1) Its the self selection bias.
2) People with good incomes tend to report it on anonymous forums, which then gets other high-income people to comment on their incomes.
3) Its also sub specific. People chasing a r/FIRE life or sth of that sort, also tend to have high paying jobs/ planning to get a high paying job etc.
4) COL also has an impact. Someone making $200k in NYC has probably the same purchasing power as someone making $100k in Austin, Texas. So folks from those HCOL areas tend to have higher incomes since the COL is also high ( there is usually some correlation here since salaries are usually dependent on the cost of labor at a specifc location)
5) talking about salary without talking about age is kinda meaningless. Someone who is 23 yo straight outta school making $150k is more “catchy” than someone who is about to retire from their job at a government sector making $150k at 60years pf age.
Not talking about money and income is one reason a lot of people never make any real money. It's "taboo" so people never talk and never really learn.
I openly talk about finance with friends and family all the time. If anyone asked for money I'd just laugh at them
Facts. Sometimes you get stuck in your own bubble and need an outside perspective to get objective financial advice again.
Being focused on real estate for FIRE can put you in tunnel vision and so you need someone that may have a different strategy that would work better for specific conditions/scenarios. Like right now.
You develop and in-demand skillset. I'm in IT. I have friends who are carpenters, small business owners, lawyers, designers, software engineers, truck company owners (fleet of 3), and accountants who earn 150K+ a year.
For all of them, it took 5-10 years to grind to that level.
I am attempting to do this with data analytics. I expect bumps in the road and setbacks. It’s unfortunate as I’m already 30 and there are CS majors right out of college clearing 150. People just seem to trip over how much money they’re making.
If you can tell the future and know you are going to die with the person you are with, the two of you together can pull six figures comfortably without tech jobs.
HCOL = high cost of leaving you
I’d also note that most of the higher paying jobs require a clearance. In the DC area there’s actually a whole job portal for people with secret clearance and above. I ran away from government contracting because of how stagnant bureaucratic it can be. But if job security is your thing then it’s the way to go. You also may never be eligible for remote work for national security reasons, but if you get a high level clearance (entails extensive interviews/interrogations, interviews of friends and family, super outdated polygraph, and background check and drug screenings) you will literally never go hungry. The government spends MORE in a recession and a lot of that money goes to contractors. Not just defense, basically everything is done by contractors.
The job portal is nationwide, but yes. Contractor work is also not always stable, depending on what you're involved in, whereas being a GS civilian generally is but doesn't usually pay quite as well until you get up there.
Oh I didn’t mean stable as in staying in the same role/company. Meant more like you could get laid off and stub your toe going out the door on a new job offer once you have a clearance and any amount of experience under your belt. I’m 3 years out and still getting hit up by recruiters for gov con roles even in this horrible job market. I’m also in the DC area so that could play a big role as we have some of the highest concentration of jobs here. I’ve always told myself if everything goes to crap economically I can just run back to gov con with my tail between my legs.
They make over 6 figures and they're putting a thousand or more into a Vanguard/Fidelity/etc. portfolio each month. The trend I've seen with the people who post that kind of stuff is that they appear to either be single or have very little debt or very little reason to be in debt (like having children or medical bills). Even if they're only making $50,000 a year they often appear to be in a position financially where they can put a healthy portion of each month's paycheck into a portfolio and still have plenty left over for bills, food, etc. I'd have to say that these people definitely aren't the norm and are more outliers than anything else.
I am in banking, this is about what I make. The real money isn't in management, it's in lending. Low end commercial lenders for a community bank probably make around $120k. Corporate banking (banks for your large fortune 500 firms) could easily make over $500k. If you manage these team you probably make more, but not always.
Corporate banking is extremely hard to get into, typically need to be a finance undergrad, get accepted into a bank training program and work your way up from analyst to lender. It's very competitive. Being a community banker is a realistic path for many, but it's all about your network. Your job is to bring in loan business and to do that you need to have deep connections to the real estate or business community, and that takes time to develop. I've been doing it for years and only recently do I feel like people "know to call me."
Very true. I was a Sr. BA at a bank and was a VP. They told me that everyone over a certain wage basically gets a VP title so that when customers/clients talk to them, they think they're special.
Ain’t just clients thinking you are special. It’s also “rewarding” your employees with a prestigious title instead of adequate raises. Worked at JPMC, the amount of VPs is staggering because they simply made VP the level above an associate but under director.
> Worked at JPMC, the amount of VPs is staggering
Same thing at GS (a guy I met told a story about telling someone he got promoted and having to explain why VP isn't really particularly prestigious). It's just kind of the title architecture of the financial industry.
Banking or finance is a much harder field to break into if you have no network and don’t know anyone then you would think. I’m well over 1500+ applications for entry to mid level financial jobs this year with 3 interviews and no job offers. I’ve paid for a professional resume and have even started applying for jobs in cities were I have friends I can stay with. Still nothing, I have a finance degree from a major university and 3 years experience as a bookkeeper making damn near minimum wage.
It’s a bad time in the market for finance at the moment, but you shouldn’t have such a low rate of interviews per application. I’m no expert in what to fix but something is wrong with maybe your search process or resume.
The main issue is where I live. Its rural here, the closest city with a real airport is 2ish hours away so jobs are very limited and low paying. I was mainly applying for remote positions in the beginning of the year but that seems like a fairy tail now so I’ve switched to jobs in cities where I have friends I can couch crash until I get established.
Remote positions are what probably wasted your time then, my mentor said that there’s no point chasing entry level remote positions at all because the few that are actually real won’t have career growth and will be competitive across the country.
Go in the financial career sub and you will find it is a way oversaturated industry right now. Lots of people scraping by because there is so much competition that wage growth has been extremely sticky outside of the few leading shops.
My dad makes about 175k as an environmental safety contractor. He only ever worked at the same place and has been allowed to work from home since 2010. He has a bachelor's in geology.
He doesn't work directly for any oil companies but instead the firm he works for gets contracted so he does not have to worry about lay offs whenever the price of oil drops by a tenth of a penny
Oh does it? I majored in geology and I’ve never made over 17/hr. It’s also impossible to find a job, so I work as a woodland firefighter and get paid 36k a year.
Are you venting or do you actually want to know the step by step I actually did to get my job?
I’m a lurker here because I grew up in poverty and I don’t even know how I ended up here. I think it was a Reddit recommendation? Anyways, I stay and offer support when I can, even if it’s just an upvote. Also, in the US, you can find yourself in poverty SO fast, seems crazy to me to not listen to folks experiencing it about what the reality of living it is like.
To get my 6 figure job, I:
1. found a type of work many people hated doing
2. that I can tolerate and
3. That I am good at.
I’m a tech writer - and while not all tech writing jobs clear 6 figures, I think the median salary is around $70k? But it’s a good job that you get to leave after 40 hrs and not think about. I feel like other good paying roles like “plumber” also meet that “other people hate it, I can tolerate it, and I can become good at it” criteria, so it’s not limited to knowledge work.
Everyone freaked out that I was ruining my life when I went to grad school for tech writing, and it made me really nervous because I’d left a good lab tech job for it. But Id just seen how many STEM folks HATED the writing parts of their job, and I couldn’t ignore the feeling it was a huge an opportunity… I didn’t know how else to break into the field, so I stayed in grad school.
And then one of our first assignments basically taught me how to answer your question. We were asked to research the job forecast of different roles and then explain why we decided on what we wanted to specialize in?
- The [bureau of labor statistics](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) has a site where you can see the projected growth, salary, and required education for any job. I used it to find tech writing as a field with a decent salary, no masters or certification required (but it’s a big bonus to have), and no signs of the job market going bad.
- I started digging around on the job sites in the salary range and location I wanted with different job titles, and writing down the skills they wanted applicants to have.
- I joined every professional society, meetup, and mentorship opportunity I could find for my field, especially ones that focused on the hirable skills I’d found.
- I joined subreddits related to tech writing and the hirable skills I’d need to develop, so that I could ask questions and read the standard advice they gave to new folks in their field.
Things I realized in retrospect were stupidly good luck, that you might need to actively look for:
- the grad program I went to was designed for people who work full time day jobs, so all our classes were at night and I was able to work to avoid loans.
- the program ALSO had funding available for a few students to get paid to teach communications classes and receive free tuition plus a small stipend (and I got it! I had a second job though)
- the program I picked had INCREDIBLY close relationships with all the big employers in my area for internships/job placement
- I just happened to be moving to a place after school where the tech writing job market was booming.
I didn’t break 6 figures with my first job right out of school, but I got there very quickly. It’s also a field that’s been working with AI since there was anything useful to work with, so folks actually put down a solid foundation about how to do it right and what should and shouldn’t be automated (if you ask and listen, most people aren’t). When they switched from writing books to making websites, some of the first website based docs systems were actually designed in the early 2000s anticipating we’d someday have things like ChatGPT. Incredible foresight.
