Do You Make A Six Figure Salary? Share Your Story.
Even though the $100,000+ salary club gets less exclusive each year with inflation, it is still considered by many to be a sign of success. According to reports, only about 5% of workers nationwide make six figures. Although it is by no means necessary to make that much in order to lead a fulfilling life and even a comfortable retirement, I think many people (including me) are still curious as to who makes six-figures.
As I approach my 30th birthday, many of my friends are reaching or surpassing this mark as they graduate with advanced degrees or move up the corporate ladder. Here are some examples of people I know who are earning more than $100,000 per year. Keep in mind I live on the West Coast, so salaries are higher overall. (Cost of living calculator) Many of these are expected, but some may surprise you.
Investment Banker - Education needed: Bachelor’s in almost any field, preferably business or engineering/math related. If you love competition and working 100 hours a week, you can easily make much more than $100k per year.
Lawyer - Education needed: J.D. Work hard, schmooze a bit, get a good clerkship, land a job at a respected firm and you’ll be a 6F’er. As an associate you’ll also be putting in 80+ hour weeks. However, if you want to work at a non-profit, your salary will be significantly less, maybe in the $40k range.
Physician - Education needed: M.D. plus 3-10 years of residency. Salary varies wildly for doctors too. Many pediatricians make less than $100k per year, while a cardiac surgeon (10 years of residency) can make $500k+ per year. Keep in mind during residency you’ll be earning $40k a year and also working 80 hours a week.
Small Business Owner - Education needed: None. These are mostly the parent of my friends, who have created successful small businesses worth millions, from restaurants to import/export to service/construction. The common thread between all these people is that it takes enormous commitment and dedication, often at the expense of family life. Be prepared to work seven days a week, all the while knowing that you could easily lose money each month.
Marketing / MBA Grads - Education: MBA. Yet another degree-specific job. Get your Bachelor’s, work a couple years, get into a top MBA program, pay lots of tuition, and basically everyone gets a $100k job on the way out. It sounds generic but it’s true.
Manager of Tech Monkeys - Education needed: B.S. This includes engineering, computer science, and IT folks. I make fun because this includes a lot of people I went to school with. Many graduated in 2000 during the tech boom, quickly getting jobs at NoBusinessModel.com and such. Then the market tanked, and they jumped from job to job. Crazily enough, most of them still got salary increases during each transition. Six years later, many of them are project managers at large corporations and making $100k+.
Civil Servants with Overtime - Education needed: varies. You might be surprised to know how much police officers and fire fighters earn in your area. If you account for the overtime, it puts many into six-figure territory. Add in their pension plans, and you’ve got a got a great compensation package. I often think about getting a state job just for the retirement benefits.
Salesperson - The people who make the biggest money are those that combine knowledge about an specific area with great interpersonal skills. Cars, pharmaceuticals, whatever. A top software or product salesperson working on commission can bring in 7-figures.
In the end, there is no real shortcut to making a great salary. In many fields (although certainly not all), as long you work hard, get along with others, and keep improving your skills, sooner or later you’ll rise up the ranks and reach the 6-figure level. Many of these careers require a lot of upfront investment in tuition, but I’ve never heard one person regret doing it. With all these young people working 80 hour weeks, it’s no wonder people are waiting longer and longer to get married or even move out of their parent’s houses.
Do you make six figures, perhaps in a unique job? Share your story anonymously in the comments.
Update: See the Six Figure Salary Survey Results.
February 12th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Engineer - Education Needed: B.S. in Engineering. Degree specific , but B.S. will do for the most of engineering jobs.
I am a mechanical engineer and will probably break “that” 100k mark in a year or two. However, as Jonothan mentioned, an avg. salary of 100k became more and more meaningless especially if you live in areas where cost of living is expensive.
An article i recently read stated that a person living in New York, and making 200k is equal to another person living in Montena, making 85,000.
Where i live, median housing price is about 500k, and making 100k won’t even let me thinking about getting one of those.
February 12th, 2007 at 4:26 am
I think the claim of attorneys working 80+ hour weeks, as if that is normal, is somewhat inflated. While I’m sure that there are some attorneys that work that much, those people would be billing superstars at their firm. 80 hours per week * 50 weeks worked a year = 4,000 hours. 4,000 hours/year * 80% billing efficiency (which is low) works out to 3,200 hours billed per year. Given that many firms have bonus structures which do not pay additional $$ past 2,400 billed hours, I doubt that many attorneys are working 80 weeks consistently. While they may have a few 80 hour weeks leading up to a trial…many would also take 2-3 weeks off after the trial. Also, starting salaries at many big NYC firms have recently jumped to $160,000.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am
If all goes according to plan this will be my first six figure year (before taxes).
I’m 25. I work for the federal government for 40 hours a week with great pay and benefits (at least 20 days off + 14 federal holidays per year and any unused vacation rolls over into the next year). Then I go home and spend 15-20 hours a week reselling wholesaled items on Ebay. I enjoy the challenge of both jobs and the work/life balance is great. Your site has definitely helped increase my income/savings a bit too.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:43 am
I think $100k+ isn’t a good indicator of anything at all. As you mentioned about the West Coast. It is relative to cost of living as you stated.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:48 am
I made over $100 k this year. finally. Sales in the software industry. Work over the phone and email. I work around 40 hours a week. I believe there needs to be a balance and life is too short to work all the time. Sales is the career to be in. Cincinnati, OH
February 12th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I am a IT Consultant and I make $100K+
February 12th, 2007 at 7:50 am
This is my third year owning a landscaping company in southern New Jersey (salaries are MUCH lower than north jersey/new york). I should bring in about $75-100k this year and over $100k next year. The work involved in attaining those numbers for myself- I work 4 days a week/10 hours a day, mid march through mid november. I have off the entire winter so I teach, ebay, get things ready for the spring, buy real estate, travel, relax.
I have an MBA and should probably be putting it to use, but I cant justify giving up this kind of money/flexibility to go be a slave for another company…
February 12th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I’m close to the 100k+ as a software programmer and under 30. I can’t even afford a home with the salary. Well at the 25% of the take home pay I can’t. I’m not willing to have the mortgage be over 50% of my pay.
So it is definitely relative to where you live.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I worked as a creative director in a web design firm for a decade- at the end I was making $120k a year. Honestly I had no idea what to do with all the money I was making, so I saved it. I have an art school BFA, but I could have been self trained and it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference.
I don’t see why someone making $100k a year can’t buy a $500k house. If you’re young and frugal, affording a $3000 monthly payment when you’re making $8000 a month is easy. The problem is that in San Francisco houses start at 1 million, but you can always get a loft for 600-700k…
February 12th, 2007 at 8:36 am
I know a lot of people with a lot of post-graduate training, and I’m fairly sure that it doesn’t pay for some of those options unless your parents are bankrolling you through it. If you want to be a doctor in a big city, you have to do a LOT of extra/specialized training, and if you are carrying student loans (college? med school?!) through the low paying years of internship, residency, and fellowship you will be 50 by the time you are out of debt, I swear, no matter what your starting salary is when the system finally frees you from indentured servitude, I mean training. And dentists may have to buy their own equipment to get up and running.You need to think long and hard about the suffering you may have to go through for some of these 6-figure salaries; as you outlined, there are plenty of other options where you don’t need as much/as expensive training. And ironically many of those jobs actually prevent you from being able to live in a less expensive area. Another note on west-coast living; my friends make a combined 160K and they say they have never been poorer (and they went through grad school!), because of full time child care costs and housing. They share one car and it is an Accord. Scary!
February 12th, 2007 at 8:59 am
I am an E-learning consultant and make 6 figures (but on 1099). Education + experience needed. Masters with 6 years exp.
Wife also makes 6 figures because of her MBA + experience. (fulltime), so hers is actually a genuine 6 figure salary, mine is just inflated.
I am 31 and wife is 30. We just started making this money.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:06 am
100k is a lot regardless of location. I disagree with the notation that 200k in NYC is the same as 85k in montana. It really depends on how you live.
I know several Wharton students (UPenn MBA) getting their offers in the finance industry and consulting (BCG, Bain, Mckinsey, etc). Finance runs 250k+ and consulting runs 150k+. Note however, these are the best MBA students in the country so the numbers are higher than a second tier MBA graduate.
Also one thing to note is that a large majority of people in finance/consulting earn a large percentage of their salary from year end bonuses, which are taxed more heavily.
I hope to go towards the finance/consulting industry for the money. As an engineer, I am making 60k (23 years old) with a (CRAPPY) raise of 5% a year.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I might hit $100k in total salary plus bonus by the end of 2007, almost definitely by 2008. But I’m almost 40 years old, and live in NYC, so it’s not as exciting a milestone as it might otherwise be! Nevertheless, it will be fun to see that extra digit.
February 12th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I always ask this question, how much money is considered a good salary? Givien today’s housing market, doesn’t seem like making $100,000 is a lot of money? Do you agree?
February 12th, 2007 at 11:10 am
I’m a professional blogger making about 20K a month on subscriptions, advertising and affiliate sales. Of course I spend more than 40 hours working, but since this is something I love doing anyway - I don’t consider work at all.
Expenses are pretty minimal - hosting, hardware necessary software, professional subscriptions, magazines, journals, etc.
Another source of potential income - a book deal and a series of e-books will probably push the income into 30K a month territory.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:14 am
E-Learning Consultant making 6 figures (but on 1099, so its a fake 6 figure salary really).
I disagree with people who say 6 figure salaries are nothing these days. You gotta be kidding me right?
I have attended interview in this VERY large city that I live in and been offered a $45,000 salary.
Everything will fall into perspective when
1) Economy starts tanking
2) Recession hits
Then tell me if your 6 figure salary is nothing. I know people who were making $140K and were dying for a $50K job in mid 2001.
If you are making 6 figures, work on trying to make more or maintaining it. Because going downhill from there is quite easy.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am
2007 should be my first year earning over 100k. Here’s the breakdown:
80k/yr - work full time doing IT work for a local government agency
15k/yr - owner of small part time IT business that currently earns about 15k/year (sole proprietor)
10k+/yr - $90/hr - many small side IT jobs for home users and small businesses
All in all, I work about 50 to 60 hours/week, but the local government job really helps in that I received up to 42 days/year off for vacation/holiday/sick days. That allows me to work the extra hours (like today, it’s a holiday, but I’m working my on side jobs).
Wife doesn’t work, so I’m the sole bread winner. Funny thing, she’s the one with the degree, whereas I have less than a year of college. All I have is a simple MCSE+Security certification (which my job paid for).
And if that’s not enough, I’m starting another different type of business that will hopefully be more profitable.
February 12th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Software Developer in Silicon Valley, had by 1st 100K year when I was 30 (2005 tax year). I had friends that made 100K straight out of MBA school, but they also lost their jobs due to down-sizing during the tech recession. I opted to go to a startup in an engineering job (BS was Comp Sci) which paid less, but had the potential to IPO. IPO didn’t happen, but benefits and pay got better when we got aquired. I bought a 2 bedroom townhouse for around $520K back in 2002 which has appreciated to $640K last I checked. I’ve maxed out my 401(k) and Roth IRA every year since I started (2000).
To me, the House and Retirement accounts have a lot more to do with my wealth, than how much I pulled down and paid out…
February 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
At 100K one will always be a renter in Silicon Valley
February 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
As a Corporate pilot I reached the 100K mark after 13 years. Airline Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers average around 180K. Flying is our hobby and we managed to find a way to be paid doing it! One important note, Its not what you make, it is how you spend it or invest it.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
I’m a 3rd year pediatrics resident looking for jobs in general pediatrics in the New York/Long Island area. I will corroborate that many pediatricians do indeed make less than $100K and significantly less than our surgical counterparts with the same level of training. It’s not a bad salary by any means but it’s not luxurious with large med school/undergrad loans still hanging over your head.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Jay makes a good point about the housing market. To be able to comfortably afford a $300,000 condo (about the bare minimum needed to get into the housing market where I live), I would need to make over $100,000 a year. What is comfortable is relative to each person, of course, and I need a large cushion to feel comfortable. That being said, I still think $100,000 is a lot of money, and a salary like that would allow me to easily purchase everything I wanted (except real estate) while saving a very comfortable amount each month. Whether $100,000 is a lot or not really depends on your upbringing and your lifestyle, I think. Growing up, $100,000 a year was enough to comfortably support five people and live in a house, where I lived then, and my wants are fairly minimal. What constitutes a good salary also depends on what you’re doing to get that salary. For me, making $100,000 a year is a crappy salary if I have to work 100 hours a week to get it. I’d much rather make less and be able to enjoy time off.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Software Engr (MSCS from non-renowned university) at small company in Portland, OR making right at 100k. Benefits could be much better, but the work/life balance is just about perfect. Bought our home 5 years ago, so I can’t complain about the housing market.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
In 1998, I left a job with the federal government to make $100K with a largish IT firm wishing to do higher-end consulting work with the feds. The firm hoped to have me leverage my contacts and reputation helping to found a new consulting group within the firm.
I found the corporate culture of the firm did not agree with me (esp after my boss was forced out), and I left to start my own consulting business. I doubt I would have left the federal job directly into self-employment, so it was a valuable stepping stone.
The salary was nice, but ultimately, the real benefit came from the realization that (1) diversification of the source of one’s “salary” or income is every bit as important in employment as it is in investing and (2) that the source of one’s value to an organization (skills, contacts, whatever), can provide value to another organization (or to one’s own organization). As such, one should not be worried at leaving a large organization, whether it is the federal government or a large firm. The skills and knowledge you take can be deployed in a thousand different ways. The key is to remember that EVERYBODY works for somebody (customers, clients, shareholders, depositors, grantors, whatever), and that you should always strive to be useful.
February 12th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
I cleared $100K last year for the first time in my life. I’m an attorney at a large law firm, which you noted in your post was one of the clear higher-earners. I don’t really think $100K is a lot in light of the huge expense to get a professional degree. By the time my wife finished medical school, we’ll have close to $300K in student loan debt. It’s an outrageous amount of money. Sure, it was our personal choice to pursue these professions, but I suppose it’s “good debt.” In any event, $100K does not go very far when you have to pay most of your paycheck in debt service payments.
February 12th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Lawyer - –As an associate you?ll also be putting in 80+ hour weeks–
Not quite, if you specialize (IP, Energy, etc) you can luck out an work at a small firm, make $100K+, and work about 55-60hrs a week (on average). Of course, the starting salary in DC is now close to $160K, but I’d much rather take the 25% pay cut and not work the 80+ hours a week one needs at bigger firms.
February 12th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I would add Veterinarian to the six-figure list. Although you have to put up with 4 years of grad school, the hours are not that difficult and the pay at most places (here on the West Coast) will hover around the $90,000 to $100,000 mark. Being a first-year associate at a small law firm, I’m making six figures but I’m also working more hours compared to my friend’s wife, the vet. Plus, she doesn’t have to deal with the fact that people assume you need to have nice things (car, clothes, house, toys) when you’re a lawyer. Fortunately, I’ve been able to avoid that kind of social pressure, but my other friends in the legal business have not been so lucky.
February 12th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
2006 has been the first year I have made a little more than 100k in work compensation. I am 23 working as an engineer in the Metro Detroit area. I did it with a lot of hard work through overtime and about 4 months of traveling overall. My real achievement is that my net worth has increased more than $100000 since 2005. Residual income and investment returns have given me almost as much as I spent this year. Your blog has helped me tremendously in being where I am today.
Thank you Jonathan.
February 12th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I thought of adding my 2 cents here. When it comes to buying a house, you do need a lot of money to buy one in the west coast. The people skeptical about buying a house, they have to think more about how much of the $100K they’re keeping.
February 12th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
if your single, it is resonable to say that living off of a 100k salary is considered a “good salary” regardless of location. 100k taxed at 35 percent leaves 65k You could easily save 30k a year if you are single. I am being extremely conservative with my numbers. 2-3 years with a conservative 6% return, you could easily pay a downpayment on a 600k+ house.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
I’m a PhD student so I’m not anywhere near the 100K, mark but I find it interesting that the vast majority of the comments seem to be from men.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Although still an important milestone in one’s career, $100K a year does not carry near the weight it did years ago.
Depending on the lifestyle you want to lead (housing, car, clothes, vacations, etc.), $100K will not go very far. If you live a high index area, $100K will hardly get you to the starting line.
I think $250K is the new benchmark where you can begin defining financial success.
Disclaimer: For all the young folks out there, please do not solely equate money with success, I know a number of miserable private equity analysts.
