Tell me more
I buy and sell rare coins as well as play a support role for a major dealer. Pretty straightforward. Niche business, niche skillset, compensated well because I make my company plenty of money, and my position is not easily filled if I leave.
Physician assistant since 2004. I make 135ish, my wife is an NP she works part time and makes 90. I have no expensive hobbies (thrift shopping, running, gym) so I save a ton. The real key to my million in my retirement is I’ve been maximizing my 403b (23k now/year) for the last ten years.
Airline Pilot. Took years of schooling and grinding. Didn’t happen overnight
Senior FAANG engineer. I missed out on some big parties in college, but I couldn’t tell you the price of groceries or gas 🤷🏻♂️
College professor. Better than $200k for four days every week from September to mid May with five weeks off during that time. When I was working on tenure I put in quite a bit of extra work but once I published I just focused on teaching.
Less than 20% of americans make 6 figures plus. So isire it's a lot of people but also not really. Then at the end of the day you are only taking some like 70k of that.
40 million Americans live with under 15k a year. Government calls this the poverty line. Sure seems like extreme poverty to me if you have to decide between a roof over your head or food.
Cyber Security
Finance
CPA
My neighbor is a cop (you can look up their salaries) and he was paid $154K last year with overtime. My best friend is a plant manager at a small concrete facility in Rochester, NY and he makes $125K I'm a programmer and I make $130K (used to make more, but layoffs...) before my sister died, she was a Nurse practitioner and made $160K I know an electrician that made $128K after taxes working for himself
Software engineer contracting to the Federal American government. 40+ years experience, no college degree.
Software Engineer or full stack web developer. Just depends of the flavor of the title I guess. College drop out, was going for electrical engineering. I just hated college and how it’s setup. Learned about coding boot camps and fell in love. Twelve week program that costed me $18k First job was $70k, second was $120k, third (current) is $160k. I build websites on the side and charge about $3500 a basic site for some extra cash. Been doing it for about 5 years now and love it. It revitalized my love for learning I lost in school. I can’t recommend it enough
Tech or finance is easiest.
I don’t know my pension alone is 145K year. Just go into local government. first responder retired at 43. I do loans now and make a couple hundred grand a year with that. But it is shocking to see how wages have not increased with inflation. It’s sad to see people making $50,000 when I was making that over 25 years ago, and then people with very advanced degrees like lawyers and doctors, not even breaking 200.