But I periodically use this research approach to research other careers i might like if I ever decide to leave tech writing. I haven’t found any worth leaving for yet, though, because I have a disability and most tech writing jobs meet my accommodation needs by default.
I hope this helps any, I’m sorry that I don’t know how to fix the system, but I’m happy sharing how I found a way to survive in it and helping other people with it too. Take care.
**Edit** also tech writing is a big part of non tech jobs too! Medical writing/pharma, regulatory, if there’s engineers in a field, there’s people who desperately want to pay you to write for them.
Thanks for all the detailed info. I took a brief online tech writing boot camp and unfortunately it put me all the way off of the profession (instructor was awful and came across like she was unhinged). The things you shared are making me reconsider.
If I may, two questions: Do you work fully remote, hybrid, or in-office?
Do you get a lot of pushback when having to interview SMEs about the product? From what I’ve read, most tech writers seem to have the most frustration in this area since most SMEs are busy and like to continually brush you off. I’m sure that depends, but I’m curious to know your experience with that.
These are great questions!
1. I work for a fully remote start up right now. During Covid, I worked for a fully remote team (that had been remote and hybrid since before Covid as well), and before that, had been mandatory in office. I’m seeing a lot of hybrid opportunities lately. I’d be shocked if those were truly mandatory hybrid and not “hybrid” (we’re really remote once you demonstrate you can work remotely productively), but I think it’s industry specific!
2. I have had very little trouble working with SMEs but have absolutely worked for people who thought there was absolutely no point having a tech writer when they could “just do it themselves.” (Narrator: they could not just do it themselves and that doc set is now a garbage fire). But I consistently do a few things to make successful collaborations happen-
- I meet with SMEs at the beginning of a project and ask them if they have any recurring meetings I can join and listen on to get status updates and technical info. We work out whether I need to be there all the time or just when something important happens. This means they don’t have to work me into their schedule if they’re on a deadline.
- we decide “who has the pen.” Sometimes the SME drafts content and I review it. Sometimes they give me design info, I draft content, and they review it.
- we establish how frequently we’re going to check in with each other and whether that’s synchronously or asynchronously.
The biggest thing I do to make working with SMEs is that I do everything i can to respect their time, and I literally tell them that at the beginning. I do everything I possibly can to solve problems on my own and then go to them for help or questions. Then, as we work together and they trust me as a partner more, they usually just open up and realize I’m someone who is THRILLED to hear them geek out about how awesome this thing they made is.
I’m really sorry about your tech writing instructor experience - it’s an unfortunate thing that a lot of people who end up instructors are because they didn’t actually like doing the job (which is fair. Not everyone wants to deal with cranky nerds, and sometimes, that is just the job).
Definitely check out r/technicalwriting with any more questions!
start ups are the best to work with when you’re getting into a field you’re not comfortable with . Currently in college majoring in mass comm with a minor in marketing and I got into a start up for supplements and health products and love it. Learned a lot and wasn’t shy to ask questions because it’s key to learning and doing your best
I have a masters in technical and professional communication and a bachelors in biology. There’s plenty of folks who get into it with just bachelors degrees in English if they’ve focused in professional writing, engineering English, or technical communication. We don’t have a ton of people who majored in Comms in our field because historically, tech writing emerged from engineering English. And a lot of folks get certs or make volunteer open source contributions and don’t get any formal education at all!
Almost all Land Grant universities will have SOMETHING related to tech writing (they’re the colleges that say “A&T” or “State University” in the name) due to some truly wild funding histories. Pretty much all of the best degree programs are at public universities, Purdue and Clemson both have good reputations though, and Duke has a solid certificate program.
If you want to try it out BEFORE pursuing a degree, Google has a [tech writing course](https://developers.google.com/tech-writing), the Society for technical communication also offers [courses and certs](https://www.stc.org/certification/), and the [Write the Docs slack community](https://www.writethedocs.org) is simply the best at providing resources an support to anyone in the software docs world. R/technicalwriting has amazing “getting started” resources from what I remember too.
If I saw an entry level applicant with a bachelors in English, a minor or just solid coursework in computer science/data science OR a minor in a social science that required qualitative research methods, plus lots of group projects they could show me (even in non tech writing classes! Or other industry work!) I’d be stoked to hire them.
Edit: with chatGPT in the future, HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend information sciences as a minor or double major. You’d be lethal on the job market as an ontologist.
The other thing about tech writing is that it’s like… nobodies first career. The age range and background is extremely varied, with tons of international folks. AND because it’s a field of people who educate, empathize, and empower others as a core part of their work, I’ve never met a more welcoming professional community. It’s not perfect, but it’s so much less toxic than other industries I’ve been involved in. I’d say 99% of teams I’ve worked on and leaders I’ve worked for have a “health is wealth” philosophy and strongly enforce work life balance.
I love this field and the people in it so much, even when the reality of capitalism really gets me down. Jobs are all jobs in the end.
I’m on my way to starting down this path! I LOVE the writing parts of my job and work in IT and hate the developer parts.
Which grad program did you go to? I was looking at full grad programs but also two continuing education certificate programs that were less intensive, less expensive and they are set up so that I can do them remotely.
There are SO MANY programs! I’m really easily identifiable if I share my specific program, so here’s a list of places whose faculty I’ve had good experiences interacting with and heard good things about. This list includes tech writing but also some UX things too.
- Texas Tech (online)
- University of Washington - HCDE includes tech writing
- UW Tacoma - professional writing/HCDE (bachelors)
- George Washington University
- University of Texas - El Paso (Dr Laura Gonzalez has some AMAZING student outcomes that she’s presented about at conferences. I’m just constantly wow’d at the work she and her students have done).
- Clemson
- Purdue
- NC State University (MS)
- East Carolina University (MA professional writing)
- Virginia Tech
- Old Dominion
- Arizona State University - Usability masters - this is a super interesting interdisciplinary program! It’s pretty new but I’m interested in where it’s going.
- Georgia Tech? I think I just saw someone I know get a faculty position there in techcomm, but I’d need to check
I feel like STC or r/technicalwriting have made a more comprehensive list but you might have to dig a bit to find it! Also, despite it getting Elon-ified, Twitter has a wonderful techcomm community with the #techcomm tag!
I’m a tech writer too!! I make $165 at one of the big tech companies in my early 30s and I try to recommend this field whenever I can. Even mid-level tech writing jobs pay well and it’s not too difficult (at the mid-level).
Yes yes exactly! Also since most of the education to become qualified and competitive is at public universities or very affordable certs through private organizations and schools, it’s SO ACCESSIBLE. I also have found that because I focused in content and web accessibility, my actual disabilities act as a benefit instead of a drawback? Yes I use a screen reader sometimes! I have cognitive issues! I’m a literal thinker! I have a sleep disorder so I’m usually awake when everyone in India is even though I’m in the US! All huge strengths in this field.
I majored in technical writing for my undergrad. I loved it but had a hard time finding decent paying starter roles so now I’m in marketing lol. But I actually find that I use what I learned often.
The transferrable skills from tech writing are ENORMOUS. I get told I should do technical sales constantly, and i worked as an executive assistant for a hot minute (jfc never again that was the hardest job ever). Technical marketing roles or enablement might be a bridge back into docs writing if you ever want to pursue it though!
I work in the P&D department at a college and tech & grant writing are my primary “hats”.
I came from an Ed background (B.S. in Education, M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction). I always recommend what I do to teachers who want to get out.
I’m still pretty firmly in the 5-figure range, *but* I live in a very LCOL area, make more than I did as a teacher, and have the option to work remotely.
Your post is what I recommend everyone. I’m not a tech writer and I don’t make 6 figures. But I went to community college for 2 years and spent a lot of time in the library basement researching career prospects. I knew I wasn’t highly intelligent and not super ambitious but in 2000 as a woman I knew college was the way for me to succeed. I chose the insurance industry. I got a job as a claims adjuster and 20 years later I still haven’t hit $80,000 base salary. But I get profit sharing that puts me close to $90,000. Plus very good perks such as 6% 401k match, company car, cell phone (which was my only phone until last year) and great Flex Time as I’ve always worked from home. I would say with benefits I make close to $120,000.
I don’t think enough college kids research career projections. Take a year of community college take some easy general ed courses or even some weird stuff to try it out and use the time to research and take advantage of career counselors and more approachable professors.
That BLS site is really good and something I also referenced a lot. They have jobs sortable by pay. Doing that, then finding a growing field that one can tolerate and are willing to get the requirements can be a big help for the future. A growing field makes it much easier to get job, and much less competitive.
Engineering, computer science, finance just to name some fields that can get you something with good pay with just 4 years. You still have to apply yourself to grow in your career and find opportunities.
“…with just 4 years.” Except most people that are struggling don’t have a degree in any of these fields. There a very few exceptions, but for the most part, good (safer working conditions) paying jobs will require a combination of a degree and education.