February 12th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
B-school isn’t a bad route. Two years of school, and yea, on exit, not hard to hit the 6 figures. And I’m in the Midwest, where $100k actually means something. Tuition, even if I wasn’t on a full fellowship, isn’t bad at all for in-state residents — About $20k total.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
It may surprise some people, but the majority of big box (think Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, Target) store managers make $100K+.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Another misconception of people. I am a FIRM believer that if you cant afford the university fees, dont go to it. Go to a CHEAP state university. There are universites in the midwest that only charge $5K a year in tuition. Thats $20K for a 4 year education. And its these same people who end up making $100K 6 years later. Trust me, i have I have seen it happen over and over again.
If you do not get into the top 10 university in the country, it doesnt matter where you go. An employer is not going to know the difference between Southern Michigan or Nortern Texas or Trinity University or Daniel Boone university. People love to refute this but go ahead.
Being an international student 12 years ago, i chose the most cheapo school i could find. Met my wife there too. Today, we both earn 6 figure salaries and so do many of our friends.
Student loans? What student loans.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
I make $157K working 84 hours a week in a combat zone as a security consultant. 27 y.o., MBA, 6 years experience.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Emergency physicians on the west coast make somewhere between 150-250K (I’m just out of residency and will make around $180K). It sounds like a lot, but the average medical student debt is $135 K, not counting college loans. Physicians also have to consider overhead costs, and malpractice insurance, which can run between 10-50K per year, depending upon specialty and state of practice.
It’s a long haul- undergrad, med school, residency, fellowship- and it’s not nearly as glamorous or fun as “ER” or “Grey’s Anatomy”. It’s a great job, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to someone who just “wants to make a lot of money”.
February 12th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
To attend a top MBA school you need more than a couple of years of experience these days. Most students are older.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
ER physician, $190k starting, not including year end productivity bonus; with seniority / experience will go up to $240k. Wife also a physician at $150k, and after subspecializing will bump up to $190k.
I currently work 32hrs/wk, 4 wks paid vacation, 2 wks “personal time” off, 1 wk “continuing education” time off. Wife works 9-5 & every other Saturday, 4 wks paid vacation, 1wk personal time off, 1 wk continuing education.
Upside: demand for our specialties are increasing & shortages in our specialties will last a good 10 yrs; Excellent job security; excellent lifestyle; no kids yet, both under 30yrs old, lots of free time to work on our real estate skills and bank for retirement.
Downside: ~260k in student loans, but only at ~2% interest rate; income was $50k during residency; not starting to make any money until almost 30yrs old.
I’d probably do the same thing if I could do it all over again.
February 12th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
I have a friend who did ibanking making ~300k/yr, but at the cost of working 80-100hrs/wk.
But I agree with the previous user who said that usually MBAs from the top schools are the ones who make really good money; I have several friends from 2nd & 3rd tier MBAs working middle management/exec positions for around 60-80k.
I also heard down the grapevine that retail managers (Target, Lowes) make 100+ but how much job security do they have? Is there a high turnover rate for these managers? And what percentage of people in these positions make 100+?
February 12th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
I am 28 years old and I make $120k a year.
I am an attorney, I am just beginning my 5th year.
I only work 40-45 hours a week and no weekends.
Only litigators work 80 hour weeks and while there is good money in litigation, there are less stressful more profitable jobs being a transactional attorney. No appearances in court, no getting yelled at by a judge, just clients and contracts.
I do not own a house (yet) since I live in LA and I do have $50k in student loans at 3.75%, so that should be taken into consideration.
And I agree that $100k is not a lot nowadays, especially if you live in Southern California.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
No, not anywhere close, and probably won’t get there for another 10 years if I continue working at this large environmental engineering firm. I also wonder if female is having a more difficult time to reach that mark. My male coworker and I started out making the same, yet last year he made $7,000 more, and this year probably $2,000 more than me after I expressed my unsatisfaction to the management. I have a part-time tutoring job for 1 hr/wk that brings me a little extra each month, and my finance is stable with a quality life (my needs are perhaps lower than most people’s), but I believe I can do better.
Since I am not in one of the 100k professions, I know I have to work harder, so I will. I decided to take some exams to further my knowledge in my profession, and if that is not making my managers to re-think how much values I add to the company and reward me accordingly, I can easily go and find someone who will.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Here is one way to do it that I haven’t seen mentioned. Get an engineering degree (B.S.), work for a defense contractor, work on site. This doesn’t necessarily mean a dangerous place.
Pros - Money, most expenses would be included.
Cons - Not going to have much free time while you are there.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Unfortunately I don’t make 100K+ a year, but I work along side probably 30 or more people who do - Pharmacists. I’m from the Midwest and 100K is starting pay for a Pharmacist just out of school. I’m a Pharmacy tech (the person who actually does the work haha) and I make less than half of that and I get paid “well” in respect to other people in my career.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
My wife (32) and I (33) both work as research scientists in biotech/pharma. We each are currently making a little over a 100K + bonus for the last several years.
Education: PhD in science (5-6 years). Good news is that you get a stipend going to grad school in science, so there are no additional loans after undergrad. Bad news is that you work like crazy and have very little life in grad school.
Now: We each work ~45-50 hours/ week for good companies w/ good benefits. Quality of life depends on the environment of the company.
February 12th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
First of all, thanks to everyone who commented! I definitely read every one with great interest, as I’m sure many others will.
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Making $100k in the Bay Area may not seem like enough to live well, but I’ve seen many people do okay even with no parental support. Live frugally, save for a few years, and you can afford a $300-400k condo in the East Bay or other places. Yeah, it’s a commute and it’s small, but my friends who bought years ago now have $100k in equity. The property ladder starts small there.
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Regarding hours and lawyers, maybe some people are exaggerating their hours to me. Maybe I should go to law school like my in-laws want me to…
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“Also one thing to note is that a large majority of people in finance/consulting earn a large percentage of their salary from year end bonuses, which are taxed more heavily.”
Salary, bonuses, it’s all grouped as income and taxed together at the same rate. Just my small nitpick
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Loans. Yes, some of my friends got parental support, some are sporting $200,000 in loans. But not _one_ person regrets getting those loans. I haven’t even touched upon the motivation and desire needed to actually make it into and graduate from those professional programs. Potential salary is part of it, but love for the work is also there. A pediatrician chooses to be a pediatrician and not any other type of doc knowing full well the impact on his/her future salary. Give your pediatrician a hug!
February 12th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
29, So California, Art School BFA dropout. ‘03 was my first > 100k year. My wife has a BA and is working on her masters, however she hopes to always stay home and be a mom. I left school and started working freelance in advertising at age 20. 80+ hour weeks, juggling multiple jobs, many free ones, and others with rubber checks that never cleared. Since 2004 I have worked under my own S-corp and rely on a dozen major clients for income. My wife is setup as a PT employee (18k / yr) to maintain two 401(k) accounts, both of which have been maxed out for the previous two years. We have a small house purchased in ‘04 for a little over 550k. We’re paying 2200 to 3600 month on the mortgage, interest is about 1700. Present debt, combined student loans 80k plus a 400k mortgage. The current strategy is allocate all funds to mortgage paydown and maximum retirement savings, we have approx 4 months of cash on hand to cover current cost of living. At present I average about 160 work hours a month, some weeks at 80 hours, others are only 20. My biggest spending weakness is meals, we eat out 1-2 meals a day, approx 1,200 a month.
February 12th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Regarding tax rate of salary vs bonus. In my situation, as my own S-Corp, I can be paid (pay myself) a dividend which is subject to the same tax rate as income, however social security is not withheld on dividends. The typical scenario is a base salary of 60k/ yr plus a dividend of 34k. Social security is withheld for the first 94k / year of income. This scenario translates to a savings of 4200, which could be directed to a retirement vehicle with a better return than SS. However, this only applies if you are self employed.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
anonsocal - I’m doing the exact same thing, on a smaller scale. As your “salary” goes over the Social Security ceiling, the benefit drops significantly though.
I wrote a bit about it here - Forming An S-Corporation To Reduce Self-Employment Taxes
February 12th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Several friends and I will go into ibanking next year after graduation. Base salary at big ibanks are $60k, last year’s top tier bonus was $80k. So if you are ranked near or at the top of your analyst class, you can make $120k-$140k straight out of college.
Upside: $$$, experience, learning how to deal with very demanding clients/superiors in very stressful situations, feeling grateful for a 70-hour week, becoming a Jedi master of Excel.
Downside: insane number of hours at the office (80-120), lack of any control over “personal time,” little to no vacation, tied to the blackberry 24/7, broken relationships.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
hmm, are there any small biz owners out there? would love to hear some success stories! i just finished my 1st year, only 15k so far. but i am building the business up and eventually will hit that 100k in a few years
i used to envy people who have high paying jobs. then i realized how much they work… a friend of mine makes 300k per year. at first, i thought wow that’s a lot. that’s so cool to have all those money. but then she also works 80 hours per week.. which comes down to $72 per hour. hmmm. doesn’t seem that fun if you work 80 hours per week and don’t have time to enjoy your 300k except buying expensive furniture & drinks? (although it’s true once she makes to senior partner she can bank at least a million a year. now that’s a lot!)
as a small business owner, i do work a lot. but because i choose to. learning and working to expand my business has become my hobby. my hourly is also actually higher than others when it boils down to total money made divided by how much i worked last year. so i end up working less than my friends who make 100k.
i am working to have a solid foundation for the business now and slowly hiring more people to help out. i want to make it solid enough to eventually have less working time and more supervision time
a few years down the line i would like to raise kids and be able to control the time i can be with my children.
anyway… the grass also seems greener on the other side!
February 12th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
28 y.o., 100k+ as an IT consultant, but in my local currency. as a benchmark, the entry level graduates (science & engineering) here get around 25 - 30k on average. you can get up to 40k if you applied to MNCs.
B. Sc.’s from a local private university (costs about 47k in local currency for the entire 4 years), joined a small company as a programmer at 30k p.a. at graduation, switched to another at 45k p.a. after a year and been there since.
i agree with jonathan that there is no short cuts around this. i wouldn’t have reached here by hard work alone, nor would i have if i had depended on luck alone. hard work, savvy and luck all plays a role in it.
February 13th, 2007 at 12:51 am
Software developer
$86k base salary
$2k bonus
$30k stock options
Education: MS (little difference from BS degree pay scale)
Experience: 3 years
February 13th, 2007 at 2:02 am
I make $25-40K a month doing import/export. No College Degree. 27yo.
Found a local contract manufacturing company, asked them what products they were interested in buying. Found a supplier oversees. Didn’t have the money to place the initial orders so I used back-to-back letters of credit to get my start. Have since expanded my business using same “sales approach” and now no customer represents more than 15% of sales and the products are delivered directly using the same financing methods. I never touch the product, and essentially just make the spread on the letters of credit.
February 13th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Well, judging from the volume of responses, there’s definitely something to that 100k mark.
I enjoyed especially those commenters that are pulling in side income through creative efforts (and sweat). Very cool idea Jonathan!
February 13th, 2007 at 5:07 am
The most important phrase in this post is “it is…considered by many to be a sign of success.” Based upon the number of comments to this post, people just plain enjoy talking about how far below or above Six Figures their annual income is. I support enjoyment, but regarding Six Figures…
1) it’s just a number that happens to be very near its Five Figure cousin $99,999, a purely psychological milestone like the DJIA at 10000, or akin to a basic fact of nature like the earth spinning 365+ times for each revolution around the sun
2) more important than any *sign* of success is success *itself*, which will always be a subjective matter, won’t it? people can feel successful as long as they socialize with people who mostly have lower salaries/net worths than their own.
3) not only is 100,000$ a relative signpost (well discussed in the post and the subsequent comments), it’s also an arbitrary one! (Let’s talk about 104,500$ salaries next year this time!)
4) since we like to enjoy our discussions, anyone care to propose what is the signpost net worth above which most people will feel wealthy / rich?
February 13th, 2007 at 5:16 am
MIT engineering graduate; earned income is $000,000.
February 13th, 2007 at 7:33 am
37 been making 100K+ for a couple of years now. Self employed project manager specializing in Information systems. Oil & Gas industry. My goal is to attempt to live on half of my salary for the future times where employment may be difficult to find or at least at a lower salary. I’m not at the half salary living yet, but hopefully will by late this year.
And running my employment as an s-corp helps as well.
My advice to anyone who wants to make a lot of money in consulting; its to meet as many people like yourself in the same business. Help them find jobs, and the same will be returned to you. Waiting at your cube for the 100K job to come around or applying on job websites won’t cut it. Networking is 100% the best way to move up in salary.
February 13th, 2007 at 7:51 am
I guess if you’re young and single, all this 80-100 hour a week stuff is fine… but for us married folks ( young and married, if you must know ), it just doesn’t cut it. I spent last year working 80-85 hours a week, and barely ever saw my wife and son. Not worth it. More family time wins over more money, every time. Now I’m down to 55-60, and 1000x happier.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Also an independent IT consultant. I cleared $97k last year and expect to be around $110k in 2007. I’m 26, work from home and rarely work more than 40 hours/week. No, $100k is not a huge amount of money to live on but if you live reasonably, it is comfortable, especially if you are single. Honestly, I’d rather have more time than more money. Working anything more than 40 hours is not worth it to me…at least in the corporate world. If I were a doctor, that would probably change my perspective.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:13 am
“but on 1099, so its a fake 6 figure salary really”
How is a 1099 a fake salary?
February 13th, 2007 at 9:34 am
I am also a small business person and I agree that working long hours is the norm.
I am 25.
My first year I did 30K, second 42K and this year I’m expecting 60K+.
In the next 2 or three years I’m hoping to hit the 100K mark, but Jonathan you are correct it is no longer the magic number. I’m in the north east and housing is ridiculous.
The new 100K is easily 175K.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
btw jonathan, great topic!
February 13th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I make 70+k as a software engineer in the midwest, I’m in my upper 20s, just got married and bought a house last year. My friends in California/NYC still can’t afford a home and live poorly…
February 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am
there’s alot to the mental barrier of $100k+/yr. many people get caught up in the lifestyle attribution to making 6 figures. i know i do. i make a little over $100k/yr after taxes. my wife and i live on 5% of that, and do not have any debt. if you have a car payment, a large loan to payoff, mortgage (especially in high housing cost areas), that $100k gets pretty small.
you may be able to afford $3000/mo mortgage considering you make $8000/mo; however, take taxes of all kinds, other debt into consideration and that isn’t a great deal left over. bottom line, housing costs and taxes are a big factor in how far $100k/yr will go.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:11 am
My wife made >100k right out of grad school (MS in CS) in Silicon Valley without any school debts. I can’t complain! There are tremendous opportunities right now for motivated computer geeks.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Personally, I think the new “100k” mark “successful” salary is more like $200k in this day & age.
And my personal definition of being financially wealthy is having $10 million+ in assets (versus the $1 million benchmark of the early 80s, ie “millionaire”)
Question to those who are doing consulting type work, esp the self employed ones: Is the stream of clients/customers pretty stable from year to year, or will there be years where you make 100k+ and others when the economy is down where you make way below the 100k mark? How is the job security for consulting work?
For Ibankers: how long do people usually stay in Ibanking working those insane hours to make the big $$$? Do most burn out around 5 yrs and find something else to do? (eg marketing or something more relaxing?)
February 13th, 2007 at 11:27 am
[...] This post from My Money Blog reminded me of another post from Startup Spark (click the image below). Scroll to the “Small Business” section on My Money Blog, and compare that to the 10 points in the post I link to on Startup Spark. [...]
February 13th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I am a small-business owner as well, I have a construction company. I started it 3 years ago, currently have around 42 employees. I’m 24 years old. My first year in business my personal earned income was $85k, second year $650k, and my third year (2006) it was $1.1m. It’s been a crazy ride and I am planning to level off the growth at this point because the company is still a size that I can personally handle. I work about 60 hours a week so as not to run myself or my marriage into the ground.
I think people often overlook being a small business owner as a tool for creating wealth. There are so many (legitimate) ways to bury your expenses in the business (cars, home office, life/health/umbrella insurance, memberships, etc), as well as the previously mentioned tax savings. I know that I have been extremely blessed with the early success of my business and that not everyone is as lucky, but I still encourage anyone to consider starting a business.
February 13th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I’m really amazed how many programmers seem to read your page — you’re like a magnet! Yeah, me too - but I’m only in the high 80s and I live in an expensive area. I’ve been at my current job for 9 years and out of school for 13. I’m pretty sure if I ventured off there is more money out there now. People in my area (with experience) make a little over $100K to start for most positions. Still, thinking about living in a lower cost area sometimes sounds so appealing. Even making a little less, the lifestyle could be so much nicer …
February 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I earn $100K+ as a free lancer - writing and consulting. Live in a very low cost-of-living area in the south in a state with no income tax. The low living costs here means that I have the funds to travel often to NY. DC, Chicago or ATL for fun/shopping/culture so I don’t feel deprived. Have no debt - not even student loans as I went to a cheap state school (which did not hinder my earning potential). Have been able to save well for retirement as well as give generously to charity.
February 13th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
1099 is fake as opposed to someone making $100K as a fulltime or on W-2 coz on 1099, you have the pay medicare, Social security at the full rate (around 15%), so in a nutshell, 100K on 1099 is like $85K fulltime.
But off course as Jon mentioned before, there are ways around this if you are an S corp.
February 13th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Andrew, out of curiosity, how did you start up your company? How did you come up with the capital? Did you do small projects on your own and then build it up? Or did you have connections or inherit the business from family?
February 13th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I am a wedding planner in California and am 27, and own my company. My husband is a jeweler with his own store and is 29. I roughly make $70K a year and he makes $120K a year. We work our tails off and have not had a day off in two years. While I enjoy working in my PJs quite a bit, the $100K mark is not a motivator.
We’re both looking to work smarter, not harder.
We live off my income, and have been home owners for the past 2 years. We purposely don’t live the high life, but I must admit, it’s hard not to keep up with the Joneses.
We have zero debt–no student loans, car loans, etc…just our mortgage. California has a lot of smoke and mirrors. Most of my colleagues and friends drive sports cars and live it up, but are in massive debt. To each his own, I suppose….
February 13th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Mike, I started my company from the ground up, however I did have several advantages that wouldn’t be available to everyone: 1) I was able to take a sizeable loan from a family member to fund the business. $500k, at an attractive interest rate. I have paid back approximately half of that at this point. 2) I had an inside track on a company in the industry that I wanted to be in that was going out of business. I was able to purchase many of its assets at a discount and hire many of its well-trained employees. Probably the most important thing I acquired from this company was its phone numbers - I’ve had 20 years worth of their previous customers calling me from day one.
However, the branding and culture of my company has been built from the ground up over the past three years, and we have a very specific and profitable niche. We did start small, with small projects, but thanks in large part to a robust local construction market we have expanded quickly and are now involved in some of the larger “legacy” projects in the area. It’s interesting to note that we have been far, far more profitable on smaller projects than larger ones, although it’s cool to see the high-profile projects recognized and know that we were involved.
February 13th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Mike:
Depends on what your skillset is, but my experience over the last four years has been that there’s lots of work out there. I frequently turn down new business because I like to have time for other interests and I want to keep my girlfriend happy.
Sri:
That is a pretty simplistic calculation. As you noted, as long as you are incorporated, additional taxes are defrayed and the added write-offs available with self-employment make a huge difference. My tax burden is significantly lower now than when I earned a “real” salary and the independence is priceless.
February 13th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Andrew, congratulations on your success & good fortune at such a young age. I guess it would be extremely hard for someone to buy/start a company if they didn’t have the connections & client list that you had. What state do you do construction in if you don’t mind me asking?
February 13th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I’m 22 and expect to make $85+ this year including bonus as a management consultant. $100 will come next year. At the high end of the consulting and banking fields, salary is $60-65 first year, with a bonus of $20-25 in consulting and upwards of $100k in banking. Consulting hours can run 50-75, while my banker friends will put in 80-100+. The next step up the ladder is either bschool (first tier only; as people have pointed out the salaries only jump post MBA if you stay within Harvard, Stanford, Tuck, Wharton or a handful of others). Post MBA salary looks more like $150 and $50 bonus right out. And if you get really lucky, you can get it paid for by the firm. $200k with no debt looks good. I don’t know what Wall Street pays for fresh MBAs. $100k is a nice milestone but I agree that $250k is a better sign of real success these days.
February 13th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
You forgot DBA’s make well into the six figures. With an Oracle Certification as a DBA, and about 3-5 years of experience, you can easily clear six figures or more in hot tech job markets. (DC, CA, etc.)
I’ve been eyeing DBA work, but it’s a bit scary to be on call all the time for production data. I’m not sure I want to be back on a pager again. It really killed me the last time I did it, but the extra pay was really nice. At six figures, I’m definitely thinking about again.
February 13th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
People who say they work 80 hours must be bluffing. Even if it does happen, maybe 1 week of a month. I think it makes some people feel important to say that they put in 80 hours this week!!
80 hours is 16 hours a day in 5 business days.
So lets see, you go to work at 7am, leave at 1 am. (with no lunch break)
Ok some of u may say how about weekends….ok fine….but that means ur working all 31 days in a month. Not humanely possible. Even dogs take a break after a brisk walk
February 13th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Wow. I work 7:30am-8pm at Samsung Semiconductors in Korea, and got $45K for 1st yr out of college (top engineering school in the US, but I took a management job here). I can’t imagine ever earning 100K for a 40hrs/wk job. Are these guys the exception?
February 13th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
I got a PhD in math/science at 27 and have been working for a major pharmaceutical company for 2 years. My job is to design and analyze clinical trials. I started at near $100k with bonus. Now I am making a little more than $100k. Job pressure is very reasonable: 40 hours/week with flexible working hours. It is a very stable job. But potential of increase is also limited. Other than climbing up the corporate ladder, it is pretty much just about 4-5% annual increase.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
IT Architect at a very large insurance company in New York City. $125K base + bonus (usually 25K). Work 45 hrs most weeks.
37 years old, married with 2 kids. Own a 3br apartment with 500K mortgage. Cost is about $4500/month for mortgage + maintenance + utils.
$150K married with 2 kids and a mortgage feels like a LOT less money than $75K did when I was single and renting!
February 13th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
32 years old, 10 years of experience in IT and implementing ERP systems, last 3 years as an independant consultant.
2004 - $140k, 2005 - $200K, 2006 - $330K, with a salary of around $100K for the 5 or so years prior to that. Thought it was the ‘big’ money until I realized I still like cheap beer and pickup trucks so it didn’t matter all that much… now just savings as much as possible for some freedom.
Setup as an S-corp with wife as employee for 401(k) purposes. Able to put away just over $55k in tax deferred savings in 2006 between 401(k) and HSA. And yes the benefits of the S-corp go down after the SS limit but YOU decide what a fair salary is (within reason).
Bored out of my mind with my career. Still trying to figure out what to do with my life, MBA seems pointless (payback wise) and too late at 32. Looking at lots of small biz type opportunities but hard to walk away from the money to something alot less certain. Not whining, don’t get me wrong.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
I used to work in a factory running an embroidery machine making 9 dollars an hour. I quit my job at thanksgiving to stat a small business. I honestly don’t know how much money im making now. I geuss i will have to figure that out by tax season.
February 13th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Brian - I am also currently working for the federal government and I don’t see how you can be making 100k by 25. All of the jobs I have seen you have to put in years of service to move up that high of a pay band.
I do agree that the federal government offers great benefits (at least 20 days off + 14 federal holidays per year)
February 13th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
I’m about to touch 100K in IT field in NYC.
But I’m at cross-roads of career. I’m a but bored with my current job and want to try something new. I have been seriously thinking about 2 options:
1) Law school
2) MBA in finanace and joining a wall st. firm
One of my main motivations is money and continued increases in salary every year. Surely being a lawyer would be very good for that - esp. in a big city like NY - where I read the entry level salary is 160K + 30K bonus. Added advantage of lawyer is that it is a licensed job - so no danger of job getting outsourced or you getting fired so that ur boss can hire someone else with substantially less pay.
MBA - the aim of doing mba is to land an investment banking job at a NYC wall st. firm. I’d love this work, but I read that that investment bankers need to put 100+ hrs (is this really true??). Although I like the job, 100+ hrs would kill my family life. Another bad with this job is that it is non-licensed. So you are in danger of getting replaced with a short notice.
I’d really appreciate people’s comments on what they think of the 2 options that I listed above.
Thanks.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Answer to Mike: how long do people usually stay in Ibanking working those insane hours to make the big $$$? Do most burn out around 5 yrs and find something else to do? (eg marketing or something more relaxing?)
Many analysts head to corporate development, the buyside (venture capital, private equity, hedge funds), or business school. I knew a couple of bankers who got their JD but came back to banking.
The burnout rate is very high in banking and most analysts don’t stay after 2 years.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Jim & SAP Jim: what exactly do you do as an independent IT consultant? Please excuse my ignorance; I don’t have any friends in this field and I’m interested to find out.
Do you guys design computer systems (hardware & networking) or set up software for companies to use? Is it mostly a desk type job or do you do a lot of hands on, on-site stuff (ie physically fixing systems)?
Seems like you guys have it the best if you could work at home, earn 100k+, work around 40hrs/wk, all without having to spend the time to get a graduate degrees.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
31 years old:
I can see how people put in 80+ hours a week. Dunno about the corporate guys, but as a resident in the surgical ICU, I easily put in 100+ hours a week (24+8 hours every third day on call, 12 on post call days, then 24+8 again). I worked 32 hours straight, didn’t sleep, ate candy and coffee for lunch and dinner, and got one day off a week. Its inhumane, and although life got better after the 80 hour work week law, I still have friends who work far beyond 80 hours a week.
Personally, life got much better after residency- I now work 30 or so hours a week in Emergency Medicine, and am thankful that I now have time for my friends and family.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:12 am
In the bay area it’s all about when you got into housing. I interact with co-workers in lower ranking positions. They bought houses 10 years ago. I’m far better compensated and more skilled, but I’m under no illusion who’s really successful between us.
Call it real, housing-adjusted income.
February 14th, 2007 at 7:07 am
Mike, I build web applications for compaines. It’s just software so it almost never requires on-site work.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:01 am
mimi, typo? 5% of 100k is what you live off of?
31 year old: 80 hours is very common and is not a “lie”. Currently I am an engineer working 60 hours a week + 20 hours a week on grad school classes.
As for the ibankers, I know my fair share in the top ibanks- UBS, goldman, etc. They work 100-120+. Imagine 7am-1am mon-friday (thats 90 hours) and an additional 10+ hours a day on weekends.
I have friends that are analysts and associates. Usually straight out of undergrad, thats when they work you. the top companies (goldman, ubs..) work you hard…100+ a week for 2 years. They then pay for your MBA and you come back as an associate…where you eventually work fewer and fewer hours.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:27 am
another fed worker here. 28, just promoted to a 13, special pay band, 87k. with overtime and bonuses should clear 100k. 1.5 yrs should be promoted to 14 with 102k salary.
February 14th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I had a goal of “6 (figures) by 30″. Starting off in IT and moving into business development, I beat that goal by 2 years. By the time I was 30 my salary was approaching $200k, but I was miserable. I was working 60-80 hours a week, interactions with my (second) wife were transactional, and I wasn’t having fun. So I quit, took a job with over a 50% pay cut, and 10 years later I work 40 hours a week, have a happy marriage with 2 kids, own our home outright, and I’ve just again broken the 6 figure mark.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I’ve been over $100k since the year I turned 28. I paid for college and law school myself (bartending and GI bill). Worked at a big firm for a long time to pay it all off and save for the down payment. Got married, went in house, had baby, make significantly less (but still >$100k). Maybe it’s the people I hang around with, but it’s a pretty low benchmark.
Also, wrt 80hr weeks at big firms, it’s one of those average/mean problems. Throw out the four weeks of vacation and the holidays, and you’re at 3800 for the year. Bill about 75% of the time you’re actually in the office (again, this goes from 100% most of the time to 50% between deals/cases) and you’re at 2800 hours. That’s high enough to be at the top end of most classes, but definitely not unheard of. I’m using extremely general numbers here and rounding off… but I billed between 2300 and 3000 hours (2000 was a busy year and I hit just over 3000 hours) from the mid 90s on. If you hit 2000 hours billed you qualify for the bonus at most firms, which still requires >40 billable hours/wk.
February 14th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Murph, not necessarily. there are plenty of fed. jobs out there where Brian could be making 6 figures at his age. Translators, intel analysts, certain IT fields, certain fields in the military, etc all can make 6 figures at his age. moreover, with bonuses and tax exclusion for war zones, 6 figures is definitely a possibility. remember, the fed. govt needs to retain certain critical areas and pay heavily for it.
February 14th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
i forgot to mention State folks who can get up to 60% differential pay on top of regular pay overseas.
February 14th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Management consultant: 30 yrs old. 130k + 25k bonus. Chicago. 40 hrs/week. 20% travel.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I wanted to be #100!!!!!!
February 15th, 2007 at 12:27 am
I am in software development. I can understand that lawyers, doctors, and successful MBAs can break the 100K barrier. However, I am in doubt that an average software engineer can break the 100K barrier unless you are in Silicon valley and have niche skillset. A lot of posting showing 20ish and 100K in IT. Are you guys including benefits and bonus as pay? I assume that we are talking 100K as in your base salary only.
February 15th, 2007 at 1:28 am
In regards to what Hoang said, do those who listed >100K with bonus consistantly get the same amount (if not more) bonus every year? Or are there slow years where these people don’t get any bonus at all?
February 15th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Im 32 and make 18,000 a year doing 3rd shift security I made 30,000 at a factory before it moved to Mexico. 50,000 a year would be the magic number for me I could be happy on that. Im going to go to truck driving school. Just posting for all the poor people who read this site and will never see 100,000. I think people who make 100k and complain are cry baby’s.
February 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Well put Steve. As Jonathan said, only 5% of the US population makes > 100,000… Can’t feel too bad for the folks at the top.
February 15th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
I am 26 and work in the Utility Industry. I have been in the work force for just about 2 years now. I have no debt and live free and easy. I used to have a goal of 50k a year by 30, but after OT and bonuses, I am up to 75k already. 100k by 28 is feasible and my new goal. After that I should max out around 175k by the time I retire. 7 million is my magic number through retirement vehicles and real estate.
Like someone said earlier, 100k isnt what is used to be and everything people may earn is also an illusion.
February 15th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I’m curious about people who are in their 20s (some posted above said their ages around 22 to mid 20s) who said that they are making 100K and doing management consultant. How can you consult any company about management if you are that green? I do not recall having the experiences and enough exposure to the industry one or two years after college. Heck, even after 5 years I were still learning and wouldn’t call myself an expert. What are your secrets? Unless you worked for Arthur Andersen and overcharged clients while helping shredding papers! lol lol
February 15th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Hi everyone, Im 21 and although im still a full time college student (ivy league :-)) i make money as a self employed commercial/free-lance photographer. Last year I made about 50k before deductions for equipment (camera bodies, lenses, lighting equipment, etc)… this year I’m looking at something in the 120-150k range. Most of my income is in the form of passive income (royalties from licensing photos for commercial use, imagine itunes with photos instead of music) so I make money without actually having to actively work. I was told all my life that artists are poor, starving people with no futures so I feel truly blessed being able to do what i love as a living
My mum is a pediatrician and my older brother (23y/o) is an IT consultant, and for the past few months I’ve been earning about the same as both of them put together. My brother plans to work for another year or so then apply to business school. So he should have his MBA in a few years and will be above 100k as well.
February 16th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Will make over $200K this year, unless economy tanks suddenly. NY biglaw. Given that Manhattan cost of living is twice the US average, I will count myself as making around $100K!
And about the 80hr p.w., it’s on the high side, and generally drops if you do an average, but many people do work those hours for weeks and months on end. To the poster who said this doesn’t make sense because it’d be 7am to 1am - if you’re working these hours, of course you’re working weekends. My firm also has a folding bed so people can nap for an hour when they’re too busy to go home. It’s often used.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
As a computer consultant (almost 7 yrs) now and worked previously at a bank for very little (considered a waste of time), in roughly 9 years at this rate I should hit slightly over 100k. Something tells me if I change jobs I could be making that in about half the time or less. I’m considering doing side jobs to supplement my income. Photog how does one get started in your line of work?
February 16th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Jonathan, what an interesting post. I find it fascinating that people are asking themselves,’How can I get into a field that makes me $100K?’
I think I appreciate your readers who have done the 60+ hour work weeks and write about how unhappy their lives were trying to make billable hours. It’s easy to make $100+K/yr if you want stomach the work, hence my comment about maybe not wanting to take the leap into a new job position and it’s attendant responsibilities.
For everyone who is asking themselves how can I make $100+K/yr, it’s out there. You can do it. It can be hard work, but know what you’re working for. Is it the money? Is it the passionate fun of working at a job you love? I’m making more money now than I ever have before, but I am loving what I do. I can honestly say that after working 5-7 years in jobs I really didn’t enjoy.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!