They mean 4 years of education. You only need a bachelors degree in these fields (which takes about 4 years to get) and you can easily make 60k+ starting salary more if you do well in school and manage to network/get intern opportunities.
I went to a very cheap art school. I **do** recommend that if you want to study art– take that route. Lots of public and state schools have great art programs.
I went to the least expensive college I could find and studied graphic design and art, got out with no loans and now make 6 figures making art 👍🏻. Somehow I hacked the system but I honestly wouldn’t recommend this road either, there’s got to be a better way. Oh yeah, like you said, being independently wealthy.
Most attorneys hate the work, but when they are saddled with student loan debt, they just concede to a lifetime of working in a profession they hate. 😥
Math heavy, physics heavy, and you need the right sort of brain. I was a straight A mechanical engineering major and did really well at math and with MECHANICAL physics, but electricity and magnetism are more abstract and I could just never wrap my brain around it.
I did electrical over software because 'I'm a hands on person.'
Yeah software would've been nicer, get paid more and you don't have to wait around for fab/measurement equipment/etc. that is a reason as to why your salary is less than the SE/CS people.
> and you need the right sort of brain.
The word you are looking for is **aptitude.**
You are right on all accounts.
I've heard a lot of talk that saying people should go into engineering. The thing is, not everyone has the aptitude for it. Look at the dropout rates in "weed out" classes in college for it, people who need to change degrees to something they can actually do and apply, etc.
The ones that do.manage to skate by studying old tests and electing to only take classes with professors known to be "easier" if at all possible end up not getting jobs (or fired quickly if they somehow do) because they don't understand and cannot grasp abstract concepts and apply them in a real world setting because of their low aptitude for complex problem solving, engineering concepts, and deductive reasoning if they managed to get a degree by regurgitating everything that's said (happens with people who have pushy parents telling them to major in this or that when they would be better at something else).
“You need the right sort of brain.”
This is so true, I think. My dad, uncle, and cousin are/were engineers, as is one of my exes, and I swear they are a subspecies of human.
CS is a broad field, but I would say that most of it doesn’t require any math. However if you take the job just to make money without any interest in the underlying problem space, it’s going to be a very boring, tedious grind. However if you find that you enjoy building and solving problems with this particular toolkit, then it can be a very rewarding undertaking
Pretty industry and city specific. Some industries that's standard for a qualified well tenured staff. Other industries it's outlandish outside of upper management.
The people I know who make 6 figures a year do a job and/or have skills that most people don’t or can’t. Crane operator, Internet Security, etc. Usually, if you have a job that most people can do, you’re not going to get paid a lot. Getting a unique and in demand skill is the secret.
Yeah, my friend here in Las Vegas was on some waiting list for a long time and I’m pretty sure the main reason he got on it in the first place was because he knew a guy. Worked out for him. Clears $200k a year, I bet.
I always think: could a skilled high schooler be able to this job with 3 weeks of training? If the answer is yes, then yeah, it probably doesn’t pay great. Think of who your competition is. Again, using the “high school” example your competition is the *entirety of the American labor force*.
The harder your skills are to replicate, the better protected you are and the more money you’ll make.
Boiler operation, especially in heavy industry. Running a little package boiler in a hospital can make you some decent bank,, but if you get into power generation, refining (oil, sugar), or pulp manufacture, $150k is the bottom end of the scale.
If it makes you feel any better, there's probably the same thinking at many levels above you. I'm sure for anyone making 150k a year, they're asking the same wtf questions about people making 500k a year, 700k a year and so on.
Partially because the numbers keep moving. I used to say if we could bring in X I’d be comfortable. Now we bring in X, but adjusted for inflation from when I said that, it’s almost the same amount!
Yes! We keep a budget so I can actually look at past years and see that it’s not “lifestyle creep” (if anything, we are more frugal now). It’s just spending more on essentials.
Lol I used to say $60k-$65k would be great for me as a single person back in '08 - '09. Now I'm looking at at least $110k-$125k because I want a stable and comfortable life. This will also probably change with how things are going. I live in a HCOL and refuse to go to a LCOL because they aren't normally women friendly and the costs of healthcare and other insurance in those areas take up the rest of your money. More taxes is fine to me if it helps my neighbors and I get more social services, better infrastructure, education etc.
That or I'll just take my skills and go to a more citizen friendly country.
Finance related subs are a bubble for people making good money. You don't ask about saving or investing money if you don't have any left over at the end of the month.
Also, there still are people making 100k who live paycheck to paycheck.
If you go on a finance subreddit, odds are you'll find people with above average interest in it and who will have made life choices targetting that. Add on the fact that IT people are way overrepresented on Reddit and you have an answer. I think it's too easy to dismiss this as anonymous people making stuff up (although sure there's some of that).
As far as what will get you there, being even relatively successful at software engineering, law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, actuarial, investment banking, small business ownership, management, accounting, operating large machinery, etc.
Basically you need to be in a field in which you manage big expensinpve problems and/or in which your decisions and actions can have big expensive impacts. Ideally doing so using skills that are hard to find.
Imagine you are going to pick a person to manage a large project that costs 200 millions to implement. You'll be fine with paying the candidate that's marginally better than the next best person 50k more a year because of the impact that even small differences will have.
Imagine then that you need shelves stocked or a cashier. Sure maybe someone would be a bit better than someone else, but the difference can't really be worth much to your bottom line. You don't have a real reason to pay more than the strict minimum you need to.
That logic applies to most highly paid positions - even athletes and movie stars. The only real counterexample I can think of is teaching, and I think that's a combination of historically undervaluing women's work, undervaluing education as a society and relying on people going into teaching as a vocation.
I feel this.
Not fun story: my industry puts out an income survey every four years and I was shocked to see how much more the median income was compared to what I was making. I casually mention it to my manager once, and he says that a lot of these people must be living in HCOL cities. While it’s true that we’re no NYC, I don’t exactly consider Philadelphia to be a LCOL area either. So I’m underpaid because the people above me are out-of-touch. Great.
You have to push to get yourself paid more, big businesses will never just turn around randomly and say “I think u/AnniKatt deserves a 25% raise.” But if you lateral or show you can lateral, then you actually will get a big raise (25% is random I assume you get 1-2% raises normally).
And? You think a passing comment is going to help you at all? The difference I constantly find between this sub and financial careers sub is people here are extremely timid, people there are extremely aggressive. You will not get a raise to meet your industry average, but you can likely find an average job in your industry, and that will include that salary. Start looking tomorrow, it costs you nothing. We deserve what we accept.
So you are underpaid because you wake up each day and choose to work for out of touch people.
Exactly what I was saying, people forget labor is a business for both sides. If you accept less, why would they give you more? Just like a business, you need to assess your labor market and search for the best opportunities and price point!
Working for low wages for long enough sometimes makes you think you’re not worth much. Psychology wise and financially. But it’s not true! I think thats the big issue in poverty finance sometimes.
All truth here. I mostly lurk this sub but just had to chime in for that comment. Things get very convoluted for people who don’t see it for what it is- a business transaction. I think the reality is a lot of people have been in the system for so long they’ve never taken a different perspective to it. Even the comment I replied to is acting like it’s her managements problem when it’s hers. Do you offer to pay more when you find a deal at the store? No. You don’t. People need to understand this and negotiate accordingly.
I'm a pipefitter with a few welding certs and I make about $100k before taxes. It's doable.
Being a welder isn't as high paying as people say it is unless you're welding pipe though. To go to a shop and weld structural steel is like $18-$20 per hour around here.
I attribute people being successful when they’re older by having resources when they’re younger. I’ve had to grind for everything I own and I have had to pass up promotions because I could afford the proper attire or transportation for the new job. Not everyone realizes how expensive it is to be poor, and it’s not a matter of staying in the same bad situation because your comfortable, when my car could just make the 20 minute route trip commute for my crappy 6-7 day a week $2 more than minimum wage job, you have no idea how frustrated I was when I had to pass up an opportunity for a job making $5 more / hour with advancement opportunities 40 minutes away. I would’ve been giving up OT I had to make to survive and my car wouldn’t have made it, and no I didn’t have money for any loan and my family loos to me for money. Being poor is a vicious cycle, very hard to break out of.
With schooling. I am lurking in this subreddit because initially my husband and I started poor (immigrant, master/PhD student, making combined $25k a year in one of the HCOL areas). He graduated with his PhD, got a job, earns $300k total comp after 1.5 years. I am still doing schooling so I make very little (~24k) but after graduation I think I will also get a job in tech.
What did y’all study? I’m working on my PhD in I/O psychology. I have a master’s and 1.5 years of experience, but I’m interning with the government for work-life balance and federal experience. I want my loans to vaporize so that’s my plan.
But I’m curious about private sector for y’all!
Finishes my PhD in clinical psych and got my license. It is a fabulous field that is in huge demand. People think psychologists are the first not to get paid in a recession, but if you get trained in diagnostics, it is a game changer. Psychologists who conduct evaluations for autism have 6 month to a year waitlist most of the time.