February 17th, 2007 at 7:18 am
In repsonse to
“People who say they work 80 hours must be bluffing. Even if it does happen, maybe 1 week of a month. I think it makes some people feel important to say that they put in 80 hours this week!!”
It is true. I did this for years. It’s not 1AM, its 4AM (but I started at 9AM and worked weekends too). I loved it while I did it, but I’m glad I don’t do it anymore. I also get to chuckle at myself when I work until 7 or 8 and consider it “late”:)
I was in management consulting in NYC and a start up in San Francisco. Now I’m in Austin, back to 40-50 hours a week, and made $299K last year. This is more on a per year basis than I made in consulting (and per hour for that matter), but no one would ever pay me this much now if I didn’t have the consulting experience — that’s where I learned all my skills. I also have MBA from a top 5 school, which was the only reason I got the MC and Startup gigs.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:03 am
A troll from Canada says hello!
I accidentally stumbled across this site when looking for ‘Credit Cards with Rewards’. I wished I had seen this blog sooner - it does seem to have some solid investment ideas - even if they are a touch US centric.
A fascinating article, and some surprising and enlightening responses. As for me, I’m 23 and been out of university for 2 years after completing my Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. Right after graduation I decided to forgo working for a company and instead pursued options in Power Engineering Consulting for Industrial projects. It’s been a tough struggle for a new grad with limited Industrial exposure and even more limited support infrastructure, both personal and financial, but overall a completely satisfying experience. What my friends and mentors thought was “career suicide” has turned out to be, with a lot of perseverance and hard work, a very profitable enterprise indeed.
For a typical work week of around 50-60 hours with some occasional traveling for site visits, I manage to clear slightly over CAD 100k a year. Just trying to say that if you have the will, the resources and the perseverance then starting something on your own can be a very viable proposition.
February 18th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Great discussion here…
I’m a 30-year old magazine/website publisher that works in the gaming industry living in Las Vegas. I work for a small sized media company, in charge of the day to day for a 20 person content team. I’m an efficient manager and work about 30 hrs a week. I made about 175k in 2006, with 50k in that coming from bonuses.
Question for this group: I would like my wife (PhD, works as a researcher for the local govt) to start our own company. The problem with my salary is that nearly none of my money can be saved in a tax deferred account. My employer does not have a 401k plan and I only get my traditional IRA contribution each year.
We both turn down freelance work all the time. Any comments on whether an S-corp, LLC or ?? makes the most sense? Where do I start?
Comment, for those 20-year olds out there that only care about 6 figures and are willing to work 80 hrs + a week to achieve this. Many intelligent employers care way about your experiences away from office. I spent a few years in my early 20s working as a freelance journalist, traveling to over 50 countries and familiarizing myself with global affairs. This got me where I am at today. My advice is to do the same as understanding how the world works if far more important and pays a larger dividend than most think.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
$110K - Insurance - 35 hours/week - 5% travel
pretty sweet…
February 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Im 28. In 2005, I made over $100K in the mortgage industry. In 06, I wasn’t even close to it. Im hoping to do better in 07 but so far, its been pretty slow… So that is to say, I’ve felt both sides of $100K. And Ive lived in some of the most expensive cities, LA, SF and now NYC. $100K is a big deal. It does pay for alot. Just think about it! If you make $100K/yr, you’re pulling in over $8,000 per month. If you can’t live well with that much money, you got a problem. The important thing is to not go from $15 meals to $50 meals once you start making the $. Just keep your lifestyle and you will see that once you make $100K, your current lifestyle gets better. But if you start to try to live like you’re making $1MM instead of $100K then of course you are going to feel like $100K is no big deal. Its all in the lifestyle people…
February 21st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I’m pulling in a little over 100K per year these days and while I can afford the basics plus some niceties (like a Wii!), I can’t afford the most important thing: a house. I mean, we have our cars paid off, no credit card debt anymore (finally), and have a bit of cash, 401K, IRA stashed, but just not enough for a house. We save about 3K per month into 401K and cash savings which is nice, but still not a house.
Yes, I live in the bay area and it has completely sucked for house shoppers in the few years. I’m hoping that the house market truly does take a dive (something like -30 or -40% over the next 3 years). I mean we COULD have afforded a house in the last few years, but I was paying off the cars and credit cards as one mortgage guy recommended. He COULD have put us into an IO or NegAm loan, but I thought that was a really bad idea and figured if we couldn’t afford it then we should just wait.
So I say to those that think 100K is enough, it’s really a question of where you live. If you live in a place where houses cost about 200K then 100K per year salary should be about right to buy a home and have enough to save, take trips, etc. But here in the bay area, 100K is basically the ground floor that lets you rent and save a little cash on the side.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:24 am
I’m a 31 yr old Registered Nurse (I work for the state of Connecticut) and I made $150K (work about 60 hrs/wk as a per diem nurse) in ‘06. I simply attended a 2 year technical school nursing program at night after I liked the medical field but could not see myself enduring/paying for med/dental school. Best bang for the buck education available monetarily speaking. I’ve since realized that I’m never going to get rich trading my hours for dollars so I obtained my real estate broker license on the side and just bought a 6 unit apartment building for $330K that rents for $700.00/unit per month (which equals about $50k/year in income). I’m looking to buy 2 more buildings like that in the near future with my decent earning from nursing. My goal is to have those buildings paid off in 7 years and generating over $10,000.00/month for me *without* me have to work 60 hours anymore. Having passive income that works for you even when you’re not there is king in my opinion. Having a high paying job is nice, but if you don’t go to work for whatever reason (illness, downsizing, etc.) you don’t get paid. So I guess I’m living proof that civil service jobs can be lucrative. My best friend is a cop (sargent) and made $170,000.00 last year by doing lots of road jobs (bet you did’nt know how well those officers that wave you through construction zones got paid, huh? Me either until my friend told me what he made!).
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
People were earning 100k in the 80’s. If your in sales and not making $250k then you are the bottom of the barrel. My police officer friends are making 100k and have a great pension ( and little education). Regardless of where you live 100k is a decent living, but by no means lets you live like a “rockstar”.
February 24th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I work in the recent-college grad friendly neighborhood of Lincoln Park in Chicago. I make 40k a year with a 3-4K bonus planned for Jan 2008. (I live comfortably, although nowhere near where I want to be) I am in logistics brokering which is basically trucking sales. fortune 500 company with all those benefits. Show up in sweatpants/hoodie when I feel like it. I’ll admit, this is my first job and i would love to move into a position where I wear a suit. I will probably try to get my MBA before I’m 30 to pursue a higher paying job. My dad owns a company so being self-employeed is very attractive to me. At my job income levels are all over the board (no speculation, daily commissions for every employee are in our program) recent hires make 40k and about 30 ppl in my office make 200k+ year. 10 make 400k+ year, and 3 make 650k plus a year. I’m happy with my job now, but would love to experience a new job/locale. Anybody know an opening for an Indiana University grad with degs in Communication and Culture / Telecommunications management? Loves to travel
(sorry about my choppy composure of this posting, I’m trying to pay half-attention to the new Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrewt in The Office) SNL.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I guess it’s all relative. But $200K seems more like some minimum cutoff level to get to, and you have to talk about $300K or 2 Meg liquid assets as getting to some minimum level of exclusivity (is that the right word?). Here you’re talking about 3% or the population who file income taxes–so is that really exclusive? If you are talking about exlusive, then we’re really talking about $500K/yr, or 5 Meg total assets–at this point we’re talking about under .5% or less than 1/200, which to me is exclusive. The rest seems to be self-delusion about making ourselves feel better. At least, this is the way things appear to me.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 pm
The sad part is, the more money you make, the more money you spend. 100K, 200K or even 500K will never seem like enough. I remember living happily on 36k years ago and somehow having extra money to do fun things. Now i make 100k and my house and other expenses leaves not much to play with.
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Regional Sales Manager: Manufacturer/Distributor — 27 years old
I will hit about 100-120k this year, third year in business. However, I agree 200k is the new 100k. The real milestone is hitting 1mill ayear. I agree with the guy up top to a degree, there are only a few cops making 100k, but there are more and more people doing it, especially households. There are sales guys we pay out 250k-300k per year and that is only one line they carry. Lots of sales guys in my industry make easily 100k, but the best are pulling in millions. Thats the top 1 percent i want to be in!
April 9th, 2007 at 6:47 am
I have been at this a long time ( I bought my 1st stock in 1974). How much you make is not as important as what you do with it. There are spenders and savers. Spenders will never have enough. I could amaze you with stories of savers who started with nothing and are now multi - millionaires. This is a really good website especially for those just starting out.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Yes even if you don’t make alot of money, if you invest it appropriately you can become a multi millionare. Where to put your money is the 64k question.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I’m a web programmer, working in New Zealand but getting paid in US dollars. That means I’m into six figures with the exchange rate. I so mostly software support, and documentation. I have a diploma in Internet Technology, and a long history in sales, teaching (skiing and paragliding) and writing (Magazine articles). I’m very agressive in salary negotiations, and I attribute at least the last $25K of my salary to my dogged pursuit of higher pay.
My partner is a Project Manager as a short ternm ocntractor. She is paid in the $200K per annum range, but she usually only works 7-9 months a year to bring around $150K.
Together we knock back about $260K per year on average.
We live pretty nicely too, thanks!
April 17th, 2007 at 7:52 am
I live in northern new jersey and i am a union truck driver this year i will break the 100k mark with this new company. just goes to show you .. you dont need a college education to make money..just the drive to succed in a carreer that you love.
April 21st, 2007 at 6:16 pm
27 yr old living in NYC working in IT project management. Worked in IT consulting right after undergrad for 4 years before switching to a tech group in a bank. While in consulting, comp was horrible (paycuts) due to dot-com bubble bursting and general state of practice.
This year I’ll make $120k salary + $30k bonus. I just started working at this place so I figure there’s still some room to grow. While I wasn’t making too much in consulting, I know there was potential there, however life is about experiences and spending time with the ones you love.
Working 80-100hours a week is not an option to me…rather have 25 vacation days+holidays, good benefits, work 35-40hrs a week and make half because that’s 40 extra hours a week I can spend with my friends, family, travelling, etc.
Wife works in sales and has very flexible work schedule, she brings in $80+ with bonuses, etc. so that helps too.
That’s just me though.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I am a 24 yr. old graduate student in Chemistry. I will graduate at 26. I am paid 24K a year stipend as a graduate student, so no student loans, and tuition is waived. Everybody that leaves my research group for a tech company has been hired on at about 110K with a ~10K signing bonus.
Just one option for clearing that six fig. mark… work in R&D with a Ph.D. in the hard sciences.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
I am 30 with a Ph.D in a business discipline. I made over 120K this year, worked 20 hours a week, 9 months a year. I have every weekend off, fall break, spring break, month off for christmas, and two months off in the summer. I would have 3 months off in the summer, but teach to supplement my 9 month salary. Even if I didn’t teach in the summer, I still would make a little over 100K. I also live in the southeast….so 100K gets you a lot, regardless of the city you live in. Advice: Get a Ph.D in business (anything but economics) and teach for a living! Oh yeah, they pay me to go to conferences in resort locations (HA, CA, FL, etc). However, school was HARD!!! My wife (in mid 20’s) is in sales..so we are doing well for our age.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Addendum:
I have no debt…stipend paid my way through graduate school. I can move anywhere at anytime due to the job demand (look at chronicles of higher education, higheredjobs.com etc). I think the new 100K cutoff should be 150K and anyone from CA or NY should be excluded (or cut incomes in half to account for housing costs).
April 25th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I made my first 6 figure salary at the age of 25 (base salay, not including overtime pay). It was a great accomplishment for me, so I am going for the goal of earning 7 figures by the age of 30 (I am currently 27 years old).
I am currently a systems engineer with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and a MS degree in Systems Engineering (company paid degree). I work in the defense industry so I get to work on a lot of cool projects and travel to odd and exotic locations (New Mexico, Hawaii, Japan, etc.) I also get every other Fridays off from work and a pension plan. Work is like a roller-coaster where there are some days where it is very busy and some days which are not. Every hour above 40 hours/week, I get paid overtime.
After graduating from college, my sights were to work in management (consulting or banking fields). Unfortunately, when I graduated (2002), it was right after the September 11th attack so very few business firms were hiring. There was a large number of engineering firms hiring, particularly defense. I reluctantly took an engineering job and i’m glad I did! I don’t have a stressful worklife and get paid just the same as a consultant or an investment banker. It was the best move I made!
April 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
All you gotta do is save 145K/year for 8 years invest it in the stock market, and in like 8-10 years youll have a 5million net worth!
April 30th, 2007 at 7:04 am
One comment about California (Bay Area) salaries. Even though it is accurate that the cost of housing is higher (obscenely so…) the cost of everything else is relatively similar. Fancy cars. Boats. Vacations. RV’s. Airplanes. Big Screen Plasmas. So even though the salary will not buy you as big of a house here, you still get all the other perks of a very large salary earner. Just a thought…
April 30th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I’m an associate at a fairly large hedge fund and made a little over $400,000 last year. My first year out of college was working as an analyst at another hedge fund and pulled in just over $100,000 at age 22. My MD told me I will be getting over $500,000 this year (I’m 28). The fact of the matter is $100,000 is nothing in NYC anymore, in fact I read an article recently that argued $150,000 per year equates to being middle class in NYC. Put it this way, there is not a single professional in Manhattan you will find that would be even slightly impressed by a $100k salary. 22 year old bankers make that in their first year, in fact I think our receptionist gets close to $100k and she’s 23 years old. To the person that said spending money on good schools is a waste that is completely wrong in my opinion. If you can get into a top school do whatever you have to do to pay for it. I took out loans for my entire undergraduate education and left college with $80,000 in debt. Now the $80,000 seems like nothing and there is almost zero chance you can land a top Wall Street job without having gone to a top school. There’s not a single person in my firm that didn’t go to top schools and the average compensation here is well over a million per year.
It’s not what you earn it’s what you keep, but if you earn more you can keep more.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
A lot of the people, in fact most of the people on here are in IT consulting type jobs. How stable do you guys feel your careers are? I moved over from IT to a sales position in healthcare a few years ago because of the instability. There is a huge supply of new entrants coming into the market every year so by the time you are in your late 20s or 30s you are a dinosaur, plus you have all the competition from places like India where companies are outsourcing to. There are outsourcing agencies now focusing on the micro-client market as well (places with 1-10 users) and that is becoming more and more popular. Also with any downturn in the economy technology spending is one of the first things to get cut.
May 1st, 2007 at 6:54 am
Right now I work for a nyc consulting co and pay can be better. Our clients are the micro-client market but they are our clients because they can call us and we would have someone out there to fix their issue usually the same day. So far my company has been stable. I think stability in IT is really defined by the type of company you are in. I think it’s fantastic that young people today can make that kind of $$ JCArm talks about. But the average pay for most people it probably like $40-$50k. I think I might of read somewhere that $40k is considered low income in nyc (I guess assuming you have kids and family to support). Making upwards of 100k isn’t really the norm. For some people it takes years and experience to get there. Or jumping around companies. There are suburbs of nyc that getting more and more expensive to live or afford and they aren’t considered affluent. Not getting a higher salary may work against you at some point ie. higher gas prices, higher electricity prices, unexpected house issues, increased real estate taxes for those who own homes, babies, etc. This year I will make $73k in IT for 7 yrs and previously worked at a bank for 4.5 yrs (no I didn’t the $100k when I was 22. I made $24k). I’m confident I can jump companies and make the six-figure salary but at some point stability of your position wherever you land will play a bigger question long term.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I have a friend who is a clinical lab director and is making $250K a year with his PhD.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:17 am
30 yr old Sales Manager for Chevrolet store, been in the business for 8 yrs. No higher education. 120k+ past 3 years. 70 hrs week. However I live in a small florida town, Housing market has doubled in last 5 years. With 3 kids and a stay at home wife. 120 doesnt go very far when mixed with a 4 bedroom home with a pool, which is a must with 3 kids in florida.
May 20th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
SAP JIM i have a SAP question if you could give me any email of yours..
May 25th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I’m 28 and have been consulting since I was 19 in a very specialized IT field where demand increases year after year. I left consulting about 7 months ago (and was pulling in about 180k a year, and only working about 30 hours a week for 6 months out of the year). I took a job in the US (originally from Canada) for a base salary of 115k, with a bonus structure that maxes out at 100k (which is very easy to obtain). Although I work alot more (about 60 hours a week, with 6 weeks vacation a year), the job and the inter-office relationships that you develop more than make up for the time off playing videogames and partying. I own 2 properties outright (a condo in canada and a fairly large house in the states), and couldn’t be happier in my personal/romantic/work life.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
I am in IT consulting. year. My salary is at $85K, but I will bring in more than 100K of gross income this year. I am also projecting $11K for my rental income and $20K for my stock investments, therefore, my estimated total income for this year is $116K. I live in NYC (high cost of living) and I’m single (high tax rate) so I don’t get to save a lot of my income.
Plus, I don’t feel 100K in a year is a lot of money these days. The buying power is certainly less than before, and there are many people making 100K or more now. The only advantage I have is that I’m in my mid twenties. I’m aiming for 200K now.
May 26th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Only 5 percent of Americans make more then 100,000. Im in my mid 30’s and make 22,000 per year try living on that.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I read that the minimum money you need to be happy is ~$45000.
I wonder how many people just work to make money, and end up wondering where their lives have went.
May 29th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Dlite Says:
February 19th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
“Im 28. In 2005, I made over $100K in the mortgage industry. In 06, I wasn?t even close to it. Im hoping to do better in 07 but so far, its been pretty slow?”
I direct reply to Dlite. . .
The mortgage industry isn’t what is was back in back in ‘05 when rates were dirt cheap. Many people jumped into the mortgage industry to make fast money. Back then all you had to do was set up shop and wait for the phone to ring to take orders. Now that the industry tightened up, the folks who were forking in on 100k+ a year are wondering where all the money went.
Today it takes a true consultant to make some real money in the mortgage industry. To convince someone who has a 5% rate on the benefits of paying off all their debt but raising their rate in the process takes real talent. Many brokers lied about appraisals, rates, points, etc so I have to work hard at regaining borrower confidence. I love my job and will be compensated well this year for it. Lots of hard work and building relationships of trust = 120k yr/ 45hrs wk. Plus I get to help people- that pays very well in building future business!
May 31st, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist’s (CRNA’s) make between $120,000-over $175+ per year. That is in any state.
Education: Master’s degree in Nursing. 2 years of critical care nursing before entering the master’s program.
Job Outlook: Very much needed. Employers pay over $20,000 in starting bonuses.
Benefits: 50% added to salary. Medical,Dental,Life,Disability,and mal-practice insurance. That’s all paid for. discounts on medications is another common incentive added to the salary package.
Traveling Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA’s) get paid $100-110/hour.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Just wanted to say that you people kick ass! Cops, nurses and truck drivers making 100k+?? The top graduate at my Tier 2 lawschool will start right around 100K, everybody else will make substantially less.
I like to call you people “those who have it all figured out.”
RC in the T
June 19th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I am 29 yrs old and make about $90k a year and I park cars for a living as a valet manager for a high end hotel. I receive a base salary of $50k plus I do about $40k (maybe a little more) in cash that the gov’t never sees because I am not required to claim it. I work about 45 hours a week average, sometimes more depending on what kind of events are going on during the week but nothing over 50 hours a week. I could work an additional day each week and probaby hit that $100k mark but honestly, is the extra $10k really worth that?
While my job title is not as great as say a banker, lawyer or accountant it makes me happy and I am able to earn a decent living at it while not completely killing myself, plus I get a ton of exercise… oh and I forgot the best part, for all you guys making $250k plus, I get to tear the hell out of your BMW M5’s and Porsche 911’s!!!
June 29th, 2007 at 4:39 am
Broke the six-figure mark at 26. HS diploma, 4 years of military service in a technical rating, 4 years of hands on experience in the Software Systems Engineering arena. All you need is drive! and true willingness to learn (i.e., self teach yourself to become a true expert, books are everywhere). The money is out there, pleeeeaaase do not settle!!!!
June 30th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I am a commercial pilot that just turned 28 recently and I am close to the $100k mark. I am usually gone flying trips 3-5 days and then have 3 days off. After reading all these posts, I think the best thing to remember is that you have to be happy with your career. If you love being a lawyer and working over 60 hours a week doesn?t bother you then more power to you. Every job is going to have its pros and cons and 100k is a great benchmark, but it must be balanced out with life, family, friends, etc.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Kudos to you, AW. Very well said. I now understand why it’s very important to like what you do. My job pays me pretty well, above the $100K mark, but sometimes I feel so bored at work I feel that I’m not being challenged enough, and even when I am, it’s not the challenge I like. The work is not what I am into, so it feels like torture sometimes. And AW is right, our lives should be balanced. We need a break from work here and there.
July 8th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I work in a government agency(asia) with a $2200/year salary (yes, thats per year). The highest paid employee in our agency gets about $500/month.
With luck and heavens help, i’m still alive and healthy.
July 11th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
41 and just clicked past $200k last year. Spent a whopping 30K for my 4 year degree at a state school in Michigan - so no debt Love my job in sales - work flexibly when I want - but still 40 plus hours/wk. This year I’ll hit $225.
You each have something unique that makes you different - if you can discover what it is then find a career that capitalizes on it - you will never work another day!!
Good Luck ALL!!
July 27th, 2007 at 11:07 am
33 Software developer at a bank in NYC. Proj Leader
125k Base
55k Salary
Hoping to jump to Quant side next year. Seems like a lot of money but it is not.
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
JCArm et al,
What career path would you and/or others on the site recommend to get into the $500k range, say at mid career?
Where did you go to school? What are the top 10 schools and Masters degrees to get to that salary range?
I’m mid-career and am making over $100k and will eventually get to around 250 or 300 by branching out, but am more concerned with what path to direct my kids along so they can far exceed that.
I am an engineer (which in retrospect was a big mistake - should have gone MBA or something along those lines), have several rental properties, some cash, and work govt contracts.
My family background is engineering and I don’t recommend it to anybody. Overworked, underpaid, poor job security and work can be done by low wage earners overseas.
Thanks!
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:52 am
I work in the HR/Payroll dept of a fairly large southern California city?and Fire and PD officers have the ability to make over $100k per year?thanks to OT and their unions?most, esp. Fire, without no more than 2 yrs of community college classes.
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:33 am
Somebody mentioned above Nurse Anesthetist. I am 25, and a nurse anesthetist in a private practice group in Northeast Indiana. My base is $180k, and I can make up to 50% of my base in bonus. This is my first year, and I’ll tell you it is alot of work (60+ hour weeks are common). But the upside is the pay. I’ll find out about my bonus in December. The owner of the practice told me that they are having a very good year. Since I started in June of 2007 I don’t think I’ll bring in the maximum bonus (which for me is $90k). But if I could bring in $30-40k bonus that’d be great! My goal all along was to be in the $200k club when I got out of school . . . hopefully I can get there this year!!
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
As you place posts here, could you please include the school/s you went to and degree earned? It would be a big help to those of us in separate fields.
I went to the University of Texas at Arlington and got a BS in Mech Engr.
I had always heard that Anesthetist’s did well.
August 7th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I came from Colombia to work on my M.S in engineering in 96 and graduated in 99.
After school I got a job offer in the construction management field for what I thought it was a lot of money (compared to what I could have made in Colombia) . After a few years of working in project controls my salary became healthier. This year I decided to look around for more opportunities and was surprised by the demand on the field. I accepted an offer by another company on the same field which got me into the 100K+ club .
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:05 am
I make 85 K, 2nd year as an attorney in mid size, non city commercial litigation firm. (29 years old). I went to a tier 2 law school and clerked in state court for a year. My wife is at a big philly firm and makes 150k in her 3rd year. Non- NYC big firm jobs provide MUCH more lifestyle advantages than those in smaller cities, she still has lots of “us” time and the atmosphere is much less cut-throat.
I’m a proponent of law school even if you don’t want to be a lawyer, but attending a state school is preferred to avoid debt. (unfortunately, I didn’t). Tim Russert had a famous quote about his decision to go to law school, he said “I looked around at those who were doing the things I wanted to do, and they all had law degrees.” It really is an automatic salary booster in all things, and it’s an automatic distinguisher if you choose to just do something non-practicing.
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
The highest employee in our country (Our Country’s President) gets $1,100/month basic salary. Who would ever want to work with that kind of money.
But…….theres a sinister or you could say, a wealthier side on it.
Our President gets at least $25 million government fund (at least a year) and almost half of it are 100% “audit FREE” and all done legally.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I graduated from Harvard 5 years ago, after growing up in a poor area and attending a similarly crap public hs. Started off at a top tier investment bank in derivatives structuring. After a couple of moves in the last few years, I’ve made “vice-president” (trust me; sounds better than it is), and banked about 600k in bonus last feb. while others have made the point that corporate finance banking jobs are highly exposed to downturns in the real economy, jobs in securities and derivatives trading and structuring are more specialized and sensitive to different factors because they often involve proprietary risk taking. However, entrance basically requires a degree from a top school (the “lowest tier” school I’ve seen any colleague come from is Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard/Princeton/Wharton undergrad, etc is far more the norm), and numeracy.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Hi TradingGamma and JCARM.
Can you please tell which degree you did? MBA? MFE?
What else does it take to land a job in IB or hedge funds?
I’m really inspired by posts by you both and would really appreciate your response.
Thanks.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I’m in my mid-upper 20’s and only bank in the $70k range as an IT Analyst, living in the Midwest. I’ve had opportunities to live in NYC and Cali and turned them down due to high cost of living. I believe a 70k-80k Salary can go a lot farther in the Midwest and South than a 100k-110k Salary can go in NYC/Cali areas, due to living costs, tax rates, etc….
I plan on using the stock market to make me over the $100k mark per annum and call it wishful thinking but I believe there are alternate ways to push over the barrier aside from having that 100k base salary. I also think that by 2015, due to economic conditions, a 100K salary will be to the equivalent to about a 75k salary today, regardless of location, and salaries will not keep up with the rate of inflation or economies of scale. Therefore, it’s imperative to save as much as possible and invest now to be prepared for unforeseen economic conditions in the future, because I’m quite certain that by the time this/my young generation retires around 2050, a $10 Whopper at Burger King won’t seem too far fetched!
September 25th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I just turned thirty and I am an Area Branch Manager in the yellow page sales industry. I will clear north of $115K and I still feel like I am poor and can’t afford to do the things I want. I put alot into retirement but the fact of the matter is living in the san Francisco Bay Area 100k doesn’t mean jack. I am shooting for the 150k / 200 k club because that’s when it might mean something. If I made this kind of money in the midwest I would be living a great life.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:32 am
I did my undergrad at Harvard. High finance is a pretty broad field..the best way to get in is to do a program at a school that gets recruited by good banks…I don’t know how it is for MFE, but MBA recruitment is restricted to mostly the top 7 b-schools. Once you’re in you need to bring some kind of skill to the table that’s in demand, either quantitative ability or a background in accounting/balance sheet analysis. You also need to be extremely articulate (can communicate your ideas coherently), and be nice to work with. The reality is though not many people have all these traits at once.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
What about people who lose a job that paid $189,000, and can’t find a similar paying job? Have you any idea the stress that causes?
Used to make $189k for 6 years. Now sell cars and lucky if the commisions bring me to $40K this year. It is no joke.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I think it is important to consider that generally high cost of living areas have more opportunities of savings vs. low cost of living areas after all things considered. For example, I live in Hawaii and rent is generally at leat $1,000/month for a studio and can be as much as $2,000/month for a 1 room apartment. However, I found a hole in the wall studio for $650 a month (I’d rather be at the beach than home anyways). While I have little control over my earnings at my day job here, I do have control over my costs. Furthermore, I plan on making my money while living in a high cost of living area, then retire in a low cost of living area, if you already live in a low cost of living area this option is not available.
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I agree with the fact that salary is relative, depending on where you live. I’m a power plant manager for a municipal utility (”city job”) in Nebraska. I earned my engineering degree from a public (low cost) university. My 105K salary, when indexed using a “cost of living calculator”, equates to 170K in Philadelphia.
I recently rejected a VP job at an east coast utility for these very reasons:
1) I currently work only 40 hours/week (remember- “city job”)
2) My commute is only 5 minutes (I come home each day to eat lunch with my “housewife”)
3) I purchased a vintage 4000sf english tudor mansion this year for 212K (all oak floors with mahogany doors and windows)
4) Minimal “societal ills” in Nebraska (I have a 6 month old son)
5) Did I mention Nebraska has no Democrats?
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I am not in the 100k club (1 word: librarian), but I would like to be, so I am soaking up the info. Thanks everybody!
I only have 1 piece of wisdom to share, and sorry this sounds negative: everybody who is married here should remember that your money is not yours alone. You have a right to some percentage of that total minus legal fees should your relationship dissolve.
Just the financial incentive alone should push you to make breakfast for that special partner of yours this weekend!
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:42 am
First of All I’d like to thank everyone on here for sharing this information. I am 24 and graduated from the University of Tampa 2 years ago. It?s unfortunate that I didn’t read this blog earlier because I made the mistake of going to a school for the wrong reasons i.e the weather, location, size, etc. I?m now drowning in debt, I came from a very large family of 12 and my parents didn’t have the luxury of assisting me with my college education. Now I am paying over 1,000 a month in student loans with no end in sight. I was debating going back to get my masters but at this point I don?t want to give Sallie Mae any more of my business. I now work at a very reputable firm making a mere 40k and looking for alternatives. I?m very driven, outgoing and have great interpersonal skills.
For those successes out there: HELP!
I?m moving to Boston and possibly pursuing a job as a Mutual Fund wholesaler. I?ve learned that the only way to make a good salary in this industry is in sales. I love my current job and really want to work as a financial advisor like I am doing now assisting people like you with a retirement strategy and estate planning but unfortunately between expenses and loans I am in the red ever pay period.
Any advice for someone currently in the financial industry? I currently have my Series 6, 66, 7 licenses and stacked resume’.
All input is greatly appreciated.
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
update to a previous comment, I’m at 65 K plus bonuses, and my investments will net about 12k this year. SO that brings me to around 77K plus bonuses…
I am getting closer to 100k =)
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
TradingGamma.
Thanks for your post.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I just cracked 100,000 in my third year as an assistant professor - environmental sciences and engineering. Great job - challenging, rewarding, flexible, lots of time off, summers wide open, winter and spring breaks, etc. All of this in South Texas where a dollar goes a long, long way. If all goes to plan, I should be making over 150,000 in just 4 more years.
I still believe 100k is a great goal to strive for, although it isn’t the high-water mark it used to be.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I cracked 100k at 26 in the Bay Area. Unlike most people here, I have a business undergrad (from a non-US business school) and have a background in management consulting.
I would definitely say that 100k here is not a big deal, however, other than housing most things are the same as anywhere else. You might argue going out/entertainment is more expensive, but that’s probably because you don’t have the same options in lower-cost markets as you would in SF/NY.
Since a lot of the jobs here are technical and standards tend to be pretty high from an academic standpoint, a lot of people here have software engineer types jobs and make 100k, however, a lot of them come from top-tier schools like Stanford and have technical degrees that aren’t easy to attain. In other words, for the types of jobs they do, which tend to be quite specialized, they would still make a lot in lower-cost markets like Chicago, it’s just a lot of those jobs are here. If you are someone making 100k in Chicago, cost-of-living-wise you are better off, but it’s also a lot harder to make 100k there–in other words things even out.
The other thing I think people seem to ignore is what I call a “weather premium” that exits in California. Sure it may be cheaper in Chicago, but it’s freezing there in winter, and humid in summer. From what I understand Atlanta, one of the other lower-cost markets mentioned, is also humid in the summer. You also have a lot more crime in those places relative to the Bay Area, which is something else to keep in mind. As much as people complain about the housing prices here, it doesn’t seem like most of them leave. Just something to think about.
November 17th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I’m a Java EE Sr. Software Engineer and make $119,000/yr. here in Los Angeles. I have a BS and about 10 yrs experience. I’m not saying it is a bad pay but it has the illusion of being more than it really is. I’m single and my marginal tax rate is 48%. After 15k max 401k contribution I take home only $65,000/yr. so the taxes are quite hefty. Comfortable living for a single guy but not exactly rolling in wealth either.
As for housing affordability, that cannot be taken as an equation because it is well known that house prices here in California are highly overvalued and are set to crash. Goldman Sachs has predicted in it’s latest report that a 40% drop is very likely according to their model.