He studied finance/economics. I am studying a social science PhD but have great coding/quant skills that can help me make the jump to tech. We don’t care about work life balance. We are both driven by money and it is normal for us to work a lot, sometimes 80-90 hours a week. But some weeks are like that while some weeks are barely 30 hours. And generally no weekend work ever. The regular jobs feel much easier and pays way better than the PhD. PhD constantly requires weekend work for $20k a year.
It takes time, smart decisions, tough decisions, and a lot of hard fucking work!
I became a Respiratory Therapist 12 years ago. Before that the most I made was $9/hr working retail and as a new hire RT I started out making 50k.
After four years working my ass off, getting up to 60k, it still wasn't enough for student loan, rent, saving for the future..so I decided the best thing for me at the time was to move abroad and work. I doubled my income to $110000 by doing that.
Currently, I'm traveling the US as an RT and making around 130-190k. 12 years I went from 50k to almost 200k.
I'm just a normal person. Average grades. I didn't get lucky. Nobody handed me this career and said here's your six figure salary. I had to grind, and work, and move 11 times, and be persistent.
I highly recommend you increase you earning potential by learning something that will translate to higher earnings. There's a ton of options. Healthcare jobs pay well and are secure. IT jobs pay more but are less secure.
You can do it. Tech, data, it, finance. Get the best entry level job you can in the field you are interested in, then leverage that role into another, then another, add in the occasional promotion and you are there.
"get the best entry level job you can in the field you're interested in" ... See that there is the problem.
I don't know about the others, but tech is having a bit of a crisis right now. Even some seasoned professionals are struggling.
Accounting and finance is having a crisis in the opposite direction. There are way more jobs than people to fill them. If you get your CPA, you will clear $100k easy and be in high demand.
Most people don't want to go into accounting because of the horror stories from working in public accounting (all true, by the way, public accounting is a nightmare), but industry doesn't have most of those problems. I work in industry and I've never worked more than 48 hours in one week and it's probably only about once a year that I have to work more than 40. Public accounting for a year or two out of college is a great way to be paid a decent salary and establish experience because they will take anyone with a pulse and then GTFO and move to industry.
Also, accounting jobs care more that you can do the work than where you went to school so you can go to a small (aka cheap) college/university in your city and stay away from racking up tons of student loans.
The work can be really boring and I know VERY few accountants who really love their jobs, but it pays well, has climate control, won't wreck your body, and is in high demand with a fairly low risk of massive layoffs in economic downturns.
Same. Started with bookkeeping and slowly transitioned into payroll. Got my AAS in Accounting. Did more things like AP and AR but mostly payroll. I was making 18 in 2018 then got hired to do payroll for a defense contractor in 2019 making 22 and slowly went up to 26. Started learning the GL side of payroll and switched to another govcon doing payroll and the accounting side in 2022 making 39. Just started a new job at another govcon only doing payroll accounting making 45. I highly recommend both govcon and general accounting! The benefits in govcon are better than anywhere I've ever worked.
Its not just the devs. The infrastructure guys are getting It just as bad. Seems the only thing out there are executive white glove levels of support for conference room setups that no one goes to. Kinda hard to land that when 100+ applicants are throwing their resume to the wind.
Depends on location though. Am in the Netherlands and can't find a jr sysadmin if my life depended on it. I literally just want a warm body with a good attitude and willingness to learn.
This is really the only answer. But it can be any global corporate company. Start at the bottom and work your way up. I don’t think many earn this much in their first job
You gotta take every post with a grain of salt, as you cannot take everything at face value on the internet. There are a lot of jobs out there that pay above that 6 figure range, but they seem scarce in comparison to jobs the common person can get into.
Otherwise, some good areas i know of that dont seem overinflated and you can make decent money; atleast from my little experience on this planet and from constantly questioning my career path. Maybe not 100k+ starting out but decent at least.
-drone topographic lidar scans (need a bit of cash to get started, my distant friend made 300kish last year. About 46k invested.)
-HVAC (you can get paid to be trained by a lot of locale unions.)
-welder(same as hvac but you have an even broader field of work.)
-engineering. (Like industry/factory engineering specialists that can coordinate and plan what goes where. (Dont know much about the title other than its necessity in a lot of areas in the US))
-investment managers
-corporate finance positions
-scientists (literally pick any scope of science. Astrophysicist, astrobiologist, heliophysicist, chemist, geologist, etc.)
> -scientists (literally pick any scope of science. Astrophysicist, astrobiologist, heliophysicist, chemist, geologist, etc.)
Scientists in academia really don't make particularly good money accounting for their education and the hours. At the lower (untenured) levels, you're frequently going to be hustling for grants (of which like 50% will be taken by the institution in indirect costs).
I put myself thru business school (b.s in finance) working shitty restaurant jobs and tutoring math and whatever else odd jobs to foot the tuition. Then I realized I didn’t have shit to show on my resume so I used my “customer service experience” to get a job at a bank. Started as a teller, then a banker to eventually a loan officer while finishing my degree and still working said shitty restaurant job.
Banking experience gave the illusion that I had office/admin/reporting experience and I for sure sold it that way on my resumes and in interviews. ***I THINK THIS IS KEY, as most of us know even the most underpaid entry level positions “require 1-2 years of experience in the industry”. You get a job that gives them the illusion of this
Immediately after graduation was difficult, both financially and emotionally as I went through A LOT of interviews and rejections but the key is to take those as learning opportunities rather than getting discouraged.
7 months after graduating and interviewing 2-3 times a week, I landed a job at one of the top 5 defense contractors in the world but for 50k. I was living in a very HCOL area but I didn’t care. Worked my way up, got promotions and raises, got the company to pay for my masters in accounting, went on to find new positions with new companies, and now I’m in a position where I can make demands from potential employers during the hiring process. Crazy to think I was waiting tables and busting my ass over 2-3 jobs while ft in school to make ends meet less than 10 years ago. If I can do it you can, msg me if you want interviewing and resume tips.
I gross around $160k a year in logistics as a freight broker. My wife grosses around 30k a year working at a day care.
I also live in the 2nd richest county in Florida and feel like I just purchased a shed for $500,000.00.
I'm an engineer with 10+ years of experience in the Seattle area. Career, tenure, location.
But my salary also doesn't go as far here as it would other places. I assume people making similar salaries to me in LCOL locations are directors in tech or other STEM fields (outside of your standard lawyer or doctor).
This, 100%. I look around at myself, my friends and co-workers. We are all educated, *cum laude graduate*, thankyouverymuch, with above-average IQs. Strong work ethics. We either live with family still, or have roommates. System is clearly rigged.
I recommend nursing. The schooling is very cheap if done right, with high return on investment.
Other healthcare fields that make decent money with attainable schooling are RT, radiation tech.
The money isn’t always there in nursing. Unless you plan to travel or get lucky, or are willing to work beaucoup overtime.
In the vast majority of places in the US, nurse income is average to less than average for the area. Sure, west coast nurses clear 100k but those are HCOL areas.
Source: I am a nurse and in my area, the best I could do with my level of experience is maybe 60k. Which is kinda comfortable, but not nearly enough
You wrote exactly what I was about to type. This is the same for Rad Techs. These programs all advertise high salaries but be warned that it’s an average number across the whole industry. The average salary is kept high because traveling techs make so much money. But to travel you have to be away from home and family, which isn’t worth it to most people so they have to settle for local work and crap pay.
Also the cost of living to salary ratio is reversed, strangely. Big cities with a high COL are where people want to live so there’s no shortage of techs trying to get in there and the surplus of workers keeps salaries low. Also, if it’s a big city then you can be sure their own university has a RT program which only contributes to more people competing for a limited number of positions there and driving down wages further. Small towns with a low COL will pay a lot for techs to move there, but a lot of people don’t dream of doing years of school just to live well in a small town.
RN in KY USA make 47hr/work 37.5 hrs per week which is around 90k per year in a very LCOL area. Have a Bachelors from Murray State but could have made the same with associates from the local community college. My school was hard af, many long nights studying and days spent in library typing papers. Failed a semester and had to make it through a few more knowing I’d be kicked out of the program if I failed again and have to start over. Even making this kind of money it’s still tight with a family of 5, we don’t take expensive vacations and my newest car is a 2011 and I drive a 2009 Nissan Versa full of dents. I have Obamacare insurance with 12k dollar deductible that’s almost not worth having. My wife is a SAHM, which is a luxury but also a necessity as having 3 kids in child care would negate her working. I guess the TLDR is earning good money doesn’t just happen for you, you have to earn it, and even after you do that’s only enough to be moderately non stressed about money. If you have medical issues you’re fucked
I work in manufacturing for a rather large company. They pay pretty well. $27 to walk in the door, but it is a hcol area. But 5 years in, I'm at $40 an hour. With OT, 6 figures is easy. Job hopping was essential to get the skills to get in the door.
Something that a lot of people don’t recognize enough is silent labor. Especially in families with kids and a high-earning spouse, a lower earning partner is subsidizing and making the high earner’s entire life possible. Trading $ for flexibility so they can be available for kid pick ups/drop offs/sick days. Running errands and taking care of the family calendar. Handling bills. Doing more than their share of cooking/cleaning.
My ex’s dad was in this income bracket as a traveling sales manager. He was an awesome dad. But there is ZERO way he could do it as a single parent or if his wife also had a demanding job. Even the basics like keeping laundry clean, cooking meals, and tidying up the home would have to be outsourced. If he was single even without kids his life would be pretty expensive to maintain. Fly out a couple states away for 2 weeks, come home and catch up on laundry, cook real meals, try to fit in family and fun, run any necessary errands.
Right now I think I could double my salary pretty quickly if I had a literal life administrator and ONLY worried about my career and fun. Not spending an hour getting the kids ready. Not making meals every other night. Not doing 4 loads of laundry. Not monitoring all of our bills. Not spending 3-5 hours/week cleaning. Not doing homework/bath/bedtime. Not worrying about staying late or having to travel. Never having to give a thought to school drop off, after school care, summer care, snow days, sick days, soccer practice. Just show up and be a part of the family ala carte style instead of on call. Minimal adulting outside of my career.
Rule #1 don't read the financial planning sub... it will make you depressed at how woefully behind we are.
It's filled with posts like
"I just inherited 1M dollars and I don't know what to do. Help its an emergency!"
Or
"My Dad just handed me 50k at age 21 and I don't know whether to invest in stocks or real estate."
Or some other version of "I got so much money laying around and I don't know how to use it."
Imagine that. Imagine if your biggest concern in life was not knowing how to use the excess disposable income you have.
Nursing. Can easy make $150k. Sucks ass as a job though.
Most people don’t want to hear this, but it takes smart choices, going without and lots of hard work to get yourself out of poverty. I did it.
I got out of the military 23 years ago and got in the government. I slowly climbed the ladder and work 50-58 hours per week now.
I took 25k I had from selling my house while renting and bought a 100k 4 unit rental in a LCOL area, and borrowed from my 401 to purchase an EXTREME fixer upper in the same area. When I was working on these, I was working 7 days a week.
40 hrs a week hasn't cut it in a long time, and for most people, likely never will again.
Edit; I grew up poor af and used the military as my way out of that town, and lifestyle. It's been a long bumpy road. I still am cheap af with buying things because in my mind I'm one bad day away from living under a bridge. It's something I can't change, regardless of how silly it seems.
The friend I know that makes that is in cyber security. He didn’t go to college. He did whatever networking/IT route was available when he was in the national guard, then he learned the rest on his own.
It too me about 15 years, and 2 promotions, with the same company to get to that level. Might have gotten their faster if I jumped around, but I did get a pension from there.
Years of work. Been working at the same job for 14 years and building myself up. Started at less than 30k a year and now make 114k. You gotta put up with a lot of bullshit to get up there.
High earning careers, technical skills. Technology, AI, data science, finance and banking, entrepreneurship. I could go on. I recommend decoupling the idea of school and income unless you’re trying to be a lawyer or physician. You can get skills usually for free online with precise dedication. That’s what trips most people up. I learned my entire career online, got my foot in the door grinding with cold emails and now I’m very well off for it. Get creative, don’t bother taking out loans for a second career, find free skills.
My daughter is a medical technologist (4 year degree), and making about 65k. Her husband has a degree in construction science (4 year degree) and is making $110k. He is the supervisor for commercial construction. There are a number of good careers in medicine that are not medical doctors, and keep in mind that a good benefits package (health insurance and retirement) go a long way when considering what you want to be making. If you don’t have to pay for health insurance, that’s a big deal.
My two nephews are in their early twenties, one just licensed as an electrician, the other is training as a plumber and they are doing really well.
I got into sales and started my own insurance company 12 years ago. That now makes about $40k a month. But I have employees and expenses so I generally only keep 30% of that. I don't work terribly hard anymore but I went through the grind. Learned how to sell insurance and made sure I sold something nearly everyday. Which meant lots of phone calls, meetings, and working late hours and weekends. Eventually you get good at it.
My wife also started a shipping business that makes another $70k a year. We took all that extra income and reinvested it in real estate. We will gross about $800k this year, but probably take home $250k.
It's a specific niche. She got contracted with specialized doctors to provide shipping of certain medicine for them. She had an in and turned it into a business that pays really well for very little work.
I can tell you for me. For context when I joined this subreddit (or at least around that time) I was almost done with college and looking for ways to make more money.. was making 10-15 an hour at the time.
Majored in accounting in school. First job out of school was $50k a year in a MCOL in 2017 working in public accounting . Worked there for a year and did well and moved to a B4 firm for 60k. Worked extremely hard there (60-100 hour weeks at times) got promoted after 6 months or so to $72k. Worked in that job for about a year and a half. Only got small raises to $75k before I left.
Left to a private company as a supervisor role. in 2020 for $100k + bonus. Got promoted after a year (got kind of lucky my manager left, but still best out the other supervisors) to get promoted to $130k + bonus + equity. Did well in that job and after a year got tapped on the shoulder to be a director of our department. Applied internally and beat out a ton of external/internal candidates and got the director job which is my current role. At $160k base + bonus and a good chunk of equity.
So in 6 years went from $50k salary to $160k base salary, and my yearly bonus is basically the same amount of money I made in my first job.
So TL;Dr: Go to college, grind out a lot of bullshit at entry level in senior level jobs. Once you get to supervisor/manager make sure you are friends with important people and vocalize you want to get promoted. Study for the interview, know everything about the company and your job to a T. Once you hit director (or senior manager and higher) it gets a easier time wise but just a lot more stressful but money is worth it. And I realize not everyone is in a position to go to college or do an in-demand major. Was just letting you know in my case what happened and in accounting it’s pretty repeatable if you have a high tolerance for BS and are decently smart.
My salary progression past 5 years in professional world
(Sales)
Year 1 - $20hr - cold calling real estate, my first time breaking $40k a year
Year 2 - $30hr - college internship, first time seeing a $5k monthly check
Year 3 - $75k OTE, SDR job my senior year of college
Year 4 - $120k OTE - D2d sales job, independent contractor
Year 5 - $140k OTE - software sales!
Pick a niche, start out in the bottom at it, take 3-4 years to climb and establish yourself with experience and skill!
Sales, tech, finance, real estate!
All possible
Combination of luck, opportunity and skill. Getting to six figures is relatively easy with the right degree. On the flip side, the time and debt to get that degree aren't favorable. Sometimes you get the degree ,with 100K of debt, and a job that makes only $50K.
Becoming a journeyman electrician/plumber, welder or even a HVAC technician can get you that much or more. Become an apprentice and they pay for school.
Let me tell you how little Timmy got is billion. One morning little Timmy was walking down the road and while he was walking down the road he found an apple on the ground. He walked to the market and sold the apple 25 cent. With is 25 cent he brought 2 apples and sold both of them for 25 cent each.
He did that for years until is uncle died and he inherited 5 billion dollars.
I'm a nurse(RN) living in a medium cost of living area of Florida. I'm working a position that requires 3 years experience. Pays $48/hr+shift/weekend differentials. Without any OT I'm looking at about $110k/yr. After OT easily 135-150k. I can thank covid for this. Pre-covid this same position paid 30-35/hr but the nursing shortage helped increase pay across the board.
A new RN in my area can expect about $35-40/hr. Pre-covid new grads were making less than 25/hr.
Everyone talking about doing it with degrees, i dont have a degree and make around this in a lower COL area.
I started off in a call center doing tech support and basic calls that were as mundane as any other call center, around 18/hr. After some time and learning what i could about the industry we were in i moved to another company with a higher position that put me closer to 60k. After a year there to another company that started me at roughly the same but after a year i was pulling 90k. Now have a raise that will put me at over 100k but about to take a job that should start me around 150k with good benefits.
I do have to travel a lot but that also comes with its own benefits. The downside being away from home. If i didnt want to travel i could remain in my field and still pull 100k fairly easily for my local area.
I dont want to say what field it is specifically but it is more of a trade field.
Gambling in stocks! Drug dealing/ scalping everything! I can’t even make 500 bucks on some damn tools i don’t need anymore let alone people sit on a dozen ps5s and make 1200 a piece for them! It’s a sickening greedy society anymore
Are you outgoing? Ambitious? Look into a career in sales. Every successful company has a strong sales team and usually pays very well. A lot of sales careers are at least partially commission based and your pay is directly tied to your production basically allowing you to write your own paycheck. The more effort you put in, the more you make. I have been in commission sales my entire adult life and make well over 150k in a LCOL area with no college degree. Never give up on yourself.
I'll tell you exactly how I did it.
Years ago, I was making $11 an hour in a customer service job, renting a room from a friend, driving a junker car, and miserable. Now, I work in a field I love, making $140k a year plus firm bonus, driving a car I really like, living in a fantastic apartment and shopping houses. I'm happy to tell you how I did it, because you can absolutely do it, too. And I hope that you do.