November 23rd, 2007 at 6:06 pm
I am an IT Architect and 33 years old. I expect to make 100k in 2008.
and My wife makes around 90k. Even with this money. We don’t feel like have a lot of wealth. Expenses are daycare for two kids, mortgage. 100k doesn’t go a long way.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
You know all yall’s input is really interesting, so far i’ve seen alot of IT and finance folks making that 100k mark, Im 37 and am making 40 an hour (70-80k a year) as a journeyman plumber. I dont know I think yes an IT guy can make 100k a year but really how stable is that job and if you lose that job can you find another with the same level of salary and bennies, back in 2001 after I left the service (i was a medic), i thought about getting into IT but lots of folks in the business discouraged me , they said that if you can do something in a desk, you can do it in a desk 2000 miles away.. sure glad I took up plumbing .. I just would like to point out that plumbing, electrical work and union jobs in general, while not getting a high up salary can provide a man with a decent, stable and dependable living with minimal schooling (but alot of common sence)
December 5th, 2007 at 1:54 am
I’m surprised that a career in nursing isn’t considered by more people. I’m a 26 year old nurse who lives in the midwest. I made $110k last year working per diem in the ER, 60 hours a week with 8 weeks of vacation. I went to a state university then did an accelerated BSN program, so I don’t have much in the way of loans. My wife works as an elementary school teacher, and makes $38k. I know quite a few CRNAs that make $200k+. RNFAs make good money too. I have a friend who is an Oncology nurse practitioner, and she makes around $130k.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:22 am
RE: Nursing
Nursing does definately seem to be one of the most profitable careers a 4 year degree can get you. I’ve been in college for 8 years to get my PhD in Chemistry to earn ~130K starting salary. (I got my B.S. in Chemistry thinking to myself that arguably the hardest major on campus (topped only by Physics) should pay off in the end, and then found out that B.S. Chemists start at 32K!) My mother in law just finished up her B.S. in nursing and has seen jobs in the Bay area for nurses around the 200K mark, something doesn’t seem quite realistic about that, its more than most M.D. Physicians make unless they are highly specialized. Anyhow, more power to you. Clean those bedpans!!
December 12th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
49 yr old male, no college degree, have made over $100K for the last 4 years. Work as an Manager in a testing lab in the communications industry. I’ve worked in the industry for 28 years, worked my way up from rock bottom (less than $3/hr). With a family of 4, I consider myself lucky compared to others but really, not anywhere near wealthy. One medium priced ($5k) vacation a year, max out on 401K, plus maybe another $5k a year going into savings. The rest is just paying the bills, nothing fancy. $100K does not seem to be that much to me now - maybe I’ve gotten spoiled…
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I am 26, and hit the 100K barrier last year, and projected to be at 125K this year. I am in Online Adverting Sales, specifically Email Applications and Banners/Lead Generation. If you stick in this field, show you know how the Internet works, and stay with your job - 100k is very feasible. I work 35-45 hours per week. I completely agree with trying to find a niche that is unique, especially in Online Advertising. Specialize in SEO, Email, LeadGen, Search, something… and the money will come if you just do what all the other sales people do - call and “pound the pavement”. Commission will roll through!
March 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I’m 24, work in IT, love what i do and make 130k plus 20-40% bonus working 40hr weeks, 4weeks paid vacation, full benifits, and 13 public holidays. I barely graduated college (2.3gpa) in 2005 with a B.A. in computer science and work in NYC now.
I’m not a manager, or pure developer. More of an implementor of financial software. Anyone with common sense and an analytical mind can do what I do. The main thing is don’t settle for something you dont’ want and don’t be afraid to leave one job for another.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I’m 22 working in IT. Make 175K plus for 30-35 hours per week. Could easily break 225K if I felt like it. Love my work and lovin’ life! You can do whatever you want if you try a little bit. Stop whining and start doing!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:29 am
This thread has been very eye opening. But i’m sorry to say working 80+ hrs a week is insane.
I have an engineering degree and a MBA. I work 35hrs a week and make approx 95k. I live comfortabley and have lots of time with family and friends.
Life is all about balance, not just $$$
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I work in IT sales. In 2007 I made $430,000.
I’m 28 and have been making 6 figures since I was 20.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Do you want to work 9 months a year, 3 days a week, job security for LIFE, and still make well over $125K/year….all you need is Ph.D in Marketing, Management, Accounting, or Finance. Endless supply of jobs and demand is off the charts. I have been making over 100K since I got out of school at 27 (yes…it does take 10 years of college…4 of which are pure hell!). But well worth it now!!! Go take the GMAT…score a 580+ and get a Ph.D in a business disclipline. Oh yeah….no experience necessary!
May 12th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
and for all of you cost of living gurus…that salary is for anywhere a AACSB university is located..even at a backwoods georgia college…where 125K (single spouse salary) goes a long, long way!
May 31st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
joeslaps - what do you do in IT that you make 175k?
College Dropout - same question - can you be more detailed? (Company, location, type of sales, experience needed to start, etc.)
Thanks to both of you!
May 31st, 2008 at 3:14 pm
same with “financial IT” - can you provide any more details like I requested in the post right before this one?
Thanks!
June 1st, 2008 at 8:58 am
Probably sales or a niche area of technology. Im 8yrs with consultant co and only make about 75k. Please do enlighten me.
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
How do you guys get into all these lucrative positions? It seems like here in The OC it’s hard to get a job that pays a living wage unless if you know somebody. I have a marketing degree from a state school with no debt. My main problem is getting into a position that makes a living wage. Any wisdom and insight would be appreciated.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Unless you’re really smart and creative, a marketing degree is a dead end - as far as i can tell. Go back and get an engineering degree, at least with that you will be able to make a living - almost guaranteed. if that’s not possible, work smarter not harder. You could also try faking a really good resume and lying your way into a job. i’ve never done that but have always wanted to try. Use every and all of your contacts to get a job and continue to network never stopping. networking is really an important tool for finding jobs and moving up. I don’t make huge money but i bet it’s even more important up in the 200k+ range. to get into money like that you’ve either got to start your own business or be a ceo, cfo, cto type. those guys are the one’s makin big bucks. but, if you’re struggling to get a living wage, forget that as ever being an option. also, focus upon what you are good at. what is your skill? if people like you, use that and get job where it will help. if you are detail oriented do the same. maximize your potential in that way. also, if you already have a job and have trouble making ends meet re-evaluate how you live. do you have a car payment - get rid of it and drive a crap car. get rid of cable and expensive internet and cell phones etc. minimize all expenditures. buy a house, whatever you can afford, even if it’s tiny. move to where the jobs are. use monster, dice, careerbuilder. once you have a job keep looking for a better one.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:51 am
I’m 27 years old with a BBA and earn 120k as an SAP software specialist. It varies, but for the most part one requires at least 2-5 years of experience to exceed the 100k income line and along the way the lure to go “contractor” is very appealing…but nothing beats working 40 hours tops with zero traveling and working from home.
Upside: Certain areas are very niche, and can lead to rewarding opportunities. Masters degree not required.
Downside: Most of these jobs require weekly travel (Monday - Thursday) to the client’s site, which I did for 4 years and “paid” my dues.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I’m 31 and i’ve made six figures for the last 6 years or so. I’m a pharmacist in Ohio. I was one of the last classes able to get a 5 year B.S. in pharmacy, now it’s a 6 year PharmD degree. I now make 120k/yr and that goes a long way in Ohio. I still have about 20k in student loans, but I guess that’s not so bad. I love my job most days, but dealing with the public in retail pharmacy isn’t always fun.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
did 1/4 mill on 07 and looking at 1 mil in 08. did it in an mlm that i joined in early 07.
July 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
42 and will hit $250 k this year in Dental sales. With a BS in psychology from a big 10 “state” school. No masters + went to public school outsdide of Detroit. More importanly I work 30-35 hours/week - flexibly. Fully engaged and loving my career.
Find your natural skill sets and try to pursue a career and educational opportunities that feel right - the money will come. Too many get too caught up in expensive educations that have no ROI + saddle you with tons of debt when you can least afford it. For some there is no other choice given your aspirations (banking/derivatives/Phd’s, etc.) - but for most schleps (like me) it’s unnecessary.
When all else fails, pray for direction - it worked for me!
Good luck!
July 20th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Hello all. I make roughly 150K in technical sales for a financial software company. I am 25, and have worked my a-s-s off to become our top guy in the group. My collegues are making around 120K and are in their 30s. Sales is a high risk but very high reward field. But being in technical sales (a product specialist for the sales reps) is lower on the salary, but much higher in stability if you know what you’re doing. Our sales reps are making anywhere from 200K to a million a year.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Hello, I was married before I was 18. My first child is in my wedding picture. I later received my GED and AS degree in Accounting. Twelve years later I am making 100K. I’m a Project Director. I manage pharmaceutical conferences domestically and internationally. I work non stop. Nights, weekends. And yes, I’m a crackberry. I’m also a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP). In this field, clear communication is key. Knowing a second language is a nice to have. Leaving your emotions and personal problems outside the office is a must.
July 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Netted 120K last year, first time. I work IT in N. FL. Not a bad gig, here that money goes a long way. No college either. Like others have said, if your in IT, don’t be afraid to make that move every few years until you find something you really like.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I make $127K base with 20-25% bonus, so could see ~$160K this year. I am 39 and an associate director at a consulting firm in a major city. Nice to be able to compare with other responders here.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:35 pm
24yrs old, married, live in the NW run my own eBay business on the side and do sales full time. Work about 10hrs a week on my business and 50hrs a week for my employer. 100% commission, make $150k/yr total of $200k with side business. Went to 2 quarters of community college hated it, decided to buy a bunch of books and teach myself. Currently getting the funds together to get started in commercial real estate. The big money is working for yourself (+1mil/yr)
No Debt, Rent a house (crazy to buy a house in this market) give it till late 09′ I study about an hour a day to stay fresh with knowledge regarding sales, wake up early, watch little tv (do you really need to watch all those re-runs), make every minute in life count.
Best advice is to continually educate yourself!
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I have engineering background and with work experience moved into business process reengineering, productivity and managment consulting work. Working on starting my MBA (delayed it as I got married and had kids… learnt some balance). I will make around $135K in 2008. I am 33. I work about 45 hours a week.
Finance / managment consulting industry folks… give me your advice. I am gearing up for my MBA in analytical finance, strategy and enjoy this work. You folks in your 20s working 80+ hours (first of all do you really or just a week here and there and a thing to brag about?)… do you really end up making $400K in bonuses? What about in times like like today when the industry is going through tough times?
I am targeting a lifestyle where rental property can bring a decent income and I can chose to work as much as I want not not as much I need to.
October 18th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I made 125k last year in Portland, OR working in the construction business. I am 30 years old and basically have no college experience. I started out making about 15 bucks an hour as a laborer nearly 10 years ago. I work around 40 hours a week. I learned the business and started creating opportunity for myself by building relationships that have followed me as I searched out the right company to work for. After a few years I became well known as a respected force in the field of trenchless technology pertaining to utility installation. Making a name for yourself by being knowledgeable and sociable is the key to attracting people who will pay you the bigger bucks. The gift of gab can make you money.
I was confident and always believed I could make more money and my mindset landed me opportunity. I moved to a new company and began to negotiate a deal that took into account the relationships that I brought to the table. This was invaluable as it set me up to tie myself directly to the growth of the company. I continue to read up and stay on the leading edge of technology that affect our industry. As we start new divisions i will be able to tie myself to the overall profit since a played an instrumental role in its development.
Always believe you will make the money and be aware enough to recognize the opportunities that are around you. Ask for more make your dream offer don’t be afraid what is the worst thing that can happen by asking?
I am starting a corporation right now that I will run my rental properties out of in hopes that I can be financially set by the age of 45.
You can do it
November 17th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I Went To College and got a Bachelors degree at the air force college, well after 24 years of service i was making roughly 13,000 a month gross pay. thats roughly 160,000 dollars a year. Now my pension is about 7800 roughly. After that i went to college 2 more years to become an airline pilot.Now i Have a Masters. I got very very lucky and landed a job with UPS as a pilot. I love it. This is my 11th year their and im already making $250,000 a year plus pension. That is great pay. That is over $325000 a year. We currently Live in a $750,000 dollar house in Arlington TX. It was a long way getting at this level.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:58 am
It would be great if John, the pilot from Texas, could use correct grammer. It just goes to show how they sell graduate degrees as quick as they can print them………
November 18th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Rodger:
There is a vast difference between a “masters” in say, flying an airplane from an air force college, and a “masters” in say, physical chemistry from Berkeley. To say “they sell graduate degrees as quick as they can print them….” is far to vague and offensive to people who have devoted years of their lives working 11 hour days 6 days a week to earn a Ph.D. in a hard science (among other fields), while in the process adding a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in a particular field. These contributions are making our world a different, and better place to live. And, in the field of physical chemistry for instance, I don’t think anyone would argue being forced to wrap your mind around and master advanced quantum mechanics or reaction dynamics is a simple task - but it must be done before you can understand the complex issues you are trying to solve in your Ph.D. thesis…
The level of understanding required to do Ph.D. level research in my field is far beyond what could be taught in a 4 year B.S. degree, it is barely attainable with the extra two years of a M.S. Then, you must devise an experimental apparatus and procedure and perform the research required to write your dissertation. It is a far cry from buying a degree.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Is this why Phd’s can’t find employment?
I hold an engineering undergraduate along with graduate degrees in both engineering and business. I can tell you that my BS degree from the University of Illinois involved much more study and was far more competitive than either of my graduate degrees. Hence, the old saying…..”If you can’t make it in the real world, you can always resort to academia.”
November 18th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Rodger, this will be my last post because arguing with your life choices is juvenile. I could try to diminish what you’ve done with your life as you have done in your posts. But its not productive. What is your graduate degree in engineering? Yes, a M.S. isn’t really that hard to get. In fact, many colleges give them to people who couldn’t cut it on their way to the Ph.D.
As for making it in the real world? My Ph.D. landed me a job directing an R&D dept at a widely recognized company in the semiconductor industry making, now, around 140K per year. They recognized the extreme amount of project management and understanding complex issues it takes to earn a Ph.D. in this field, from the university I went to (UC Berkeley) I have a GREAT deal of respect for my friends who took professorships, but this Ph.D. had no problem finding a job in the “real world” as you say.
It sounds to me more like you regret not pursuing a Ph.D. and must justify yourself on some blog that is 2 years old.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Up until recently a really good carpenter could easily make 100,000 a year- if you didn’t mind working 7 days a week. On the other hand if you have a spouse she would instantly have legitimate grounds for divorce as sexual appetites diminish significantly when physically working long hours. That’s the reason I bought a house as soon as possible and elected to remain single. Basically the white American male has been under a constant, economic assault for several decades now. In this new economy- near the end of ‘08 and headed into a depression of unknown outcome- anything that one can do to divorce themselves from the system by way of self reliance, financial solvency and community support would be a wise move. After all how many over paid jobs are left and how many McMansions and SUV’s can one occupy or, in effect, does one actually enjoy? I say ‘enjoy’ because rampant and unchecked, consumerism has gotten us into this mess, along with a blind and ignorant Government. Purchasing more and bigger items does not guarantee happiness or economic security anymore than a fat gut leads to physical fitness. We are in for a hell of a readjustment- particularly when without any foresight or preparation we have entered an age of diminishing expectations, energy and raw materials with our collective pockets turned inside out and our trousers about our knees while the greedy have succeeded so magnificently at increasing their strangle hold over our economy. Sorry, I ain’t got no PHD but I saw this one coming for at least a dog’s age.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I’m a Systems Engineer, and make between $120k to $130k depending on how much over time I put in (I typically work about 35 hours a week though). I live in LA, and still don’t have a house… Anyway, I see that this article is over a year told, and considering the current economy, I’m very curious to know how the iBankers, the hedge fund employees, and the overall financial workers are doing these days. Are you guys still making the big bucks or have things turned a bit?
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I’m a Police Sergeant in the suburbs outside of NYC. I earn about 110K including base pay, holiday pay, and uniform allowance. I could earn and additional 5 to 10K with overtime. Some of my more ambitious co-workers make 20K in overtime.
I will retire at 46 and receive a pension of half my salary for the rest of my life. (The formula is they take my highest earning 3 yrs in a 5 year period average it and divide by 2)
I’m a single 35 y/o with one child. I have an Associates degree and will receive my Bachelors next spring. Law School is in the plans. I live in a one bedroom co-op.
I’ve learned it’s not how much you make but how much you keep. My philosphy is I’d rather do things than have things. So I travel, take course both academic and for fun. When it comes to possesions I have some nice stuff but I generally keep it basic.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Hi,
I am 28 yrs old, have a Masters in Industrial Engg. & Management (2005). I started with a $48k job and after a year and half moved to Oracle consulting. My initial salary as a consultant was $85k and now I am making $95k. I live in midwest where the cost of living is very less.