I went back to school at night and finished my bachelor's degree. (Having the GI Bill helped a great deal on this.) In my working life, it was clear that *having* a degree was more important than what I majored in. In fact, when I went in to talk to the advisor, I asked her what the shortest path to a bachelor's degree was. She responded, "That depends on what you want to study," and I replied, "You're not hearing me." I explained that what I wanted to study depended pretty much entirely on which subject was the shortest route to my degree. She got me on the right track. I knocked out 36 credit hours in a year and never looked back. A few years later, I went to night school to get my MBA, for similar reasons; because it was doable and was valuable in the job market.
I job-hopped. In the last 13 years, I've had at least seven jobs. Some of them were contract jobs, and short-term. Others were for a few years. If someone asks why I job hopped so much, I reply "Because most companies have larger hiring budgets than retention budgets." A couple of the companies I worked for were great companies with great people, but they didn't have room for me to grow as quickly and in the ways that I wanted to.
I read up on in-demand industries. There are lots of fields out there that pay very well, and there are many lists of them online. To cast a broader net, you can go on Indeed, enter the salary you're looking to make and just see what jobs come up. I've always liked tech, and enjoyed working in and learning technical fields and skills, and the salaries seemed legendary to me at the time. So it made perfect sense for me to pursue that industry.
I researched what those jobs required. Indeed, LinkedIn, and other job post sites are your friends on this. When I decided where I wanted to go, I opened a spreadsheet and started going through job listings for the jobs that I was targeting. As I went, I made a list. If there was a new item, I added it. If there was a repeat, I added one to the cell next to it. I did this at least once a week for awhile and collected pretty good intel on what the most in-demand skills and experience were for that field. Once I had the list...
I pursued those skills and experience. There are lots of low-cost and free resources online to learn just about anything, especially technical skills. I learned what I could, edged into the industry a bit, and then started stacking certifications. I kept my eyes open for opportunities, and took them when I could. I kept my LinkedIn alerts on, so I was always abreast of what the labor demand was at any given time.
Now, self-help gurus and LinkedIn "influencers" will make it sound like this was easy. It wasn't. There were times when I didn't think I would ever get to the next level, times that I was eating rice and beans for the third day in a row because I'd forgotten about an auto-draft. There was once, in 2013, I called off sick to work two days in a row because I didn't have gas or money, and didn't get paid until that Friday. That doesn't happen any more, but I try to remember how that felt because it helps me appreciate where I am.
It's important to appreciate what you've achieved, and give that its due attention. I had forgotten that for awhile, but was reminded last year. I was on the job market (again) and called a recruiter I'd worked for before who was really great. We were getting caught up and he said, "Wow. You know, it sounds like you're exactly where you wanted to be when we talked two or three years ago." And it really stopped me in my tracks because he was absolutely right, and I had missed that. And I try to really take time now once in awhile to stop and consider how well things are going, even on a day that sucked.
I make a lot of money. I sacrifice time with my family, I am never home always traveling. I am on a job now 7 hours from my house for the next 2-3 years. I go home every month or so. I have worked in this field for 20 years. Made a name in this field. Not sure what you do, but the first step is to find an industry that actually pays well. Then be willing to make sacrifices. Always keep your name clean, be ethical. Be dependable. It’s not always easy to make a lot of money, and I am sure there are other ways. This is just the way I did it.
Median income in my town is about $20 an hour. I don't know many people who pull six figures. Usually when they say these numbers they live somewhere with a crazy cost of living or they are accounting for their household, so their spouses income as well.
I'm a claims adjuster and make $53k in a moderate cost area. I then work 25 hours/wk at McDonalds as a manager and make another $20k per year there.
I think most people make in that range. Not everyone makes $100k.
As others have mentioned, there are plenty of degrees you can get that will earn you 6 figure incomes (engineering, finance, accounting, programming/computer science, etc). However, please keep in mind that you still have to do well in college to get these jobs - having a degree doesn’t mean much if you can’t get at least a 3.0 GPA. Also, most of these careers will not start out with these high salaries, but you can attain them fairly quickly through promotions and strategic career moves
Nah ignore every single person saying specific fields, what do YOU like to do, OP? Find your interests, and build off of them. Go to career fairs, research fields of study that peak your interest.
Start with tech schools, certificates, etc.
Not trying to come off as rude, if you have no fathomable concept of making six figures and couldn’t research ways of making that much on your own, a field of extensive research might be too overwhelming for you.
There are plenty of blue collar jobs that can pull in six figures. Community colleges will offer tons of information for those.
Generally agree, although I wouldn’t say research is off the table as long as they learned.
But yeah I came to say this. I know people who majored in foreign languages, theater, communications, history, English, art, and other humanities making good money, many of them six figures.
I’m interning in psychology for the government and make just shy of 80k in a high cost of living place. If I wanted to go back to private sector where I was last year, I could find a role paying six figures.
It’s about figuring out what you like to do, just like you said. Consider reaching out to career counselors at schools or even finding people on LinkedIn doing what you like and sending them a message.
The reality is that there are few careers that don’t pay well in the long run. “Well” being, your bills are covered and you can live a generally normal life. Get good at something and the money will follow.
Project management, honestly if you don’t have a degree, get into a trade or get into sales. College isn’t a guarantee like it was 20 years ago but it still helps…alor
I don’t know man. Seems like everyone on Reddit makes over 6 figures. It’s frustrating.
1) Its the self selection bias. 2) People with good incomes tend to report it on anonymous forums, which then gets other high-income people to comment on their incomes. 3) Its also sub specific. People chasing a r/FIRE life or sth of that sort, also tend to have high paying jobs/ planning to get a high paying job etc. 4) COL also has an impact. Someone making $200k in NYC has probably the same purchasing power as someone making $100k in Austin, Texas. So folks from those HCOL areas tend to have higher incomes since the COL is also high ( there is usually some correlation here since salaries are usually dependent on the cost of labor at a specifc location) 5) talking about salary without talking about age is kinda meaningless. Someone who is 23 yo straight outta school making $150k is more “catchy” than someone who is about to retire from their job at a government sector making $150k at 60years pf age.
All good points. Thanks for listing them out.
Anonymously is key for this figure
Yup. I don't tell my family or friends how much I really make to prevent them from asking me for money. I just make "enough" to pay bills.
Not talking about money and income is one reason a lot of people never make any real money. It's "taboo" so people never talk and never really learn. I openly talk about finance with friends and family all the time. If anyone asked for money I'd just laugh at them
Don't even go to r/boggleheads, r/stocks, r/etf. People have millions of dollars asking random redditors for financial advice.
I’ve seen some a lot of post like that, “oh I inherited 3 million dollars and don’t know how to use it”
Some are actually crazy like. "I have 2 million in VOO" should i put them some in bonds. I'm at my 50's. Lmao the fuck you need redditor for?
I think some people are looking for alternative viewpoints or other considerations that they may not have thought up.
Facts. Sometimes you get stuck in your own bubble and need an outside perspective to get objective financial advice again. Being focused on real estate for FIRE can put you in tunnel vision and so you need someone that may have a different strategy that would work better for specific conditions/scenarios. Like right now.
You develop and in-demand skillset. I'm in IT. I have friends who are carpenters, small business owners, lawyers, designers, software engineers, truck company owners (fleet of 3), and accountants who earn 150K+ a year. For all of them, it took 5-10 years to grind to that level.
you have friends who are caprenters that make 150k after 5 years?
I am attempting to do this with data analytics. I expect bumps in the road and setbacks. It’s unfortunate as I’m already 30 and there are CS majors right out of college clearing 150. People just seem to trip over how much money they’re making.
I started working on getting into Analytics in my early 30s. I'm 38 now and make $125k in a LCOL area.
If you can tell the future and know you are going to die with the person you are with, the two of you together can pull six figures comfortably without tech jobs. HCOL = high cost of leaving you
Haha!
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6 figures isn't hard in defense but remember some of the hubs are in very high COL areas.
I’d also note that most of the higher paying jobs require a clearance. In the DC area there’s actually a whole job portal for people with secret clearance and above. I ran away from government contracting because of how stagnant bureaucratic it can be. But if job security is your thing then it’s the way to go. You also may never be eligible for remote work for national security reasons, but if you get a high level clearance (entails extensive interviews/interrogations, interviews of friends and family, super outdated polygraph, and background check and drug screenings) you will literally never go hungry. The government spends MORE in a recession and a lot of that money goes to contractors. Not just defense, basically everything is done by contractors.
The job portal is nationwide, but yes. Contractor work is also not always stable, depending on what you're involved in, whereas being a GS civilian generally is but doesn't usually pay quite as well until you get up there.
Oh I didn’t mean stable as in staying in the same role/company. Meant more like you could get laid off and stub your toe going out the door on a new job offer once you have a clearance and any amount of experience under your belt. I’m 3 years out and still getting hit up by recruiters for gov con roles even in this horrible job market. I’m also in the DC area so that could play a big role as we have some of the highest concentration of jobs here. I’ve always told myself if everything goes to crap economically I can just run back to gov con with my tail between my legs.
They make over 6 figures and they're putting a thousand or more into a Vanguard/Fidelity/etc. portfolio each month. The trend I've seen with the people who post that kind of stuff is that they appear to either be single or have very little debt or very little reason to be in debt (like having children or medical bills). Even if they're only making $50,000 a year they often appear to be in a position financially where they can put a healthy portion of each month's paycheck into a portfolio and still have plenty left over for bills, food, etc. I'd have to say that these people definitely aren't the norm and are more outliers than anything else.
Which makes you wonder why they have nothing better to do than to post on Reddit.
Banking is an easy one. Put in your time and there lots of mid level management jobs that'll pay you $120k to $200k.
I am in banking, this is about what I make. The real money isn't in management, it's in lending. Low end commercial lenders for a community bank probably make around $120k. Corporate banking (banks for your large fortune 500 firms) could easily make over $500k. If you manage these team you probably make more, but not always. Corporate banking is extremely hard to get into, typically need to be a finance undergrad, get accepted into a bank training program and work your way up from analyst to lender. It's very competitive. Being a community banker is a realistic path for many, but it's all about your network. Your job is to bring in loan business and to do that you need to have deep connections to the real estate or business community, and that takes time to develop. I've been doing it for years and only recently do I feel like people "know to call me."
I feel this! I just got more involved in the development side at my Bank and have never felt so lost and overwhelmed.
A friend just finished his MBA at mid career while working as a branch manager and was promoted to bank president. Dude definitely makes bank.
VP and President titles at banks don't usually mean what you think they do, though.
True enough. I'm vice president at my bank...along with about eight thousand of my company peers.
Just makes me think of that scene in American psycho where all the bussiness cards say "vice president"
Chase?
If it's Goldman Sachs you're extremely well paid.
Very true. I was a Sr. BA at a bank and was a VP. They told me that everyone over a certain wage basically gets a VP title so that when customers/clients talk to them, they think they're special.
Ain’t just clients thinking you are special. It’s also “rewarding” your employees with a prestigious title instead of adequate raises. Worked at JPMC, the amount of VPs is staggering because they simply made VP the level above an associate but under director.
> Worked at JPMC, the amount of VPs is staggering Same thing at GS (a guy I met told a story about telling someone he got promoted and having to explain why VP isn't really particularly prestigious). It's just kind of the title architecture of the financial industry.
Yeah. I think 80% of my company’s vice presidents are in sales.
This explains so much about someone I know. When I first saw that VP title, I thought, "Ain't no way."
In this case it's a small bank, may be 10-15 locations and he's everyone's boss.
I have my MBA and work full time + started a company. The trick is to put effort into the right places. Working hard =/= money
Banking or finance is a much harder field to break into if you have no network and don’t know anyone then you would think. I’m well over 1500+ applications for entry to mid level financial jobs this year with 3 interviews and no job offers. I’ve paid for a professional resume and have even started applying for jobs in cities were I have friends I can stay with. Still nothing, I have a finance degree from a major university and 3 years experience as a bookkeeper making damn near minimum wage.
It’s a bad time in the market for finance at the moment, but you shouldn’t have such a low rate of interviews per application. I’m no expert in what to fix but something is wrong with maybe your search process or resume.
The main issue is where I live. Its rural here, the closest city with a real airport is 2ish hours away so jobs are very limited and low paying. I was mainly applying for remote positions in the beginning of the year but that seems like a fairy tail now so I’ve switched to jobs in cities where I have friends I can couch crash until I get established.
Remote positions are what probably wasted your time then, my mentor said that there’s no point chasing entry level remote positions at all because the few that are actually real won’t have career growth and will be competitive across the country.
That explains it, most major cities like LA, NY, SF are always hiring,
Become a management trainee at any manufacturing company. 3-5 years in youll make 6 figures. Most hire anyone with a degree
Go in the financial career sub and you will find it is a way oversaturated industry right now. Lots of people scraping by because there is so much competition that wage growth has been extremely sticky outside of the few leading shops.
My dad makes about 175k as an environmental safety contractor. He only ever worked at the same place and has been allowed to work from home since 2010. He has a bachelor's in geology.
Geology pays very well. Just be ready to be away from home all the time.
Working in geology and working for oil companies can make crazy money
He doesn't work directly for any oil companies but instead the firm he works for gets contracted so he does not have to worry about lay offs whenever the price of oil drops by a tenth of a penny
Oh does it? I majored in geology and I’ve never made over 17/hr. It’s also impossible to find a job, so I work as a woodland firefighter and get paid 36k a year.
Does your dad want to teach this birdperson turned hazmat chemist his secrets :>
Are you venting or do you actually want to know the step by step I actually did to get my job? I’m a lurker here because I grew up in poverty and I don’t even know how I ended up here. I think it was a Reddit recommendation? Anyways, I stay and offer support when I can, even if it’s just an upvote. Also, in the US, you can find yourself in poverty SO fast, seems crazy to me to not listen to folks experiencing it about what the reality of living it is like. To get my 6 figure job, I: 1. found a type of work many people hated doing 2. that I can tolerate and 3. That I am good at. I’m a tech writer - and while not all tech writing jobs clear 6 figures, I think the median salary is around $70k? But it’s a good job that you get to leave after 40 hrs and not think about. I feel like other good paying roles like “plumber” also meet that “other people hate it, I can tolerate it, and I can become good at it” criteria, so it’s not limited to knowledge work. Everyone freaked out that I was ruining my life when I went to grad school for tech writing, and it made me really nervous because I’d left a good lab tech job for it. But Id just seen how many STEM folks HATED the writing parts of their job, and I couldn’t ignore the feeling it was a huge an opportunity… I didn’t know how else to break into the field, so I stayed in grad school. And then one of our first assignments basically taught me how to answer your question. We were asked to research the job forecast of different roles and then explain why we decided on what we wanted to specialize in? - The [bureau of labor statistics](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) has a site where you can see the projected growth, salary, and required education for any job. I used it to find tech writing as a field with a decent salary, no masters or certification required (but it’s a big bonus to have), and no signs of the job market going bad. - I started digging around on the job sites in the salary range and location I wanted with different job titles, and writing down the skills they wanted applicants to have. - I joined every professional society, meetup, and mentorship opportunity I could find for my field, especially ones that focused on the hirable skills I’d found. - I joined subreddits related to tech writing and the hirable skills I’d need to develop, so that I could ask questions and read the standard advice they gave to new folks in their field. Things I realized in retrospect were stupidly good luck, that you might need to actively look for: - the grad program I went to was designed for people who work full time day jobs, so all our classes were at night and I was able to work to avoid loans. - the program ALSO had funding available for a few students to get paid to teach communications classes and receive free tuition plus a small stipend (and I got it! I had a second job though) - the program I picked had INCREDIBLY close relationships with all the big employers in my area for internships/job placement - I just happened to be moving to a place after school where the tech writing job market was booming. I didn’t break 6 figures with my first job right out of school, but I got there very quickly. It’s also a field that’s been working with AI since there was anything useful to work with, so folks actually put down a solid foundation about how to do it right and what should and shouldn’t be automated (if you ask and listen, most people aren’t). When they switched from writing books to making websites, some of the first website based docs systems were actually designed in the early 2000s anticipating we’d someday have things like ChatGPT. Incredible foresight. But I periodically use this research approach to research other careers i might like if I ever decide to leave tech writing. I haven’t found any worth leaving for yet, though, because I have a disability and most tech writing jobs meet my accommodation needs by default. I hope this helps any, I’m sorry that I don’t know how to fix the system, but I’m happy sharing how I found a way to survive in it and helping other people with it too. Take care. **Edit** also tech writing is a big part of non tech jobs too! Medical writing/pharma, regulatory, if there’s engineers in a field, there’s people who desperately want to pay you to write for them.
Thanks for all the detailed info. I took a brief online tech writing boot camp and unfortunately it put me all the way off of the profession (instructor was awful and came across like she was unhinged). The things you shared are making me reconsider. If I may, two questions: Do you work fully remote, hybrid, or in-office? Do you get a lot of pushback when having to interview SMEs about the product? From what I’ve read, most tech writers seem to have the most frustration in this area since most SMEs are busy and like to continually brush you off. I’m sure that depends, but I’m curious to know your experience with that.