I have around $5k left in student loan. Some of my friends in consulting are making well over $100 k and I want to be making that kind of money soon. Its a very challenging field but has less job security, but I like it.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
37 yo MBA Software product line gm making a comp of $315k+stock
December 13th, 2008 at 8:32 am
What are the opportunities for a lawyer to make a higher pay or get more responsibilities? Please answer! Thanks.
Future lawyer
February 20th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
re: future lawyer and cop making big bucks
Don’t go into law, how about that one? $35,000/yr. to start, $70,000 in student loan debts. Only top 10 percent of class make the big bucks, rest of us are lucky to have jobs. Let me guess, you will be in that top 10 percent right? Good luck with that.
Better to be one of the overpaid, glorified gamers who write these masturbatory blurbs about how much they make/how great they are, etc.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Hey everyone, I’m a freshman at UF studying Biology. As of now, my goals are to become a doctor. However, i really dont like the field and the amount of studying associated with it, especially the chemistry. My dad is a doctor and he doesn’t know how many electrons are in carbon….so it puzzles me why they make us jump through so many hoops. Well, i doubt someone is going to reply to this, but from reading all these posts I feel that i’d rather make 100k, hell even 80k a year after only having a bachelor’s degree. My problem is that i dont know what to do or what jobs are out there. Pretty much my whole life my parents have programmed me to study to become a doctor and after some introspection i’ve realized i’m just too lazy and i feel that my life is being taken both literally in the health sense, as well as socially because of these bullshit hoops that med school requires for acceptance. I’m extremely good at human physiology as well as kinesiology and things like anatomy come really easy to me. However i am very horrible at math, basic calculus is extremely difficult for me. Another strong point i have is my ability to sell/ convince, i’m extremely good at reading and talking to people. No doubt in my mind that i’d make a excellent car salesman. As of now, i’m confused and just need any advice on what to do as far as major, and how i’d get employed. I don’t drink/smoke or party, and basically if i have an apartment and my dog and time to workout i’m a happy individual. A job that’d allow me to do those things and still pay enough to where one day i can get married without having to say i work at McDonalds would be great. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I’m a medical intern and maybe I can help you aabraham. Yes, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to become a doctor. You have to do finish your preclinical courses, take the MCAT, go through medical school, take the USMLE (boards), then do a residency, and then take your specialty boards. There is high competition before each hoop. The upside is that by the time you leave, you will be making at least $100K to $600K, depending on specialty. It will be more by the time you leave, due to inflation. When I started, $200K was considered high, but now it’s average. There is a shortage of doctors in general now and in the future as well. Of course, you will have $150K in loans to pay off (if you don’t get a scholarship).
It looks like getting an IT job is a great way to break the $100K barrier in the early 20’s and 30’s. I would think it would be difficult to break into the $200K mark unless if you went into management. The IT people who post on this board seem relatively happy with their careers, so if you are not feeling medicine, then maybe IT will work for you.
Then there’s the nurse anesthetists, who make $100K+. I’ve been told this is highly competitive, but it’s still a rather unknown field for many people. You could also be a PA (Physician Assistant), with 2 years of PA school after college, make $100K+, do most of the things doctors do except you won’t be able to practice on your own.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
aabraham,
All of the successful/happy doctors that I have spoken to have shared 1 trait - they have been drawn to medicine bacause they enjoy healing others. The money is usually secondary. If you’re not feeling it ,then you may want to reconsider your path. As far as the curriculum “hoops” that you are facing - it’s not so much what you learn but learning how to learn that is most important. Even though you may not remember all the specifics (I don’t remember half the crap I learned in college!) it tells a potential employer that this person can absorb, digest and then utilize complex body of information. Get it? Consider medical / dental sales - For me - 2 yrs pre-med then wanted to learn about business& psych. Now over $250k/yr in sales with a bs from a state school & no debt. Good Luck!
May 21st, 2009 at 8:46 am
aabraham.
Good question. I am myself in IT and i know couple of people in medical field. Both fields have their pros and cons. true - doctors earn a lot, but by the time they will earn, a lot feel that they’ve burned through some of the prime years of their lives just going through the pain of school/residency. But once you are done with your residency, your life becomes much smoother and income is kind of guaranteed.
In IT, you have more work/life balance, but the pay will not increase much (although it might shoot to 100k mark). Remember - most of the work in IT that is being done here can also be done in India/China - where people are paid a tenth of salary as compared to worker here. There is tremendous pressure on salaries due to this. Some people will argue that there is always room for talented people - my argument is - yeah there is room - But where is the room to grow your income? Can you go to your manager and convince him to increase your pay by 20%? Good luck with that if you are in IT. I myself have lost my job in current recession and am thinking of going back to school to get out of IT.
I am not at a age where i can go through the rigors of medical school and residency, but if i were a teenager, I’d opt for medical field in a heartbeat. This is one field where jobs cannot be outsourced.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 am
I’m 26 years old. I work as a Process Improvement Manager making 80K + 10K in bonus in Chino hills, CA. I have an engineering degree B.S. I’m looking at reaching the 100K mark in two years time. I work 45 hrs a week and travel at least 10%. I have to say that 80K does not go very far now a days. With the economy going where it is, homes are now between 200K-350K in my area (in 2006 they were 500K-700K). I think California is going down the toilet. My girlfriend is studying to be a nurse, so maybe she can specialize in Anesthesia so we can get a large house at 400K.
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
National Laboratory Scientist. Requires you to get a B.S. in a scientific discipline, followed by a Ph.D. Most staff scientists in my field start around 100K per year with maybe 5-10K in bonuses. After a few years your income works its way up to the 120-160K range. If you get promoted to manager you can expect 200K+, but not every good scientist gets promoted… If you are really good at what you do you can make even more, with some of the top paid spectroscopists at lawrence livermore labs pulling down 700K per year.
Upsides - Pretty stable work not quickly effected by an ailing economy. Stimulating. Smart people to work with. Flexible hours. Good pay. Great benefits.
Downsides - Forever being judged on your intelligence. I am not a genius, just worked hard to get here, and I cannot remember everything from every course I ever took. Sometimes long hours. But not as bad as most lawyers. Probably on par with physicians hours while on-call.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:25 am
I work as a police officer and i also hold a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice. I live and work in California where they pay the highest. I make about 150K a year with overtime, which is pretty nice. I work long days 10-12 hours a day (4days a week), but i get 3-4 days off in a row EVERY week!! so the schedule is perfect! If i do not do any overtime at ALL (which is imposible bc of late arrests) i still will make 115K a year. I know several officers making over 200K a year, but they work too much. Probably 70-75 hours a week
May 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Why in hades are we paying police officers 200K per year? I think I’ve just solved our great state’s budget problem. Why should a policeman make a surgeon’s salary?
I respect police officer’s. I am glad they are there to “protect and serve”. It is a noble calling. But come on, you don’t deserve 5 times what we pay our soldiers to fly planes over anti-aircraft missiles.
May 30th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Hey don’t look at me, look at the 700K science people above me. Oh and we don’t make surgeon’s salary, they make much more!! I make a lot b/c i’m at the top step for officers pay. I’m also a training (train the new officers)officer, so i make an extra $7.00 an hour, which equals about $60 an hour without overtime. THe job isn’t easy, and is very demanding. Ca. officers are the highest trained and most educated. We are not soldiers. SOldiers come a dime a dozen, you can be 18 with no educated and striaght out of high school. If you can run around and shoot a gun, you can be one too. I wouldn’t judge police work until you know someone close that’s in it or you have done the work yourself. It’s much more than just taking someone to jail. Much more responsibility than most jobs out there. We have to know many many laws and elements to out smart the lawyers in court.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:22 am
No offense Dino. But i too think we pay our govt employees too much. 150k for working 3-4 times a day is a damn good salary - esp. considering you dont need any degree for it.
Here in new york, they are increasing income taxes and are making calls for “shared sacrifice”. But somehow in the budget the state govt. employees will end up with a 3% raise.
Think about it. 3% raise when everyone else is either losing job or has salary freeze at best.
I dont know where this will end. Now i am inclining towards the republican line, where they have lean government and no income taxes. Democrats - it seems - will tax us to oblivion.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Dino,
My comment is based on the fact that I have many friends in the Bay Area who I went to college with. Some got B.S./B.A. degrees in Accounting (from good schools) or Business or Finance, they were all starting somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 per year salaried (no such thing as overtime). 3 of my best friends were Engineering majors, they work their tails off all day doing skilled work and are all in the 50K-80K range in the Bay Area. My closest bud in college went on to medical school in SoCal and is now a family general practice physician making 140K per year, but you have to add in the fact that he has about 250,000 in student loans and malpractice insurance premiums every month. He works in Walnut Creek! Take this out and his income is more like the monthly net of a 80K per year salary.
Lastly, a close friend of my wife’s went to Law School at a TOP tier university, and landed one of the best jobs available in SF at a well-renowned firm and she started at 140K per year and is working ~60-70 hours per week.
This is why I get flared when I hear that blue collar police officer’s make 150K-200k per annum, and nurses with a 2-4 year degree make 100K per year fresh out of college. This IS the reason why California’s government is bankrupt and our health care system is falling apart with massive costs/fees for services.
I understand that you think you deserve the income. But believe me, EVERYONE’s job is hard, from the grunt changing your tires at the tire store to an engineer designing a facility improvement on a deadline.
But, hey, thats what this forum is all about. If you can make 200K with very little education, then by all means, you have found a great niche.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Yeah, I must agree with everyone else. It is definitely not appropriate (especially considering our budget crisis) to pay 100k to 200k to police officers. It’s not a job that requires any special skills or talent, and a large majority of the population can perform the tasks… Truth is, you spend at least 95% of your time patrolling the streets and writing tickets. Like any other job, once in a blue moon, you do something extraordinary. You also take a break whenever you want, and pretty much do as you please… Contrary to popular believe, it’s not even a very dangerous job. It’s actually more dangerous to be a Farm Worker, Driver, or a Fisher than it is to be a cop. Here’s the source, http://www.streetgangs.com/memorial/police.html... Personally, I think a 50k salary for police officers is way more than adequate.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:54 am
It’s obvious that Amir has no clue what police work is like and is ignorant about it. That’s ok because he doesn’t know. Truth is police work is very demanding. Not only will they not accept you if you don’t have education, you have to have great credit, no arrest record (not even traffic tickets) good job history, great communication skills, no drugs ever, able to think fast, good judgement, and much more. Most jobs all you have to do is a interview or two and that’s it. FOr us, we have to take a written examination, physical agility test, oral interview, polygraph test (if caught lying, did any crimes, or ever done drugs, even experimented, you fail) We have to pass a psychological test and interview with a psychologist (who picks you brain) and pass background check where a detective tries to find anything that would disqualify you. THen pass a medical and fit test. THen pass the chief’s oral interview. THe process take about 9-12 months. A lot longer than you usual hiring process.
It’s a dangerous and risky job. Maybe not in Beverly HIlls, but in the big city i work in there are shootings, stabbings, drug dealing, robberies, burglaries almost every day. We don’t put a bullet proof vest on because it’s the fasion. Amir said above that it’s more dangerous being a farm worker, well not too many farm workers are murdered, and if they are it’s personal, not job related. If a farm worker is killed it’s because he made a mistake, slipped and fell, etc. If an officer is killed he’s usually murdered or in a car accident chasing someone who just kidnapped, shot someone, robbed someone, etc. Officers put their lives on the line to protect and help you.
A UC Berkeley grad started as a new officer and was terminated as he didn’t pass the field training. It’s a LOT harder to make it than people think. TO me, being an accountant (CPA) is a cake job. All you need to be is good with a few numbers and that’s it. You can be out of shape, no common sense, be an alcoholic, and it’s fine. if you have a fight with your girlfriend, no one cares. If you get arrested for DUI no one cares and you still got your job. If you are an off-duty cop and get a DUI then you are fired.. Not fair in my eyes. If you are an accountant, everyone likes you. if you are a police officer, half the people hate you. It’s not really a glorifying job. One mistake and we can me killed, sued, or fired.
I’ll give an easy scenario that occurred the other day. A merchant calls the police and tells you that the guy in front of you just tried to pass a fake $20 bill, the merchant wants him arrested. What do you do????? How do you investigate this according to law and procedure???? THis is just one in hundreds of scenarios, but give it a try and test you investigation skills..
You have to be physically fit as well as mentally fit. Out of ABout 1000 applicants, only 50 are acutally accepted. Of thos 50, approx 35 will make it. we have a 25% failing rate from the academy and field training. THe starting Salary when i started was 50k a year. THen you work your way up. It’s not like someone joins the police and makes 100k plus right off the top.
Officers in most other states make about 50k a year, but the cost of living is real low. Like i said before, it’s only CA bay area where we make the most due to high cost of living.
You want to talk about crazy salaries and unreasonable salaries. Remember the DOT COM era about 10 years ago. 23 yeard old kids were making 500k a year earning millions in stock. THey would retire at the age of 29 being a millionaire, while i was busting my butt as a rookie officer making 50k a year!!
Or how about actors or these reality stars. Just be yourself and show a little emotion on the camera and boom, you are a millionaire. I do love my job and live comfortable, but i will never be rich.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Dino,
I don’t necessarily have an opinion on what police officers should or should not be making, because frankly I don’t have any idea what the job entails. It’s quite obvious Amir doesn’t either, but I do take issue with you defending the job and then doing exactly what Amir did with regard to .com millionaires or actors.
In a free market, one will be paid what they are worth. You may not like it, or see value in it, but those that matter (read: the ones paying the salary) feel that individual is worth it. In the case of actors, athletes, or reality TV stars, some generate a massive amount of revenue for their respective employers. Trivializing what they do as “showing a little emotion on camera” speaks to your own ignorance. They are not paid for showing emotion on camera, they are paid for generating revenue.
I’m in sales, and generate over $20 million a year in revenue for the company I work for. I’m paid about 400k in compensation, and I’m 29 with no formal education. Guess what? I’m worth every penny because of the business I develop and the relationships I’ve built. I’m sure there are many out there that would disagree, but frankly, I don’t care about those people. I’m only interested in what my employer thinks.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I’ve been scanning this blog on and off for sometime now and it is very interesting to see how different people make their way up to the 100-200k mark. I am curious to hear your opinions on my situation and what my 100k outlook is like. Went to local school for 2 years for a nursing BSN, got into first sem. clinicals and had a change of heart. Spent 3 years at LSU and finished in Construction Management, minor Business. Now making 53k/year salary plus bonuses…60k, maybe a little less. Outlook for raises, questionable. Problem is that construction is not doing so well in the country right now and seems it wont for the forseeable future. Considered contracting paint, drywal, etc but too much risk. Thinking about going spend 2 years to finish my BSN nursing. Waste of time? Could spend same amoutn of time working or going to a grad school. Confused and trying to make it to 100k as quick as possible
June 4th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Ironic,
I do agree with you about one is paid what one is worth. I was playing a little devil’s advocate about my thought of actors and .com millionaires. I know the job requires a lot more depending on the script, movie, or show.. I just don’t like the haters on this blog, i’m happy for myself and love my job. ALso, just like you, i should care less what people think we are paid ( all matters is what my supervisors think) as long as i get my 150K 3 days off a week, the best health benifits, and a sweet retirement package where i get 90% of my salary for LIFE.. Oh i can also retire at age 55 years old. All this and no one can take it away from us.
Everyone should get the most out of life and their career!! good luck everyone, except Amir. LOL
Also, BayouBoy, i say get your BSN.. I have some friends that are RN’s (BSN) and they make over 100k easy.. It’s already in your field so go for it!!!
June 5th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I think that some people commenting here are quite young, while others are much older - like me (41). As you get to my age group after a long hard slug to get over the 100k mark you will be happy that you get all the benefits. I suspect that most public service folks do not get that kind of cash and that he has worked his a$% off and is an above average cop.
I still want to know a career choice to get over 200k (which I feel is the new 100k).
June 5th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Dino,
I enjoy hearing about others successes. I’m glad that you’ve found a lucrative career while performing a public service at the same time. The haters should just be ignored completely. Believe me, I’m sure most would trade places with you if they could.
denver,
There are lots of career choices that can break the 200k barrier. I’m in sales, and if you’re good you can easily break 200k, but of course it’s not for everyone. It certainly isn’t a very prestigious job, but it can afford you a great lifestyle. Most professions will require a great deal of education to break that barrier, however.
What kind of education/work experience do you have currently? It’s never too late to change careers, but it certainly helps if you can build on your existing experience.
June 5th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Dino, I’m not hating. The difference between you and Ironic is that he has a PRIVATE employer, but WE the PUBLIC pay your salary. Considering how CA is going through such massive budget crisis, 150k to 200k is just too much. As I said, according to statistics it’s not a very dangerous job. In 2008, only 54 officers were killed intentionally, and that’s out of well over 800,000 police officer. In comparison, something like 1,000 lumber workers a year die on the job… I think there are a lot more police brutalities than fatalities. You keep saying, u need to have good judgment to do the job, but from my experience, that hasn’t been the case. I’ve been arrested twice, and in both cases the charge was dropped because I really didn’t do anything wrong. One time, I went to jail for almost 40 hours, because my friend was driving a little buzzed and I was the passenger. I simply asked the officer if I could go out of the car, and he took me to jail. Later, I recognized him from 13 years back in high school. He just laughed about it, and said “Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?”. I have no idea what I had done to him back then, but what he did wasn’t professional… Another time, my friend dropped me off by my car and since I was a little tipsy, I decided to sleep in my car. About after 2 hours of being sound sleep, something like 5 police cars showed up, took me out of the car, and gave me a full blown DUI test. I told them, I wasn’t driving, and admitted that I had drank, but after 1.5 hour of wasting time testing me, they wanted to take me in for a DUI, until one of them realized that I had never even put the key in the ignition. So, instead of letting me go back to sleep, they took me to jail for “Public Drunkenness”. I WAS IN MY CAR SLEEPING. Does that sound like good judgment to you? AND, considering how much you guys get paid, that whole event probably cost the tax payers about a thousand bucks. AND, I lost over $1,000 in over time pay the next day because I couldn’t go to work… Overall, you get paid too much for the service you provide and with our huge budget deficit, don’t be surprised if you start seeing pay cuts… Our state simply cannot sustain such huge spending anymore.
June 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Amir, sounds like you have something against cops because of your arrest history.. I wasn’t the cop, who arrested you so i can’t speak for them. I’m sure they would tell me a different story if i spoke with them…THere is always two sides to every story. I don’t think i have ever met ANYONE who said,” uh yeah officer, i think i deserve to be arrested.” Everyone thinks they don’t deserve to be arrested, even the drug dealers, the robbers, the car jackers, rapists, etc..
Uh and case law if you don’t know, if you are drunk in your own car parked doesnt matter if the engine is off ( but you need to be in control of you car keys) then you can be arrested for DUI.. Many people will agree that you should have been arrested inside your car wheather it be DUI or drunk in ppub;ic. BECAUSE if you are NOT, then you can be a safety risk to the public had you decided to drive.. YOU may not have done it, i don’t know, But many other would not give a crap and just drive b/c they think they are ok..
Tell you story to a person who was hit by a drunk driver and they will be real happy that the police arrested you. The police can’t make everyone happy.. You are upset at the police who arrested you and if you were not arrested, then the person who called on you would be mad at the police saying,” AH they are lazy and didn’t do their job, they don’t care” SO i’m sorry if you had a bad experience.
Oh and also about the danger factor, Officers are highly trained not to get killed in the line of duty.. How about the army in Iraq is that dangerous?? well there are 100’s of thousand soldiers there and only a few thousand were killed, so do the math, it’s only like 1% or so.. so t=does that mean going to Iraw is not dangerous Amir??? you’re crazy if you think so.. If we hired a bunch of uneducated idiots that have no tactical skills then cops would be killed left and right. It’s our expereince and training that keeps us ALIVE, nothing else.. another example, is balancing on a tight rope from building to building 300 fett above the ground dangerous? Well for an expert, maybe not. But for the average person, HELL YA!!!Like i said before we only accept the top 5 % of applicants.. Our job is risky, we just have to be well training and prepared.
also this may upset you more, but we are getting a 4% raise by next month and another 4 % raise next year, it’s a contract with the city, so they cannot refuse it.. so i should clear over 160K next year!!!! If the city can’t afford it then the Federal money comes in…THis is a great job, For the people that think we get paid too much, maybe you are in the wrong career…Otherwise just be happy with the career you chose and make the best of it!!!
June 7th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Amir,
I have to agree with Dino. You’re taking your own anecdotal evidence and painting all police officers with the same broad brush. I understand your point that the tax payers are paying his salary, but let’s be honest, if we had access to the budget of the California gov’t there would be a laundry list of things to get cut before we start pissing off our police officers by chopping their salaries. You may think they’re worthless, but I can assure you, having a bunch of unhappy cops is probably not the best for the overall public good.
Let’s stick to the facts and leave the rest out of it, because your anecdotes just make you look like you have an axe to grind.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I’m 31, MS degree in geoscience and I make 40,000k ish a year. I also live on a small south pacific island, spend less than 20,000K with a great standard of living, travel for work and pleasure and put in 30 to 50 hr a week. More money would be cool but I’m already living the dream of warm waters, starry nights, laidback lifestyle and no boss. Good luck ya all
July 9th, 2009 at 2:23 am
I lived with my parents for 40 years and having no expenses; worked full-time at Wal Mart for 40 years saving $2 million in the process. Now I make $100K/year solely from interest income on CDs.
Talk about the american dream
July 10th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I’m a 21 y/o full time student and earned $71k last year and aiming at $140-150k this year. I’m the owner of a website which is getting fairly popular. I started making websites when I was 16, so it all started out as a hobby, which I think it actually still is, I had my full time internship this year which was very boring (working from 9-5).
Unlike most people commenting I’m not from the US, I’m from holland but nearly all my earnings are from US companies. Note that these earnings are not net (net = -52% taxes).
July 11th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
i believe that some of the higher salaries indicated here are just fabricated or exponentially increased just to be cool. oh, i’m not hating those people. i work in the IT industry, so i know that most of the salaries here are laughable. 22 years old earning $175K? give me a break! unless you developed a new software that went public! who would be crazy enough to pay you that amount of money with little/no experience… yeah, right!
July 12th, 2009 at 9:30 am
joe,
No need to be bitter about it. It’s very possible. I made that and more and had nothing past a high school diploma. Granted, I’m not in IT either.
Just because you failed to accomplish it, doesn’t mean others have made it up. Furthermore, why on Earth would anyone anonymously make up salaries to a bunch of people they do not know? That hardly even makes sense.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
ironic,
i believe that i mentioned about not being bitter by some of the pretenders here. i’m currently in six figure salary, but with experience and educational background.. this is my question for you, would you hire a high school graduate with no or little experience as one of your consultants, which will cost you ~100k plus? unless, maybe this consultant is one of the profound speakers at defcon!
July 20th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Everyone has an “optimum” level of income/stress/work skill/work hours/cost of living/commute. Obviously, more $$ is better, but if it costs you an arm/leg daily, it might not be worth it (like health reasons). Nowadays, what people earn has no correlation to what people choose to live in. You could be making $100k+ and live in frugal house or an expensive place. Now that there are so many foreclosures, people are “downsizing” and reconsidering whether it’s worth maintaining a Mansion that won’t sell. I’m a little above $100k before taxes and live in my Mother’s house paying her property tax. I have no mortgage and basically save. The only liability is the property tax and the only reason I’m still in NJ is because my job is in NYC. I could not afford to buy in NJ today as my parents did 20 years ago. Whatever you do, don’t live in northern NJ unless your willing to pay property taxes. I hate property taxes, most of which got jacked up because of the horde of subprime people moving into town. It’s always the taxpayer that gets hit.
July 20th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
BTW, total amount of US currency in circulation is a portion of the $9trillion national debt which is constantly growing. That which is not circulating is the $millions in savings accounts by dead retirees of passed generations. So if you have $millions in the bank account, perhaps you should spend some before your death or give it to heirs. Otherwise, it be just a waste. FIAT currency always ends badly.
July 21st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I read all the comments all the way down. Great blog. I majored in Chemistry, and completely regret it. The jobs I’m seeing for people with my degree offer $10-$12 to just run simple tests in research labs. And even for those jobs, hundreds of people apply. I have been researching lots of careers since, and here are some jobs i have found which offer a decent income (min 50k). Most of these are health related since that’s what my experience is in.
1. RN-all you need is a bachelor’s in nursing. Have another degree? No problem; you can do an accelerated BSN which only takes 1-1.5 years.
2. CRNA-after becoming an RN, just work in the ICU for a year or 2 and you can do a master’s degree as a CRNA and make 150-200k.
3. Anesthesiology Assistant-this is very similar to working as a CRNA. however for admissions, a BSN is not required. You only need the basic premed reqs (bio, chem, etc). After 2 years, you can be making 120k.
3. Police officer-you can work as one with a HS diploma, some places require 60 college credits. Starting salaries around 45-50k but since overtime is almost mandatory (bc u often have to work at night) it’s easy to make double that.
4. Radiology tech-you just need to do a 2 year program after H.S. and you start at 50k.
5. MRI tech-if you get bored of being a rad tech, you can do additional training as an MRI tech and make 65k.
6. Pharmacist-if you’re in high school, just apply to one of the combined BA to PharmD programs. They are 5-6 years, so when you’re 24, you can be easily be making at least 110k. And very flexible scheduling if you stay in retail.
7. Property manager-no education required. As long as you have some way to buy an apartment complex, it’s easy money with few ‘man-hours’ required.
August 9th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I agree with the the poster who advised against becoming a lawyer. I’m 32 years old and earn $125K after practicing law for 8 years. There are no retirement benefits or profit sharing (in my mind, a non-matching 401K plan does not count since the employer pays nothing into it). I work anywhere from 60 to 80 hours per week, but most often put in a good 11 to 12 hours a day, not uncommonly 14 to 15 hours, and some weekends too. If I get home before 9:00 p.m., my wife comments that I’m home early. I Don’t know how much longer she’ll be my wife at this rate.
The stress and pressure are ridiculous. You go to work everyday knowing that if you miss a detail in a brief or inadvertendly blow a deadline on a case for an important client or partner, you are on the fast track to being fired or pressured out of the firm (being denied raises or bonuses, being given demanding but unrewarding work, being snubbed by other lawyers and your own support staff until you quit). If you are a sole practicioner or a name partner, you are looking at malpractice liability and disbarrment. Between the stress and the time demands, the impact on family, interpersonal relationships, and physical health is devasting. Despite these issues, I can’t take a lower-stress or less time-demanding job because I still have over $75K in student loans and don’t have any marketable skills outside of law.
So that is my situation. Then I read this blog about all of the IT personnel, engineers, sales people, and law enforcement workers who earn well more than I do ($160K?!? $175K?!? $200K?!?) with far fewer years of education (in my case, after obtaining a 4-year college degree, I still had to spend another 3 years in law school, then take a three-day exam following two months of virtually monastic studying, and then wait 4 months for the results to begin practicing). Many work half of the hours that I do, with much less stress. I feel like a complete schmuck for going to law school and becoming a lawyer. I wish I had known that there are many careers out there that will allow for a $100K-plus income without having to work more than 35-40 hour days (or perhaps longer days, but with 4 or 3-day workweeks).
Changing topics, I have a couple of comments on other posts:
As to pay levels and their propriety, particularly for police/law enforcement: Their is a reckoning coming for many police officers/sheriff’s deputies/etc. as to pay. Perhaps $150K or more is justified for the job duties and qualifications such officers must satisfy. However, local and state government (at least in California) cannot afford to continue paying such amounts. Many law enforcement agencies here are laying off a large percentage of their forces and instituting hiring freezes. For those officers unlucky enough to be laid off, I doubt union contracts are much consolation.
(2) Perhaps free market principles mean that employees are truly paid what they are “worth,” such that high-profile actors, etc. deserve their seven-figure incomes. People are often compensated in line with the revenue they can produce for their employers. The fact that something is common, however, does not make it right.
People largely suceed based on their ingrained talents - talents they were born with and perhaps honed, but essentially did nothing to deserve. A virtuoso pianist who can give concert recitals of Mozart at age 6 has most certainly practiced hard to do so, but the vast majority of 6-year-olds would find it impossible able to attain such a level of playing ability even with the highest and most intense level of instruction. This same argument can apply to less extreme examples, such as a 22-year-old tech guru.
On the other hand, many less-talented people work 50, 60, or more hours per week at grueling jobs and barely earn a living wage. The fact is, such people may be living up to their full potential - not everybody can be an IT manager, professional athlete, etc. Despite their strong work ethic, our society deprives these laborers of the respect, financial security, and leisure that more “talented” workers enjoy. Is this really how it should be? Remember, we who earn $100K-plus are able to do so because there are others who earn $20,000 per year (and often much less) growing and preparing our food, sewing our clothes, and making the plastic keys for our laptops, all in sweatshop conditions.
I’m not advocating that we switch to a model like that of Communist Russia. However, there is something to be said for moving to a system that does more to moderate social inequality (notice that I said “moderate,” not “eliminate”). No modern, complex society can have complete equality, and people should be motivated to achieve with the promise tangible rewards, including heightened status and better living conditions. At the same time, social justice and inherent principles of human decency dictate that a corporate CEO or television late-night host should not be left with an income that is 1000 times the wage of an average corporate worker.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Dang “Just Say No”, i feel for you, but remember we do our jobs mostly because we enjoy the job, not for the money.. My lady is a Lawyer, went o SAnta Clara Law, she works her tail off (making 120k a year )and i make more than her (155k a year) as a top step police training officer with overtime. If I was paid only 85k a year, i would still be doing the job because i enjoy it. SO remember if you love being a lawyer, then be happy and enjoy your life and profession. DOn’t wish you did something else that makes for money and you didn’t enjoy it, it kind of defeats the purpose of quality of life..
October 18th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I am 40 + y/o IT Consulting Manager with close to 15 years of experience. I earn between $115k - $175k per year depending on how well sales is doing. I love the work and the interaction with the people I manage and my customers.
I graduated in 1993 with a BS in Engineering, taking my first job at $25k/yr. As I moved through various positions and jobs, the money just keep going up. The more certifitications I get, the more money I make.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I am in the same category as you, but not making as much money. Would you be willing to list the certifications you have?
November 4th, 2009 at 11:32 am
I’m a Fed. with 28 years of service. I have an MS degree in business administration (accounting) from a good business school and have a CPA certificate. I just broke the 100K barrier last year and make just a little over that now. After reading many of the testamonies in this site re: earning 100K+ while being under age 30 just out of school, I feel like a failure having taken so much time to reach a salary that in many areas of the U.S. is considered only a low to moderate income level. I have but one consolation: - I work a standard 40-hour week, have a secure job, and have good retirement benefits.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Sol Julius, what state are you in? 100k is really good in some states regarding cost of living!!
November 14th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I find this site fascinating…From the police officer that earns over 150K to the attorney that can’t stand his profession.
It’ so difficult to compare salaries as there are so many regional differences. I live in the NJ/NY area and make over 100K, but don’t live extrodinarily well. I think nowadays 100K (at least in this area) is just slightly above average, but maybe in the midwest it would be considered well above average….In my mind, if you’re not highly educated or don’t have a unique ability, Sales is the best way to make a high income. Unfortunately, I’m in a depressed industry so I’m actually at the top of the pay scale, but sales in pharma or IT seem to be where Salespeople are making significant money. I consider my self an outstanding salesperson, but the industry I’m in will never allow me to hit the 200K mark.
November 15th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I am a federal civilian Fire Chief working at a military base at the GS-13 level. I make $130K. My salary is high because my workweek is 60 hours which includes standard 40 hours plus a 24 hour shift at the fire station every week. Been over the $100K mark for the last 7 years. I am unhappy in my job. Sick and tired of working for substandard leadership. Trying to get early retirement now (25 years as a fed employee completed - 45 yrs old). I have an AAS Fire Science and a BA Management along with advanced firefighter professional certification as Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and Fire Officer IV. Recently started a Homeland Security / Emergency Management training and consulting firm. Advice - all the money in the world means nothing if you’re not happy in what your doing. I used to love my job, but senior leadership is and has been awful.
November 16th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I have just recently hit the 6 figure mark as an IT Manager. I quit a job as a Sales Manager to pursue IT, went to a vo-tech, got my certs, and found a job paying $25K. The company had 200+ clients and trained me/ released me upon their clients. After a few years it grew to $65K, got hired by one of those clients and a few years later I’m making $100K+. It isn’t easy work. I’m earning every day, night and weekend. I’m also learning every day, night and weekend. I go through cycles of ups and downs. I feel I deserve the pay simply based on hours and responsibility, but sometimes having no responsibility, freedom to just walk, and no cares sounds good too.
There may be some that make 100K+ with no stress, but the more you make the more stress you take on.
Oh, and you better answer that phone at 4:00am, they don’t care if you’re off and have a hangover, pony up and fix the problem. That’s my experience anyway.
I love my job, but not everybody can do it. Hence, 6 figures. You will trade your life, morals, and your sleep. It’s the way it is. 6 figures is still alot of money to the majority of the world.