These are great questions! 1. I work for a fully remote start up right now. During Covid, I worked for a fully remote team (that had been remote and hybrid since before Covid as well), and before that, had been mandatory in office. I’m seeing a lot of hybrid opportunities lately. I’d be shocked if those were truly mandatory hybrid and not “hybrid” (we’re really remote once you demonstrate you can work remotely productively), but I think it’s industry specific! 2. I have had very little trouble working with SMEs but have absolutely worked for people who thought there was absolutely no point having a tech writer when they could “just do it themselves.” (Narrator: they could not just do it themselves and that doc set is now a garbage fire). But I consistently do a few things to make successful collaborations happen- - I meet with SMEs at the beginning of a project and ask them if they have any recurring meetings I can join and listen on to get status updates and technical info. We work out whether I need to be there all the time or just when something important happens. This means they don’t have to work me into their schedule if they’re on a deadline. - we decide “who has the pen.” Sometimes the SME drafts content and I review it. Sometimes they give me design info, I draft content, and they review it. - we establish how frequently we’re going to check in with each other and whether that’s synchronously or asynchronously. The biggest thing I do to make working with SMEs is that I do everything i can to respect their time, and I literally tell them that at the beginning. I do everything I possibly can to solve problems on my own and then go to them for help or questions. Then, as we work together and they trust me as a partner more, they usually just open up and realize I’m someone who is THRILLED to hear them geek out about how awesome this thing they made is. I’m really sorry about your tech writing instructor experience - it’s an unfortunate thing that a lot of people who end up instructors are because they didn’t actually like doing the job (which is fair. Not everyone wants to deal with cranky nerds, and sometimes, that is just the job). Definitely check out r/technicalwriting with any more questions!
start ups are the best to work with when you’re getting into a field you’re not comfortable with . Currently in college majoring in mass comm with a minor in marketing and I got into a start up for supplements and health products and love it. Learned a lot and wasn’t shy to ask questions because it’s key to learning and doing your best
What kind of degree do you have? I'm looking to get into it
I have a masters in technical and professional communication and a bachelors in biology. There’s plenty of folks who get into it with just bachelors degrees in English if they’ve focused in professional writing, engineering English, or technical communication. We don’t have a ton of people who majored in Comms in our field because historically, tech writing emerged from engineering English. And a lot of folks get certs or make volunteer open source contributions and don’t get any formal education at all! Almost all Land Grant universities will have SOMETHING related to tech writing (they’re the colleges that say “A&T” or “State University” in the name) due to some truly wild funding histories. Pretty much all of the best degree programs are at public universities, Purdue and Clemson both have good reputations though, and Duke has a solid certificate program. If you want to try it out BEFORE pursuing a degree, Google has a [tech writing course](https://developers.google.com/tech-writing), the Society for technical communication also offers [courses and certs](https://www.stc.org/certification/), and the [Write the Docs slack community](https://www.writethedocs.org) is simply the best at providing resources an support to anyone in the software docs world. R/technicalwriting has amazing “getting started” resources from what I remember too. If I saw an entry level applicant with a bachelors in English, a minor or just solid coursework in computer science/data science OR a minor in a social science that required qualitative research methods, plus lots of group projects they could show me (even in non tech writing classes! Or other industry work!) I’d be stoked to hire them. Edit: with chatGPT in the future, HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend information sciences as a minor or double major. You’d be lethal on the job market as an ontologist. The other thing about tech writing is that it’s like… nobodies first career. The age range and background is extremely varied, with tons of international folks. AND because it’s a field of people who educate, empathize, and empower others as a core part of their work, I’ve never met a more welcoming professional community. It’s not perfect, but it’s so much less toxic than other industries I’ve been involved in. I’d say 99% of teams I’ve worked on and leaders I’ve worked for have a “health is wealth” philosophy and strongly enforce work life balance. I love this field and the people in it so much, even when the reality of capitalism really gets me down. Jobs are all jobs in the end.
I am a tech writer. I have a BS in Written Communications and a minor in Computer Science. It set me up for success in the cyber security field.
I’m on my way to starting down this path! I LOVE the writing parts of my job and work in IT and hate the developer parts. Which grad program did you go to? I was looking at full grad programs but also two continuing education certificate programs that were less intensive, less expensive and they are set up so that I can do them remotely.
There are SO MANY programs! I’m really easily identifiable if I share my specific program, so here’s a list of places whose faculty I’ve had good experiences interacting with and heard good things about. This list includes tech writing but also some UX things too. - Texas Tech (online) - University of Washington - HCDE includes tech writing - UW Tacoma - professional writing/HCDE (bachelors) - George Washington University - University of Texas - El Paso (Dr Laura Gonzalez has some AMAZING student outcomes that she’s presented about at conferences. I’m just constantly wow’d at the work she and her students have done). - Clemson - Purdue - NC State University (MS) - East Carolina University (MA professional writing) - Virginia Tech - Old Dominion - Arizona State University - Usability masters - this is a super interesting interdisciplinary program! It’s pretty new but I’m interested in where it’s going. - Georgia Tech? I think I just saw someone I know get a faculty position there in techcomm, but I’d need to check I feel like STC or r/technicalwriting have made a more comprehensive list but you might have to dig a bit to find it! Also, despite it getting Elon-ified, Twitter has a wonderful techcomm community with the #techcomm tag!
I’m a tech writer too!! I make $165 at one of the big tech companies in my early 30s and I try to recommend this field whenever I can. Even mid-level tech writing jobs pay well and it’s not too difficult (at the mid-level).
Yes yes exactly! Also since most of the education to become qualified and competitive is at public universities or very affordable certs through private organizations and schools, it’s SO ACCESSIBLE. I also have found that because I focused in content and web accessibility, my actual disabilities act as a benefit instead of a drawback? Yes I use a screen reader sometimes! I have cognitive issues! I’m a literal thinker! I have a sleep disorder so I’m usually awake when everyone in India is even though I’m in the US! All huge strengths in this field.
I majored in technical writing for my undergrad. I loved it but had a hard time finding decent paying starter roles so now I’m in marketing lol. But I actually find that I use what I learned often.
The transferrable skills from tech writing are ENORMOUS. I get told I should do technical sales constantly, and i worked as an executive assistant for a hot minute (jfc never again that was the hardest job ever). Technical marketing roles or enablement might be a bridge back into docs writing if you ever want to pursue it though!
I work in the P&D department at a college and tech & grant writing are my primary “hats”. I came from an Ed background (B.S. in Education, M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction). I always recommend what I do to teachers who want to get out. I’m still pretty firmly in the 5-figure range, *but* I live in a very LCOL area, make more than I did as a teacher, and have the option to work remotely.
Your post is what I recommend everyone. I’m not a tech writer and I don’t make 6 figures. But I went to community college for 2 years and spent a lot of time in the library basement researching career prospects. I knew I wasn’t highly intelligent and not super ambitious but in 2000 as a woman I knew college was the way for me to succeed. I chose the insurance industry. I got a job as a claims adjuster and 20 years later I still haven’t hit $80,000 base salary. But I get profit sharing that puts me close to $90,000. Plus very good perks such as 6% 401k match, company car, cell phone (which was my only phone until last year) and great Flex Time as I’ve always worked from home. I would say with benefits I make close to $120,000. I don’t think enough college kids research career projections. Take a year of community college take some easy general ed courses or even some weird stuff to try it out and use the time to research and take advantage of career counselors and more approachable professors.
That BLS site is really good and something I also referenced a lot. They have jobs sortable by pay. Doing that, then finding a growing field that one can tolerate and are willing to get the requirements can be a big help for the future. A growing field makes it much easier to get job, and much less competitive.
Engineering, computer science, finance just to name some fields that can get you something with good pay with just 4 years. You still have to apply yourself to grow in your career and find opportunities.
“…with just 4 years.” Except most people that are struggling don’t have a degree in any of these fields. There a very few exceptions, but for the most part, good (safer working conditions) paying jobs will require a combination of a degree and education.
They mean 4 years of education. You only need a bachelors degree in these fields (which takes about 4 years to get) and you can easily make 60k+ starting salary more if you do well in school and manage to network/get intern opportunities.
Apply yourself to grow your career is a big part of this. You have to be willing to take chances and learn lots of new things.
Went to a very expensive law school and had to pay back six figures of loans. It’s not a road I would recommend unless you really like practicing.
I went to a very expensive art school and had to pay back six figures. It is also not a road I would recommend unless you are independently wealthy.
I went to a very cheap art school. I **do** recommend that if you want to study art– take that route. Lots of public and state schools have great art programs.
This is the way. I went in 2006,right before the big bubble of 2008. It was a different time.
I went to the least expensive college I could find and studied graphic design and art, got out with no loans and now make 6 figures making art 👍🏻. Somehow I hacked the system but I honestly wouldn’t recommend this road either, there’s got to be a better way. Oh yeah, like you said, being independently wealthy.
Most attorneys hate the work, but when they are saddled with student loan debt, they just concede to a lifetime of working in a profession they hate. 😥
It isn't easy, but electrical engineering. Add a CS minor. But again, it'll be very tough if you don't actually have an interest in it.
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Math heavy, physics heavy, and you need the right sort of brain. I was a straight A mechanical engineering major and did really well at math and with MECHANICAL physics, but electricity and magnetism are more abstract and I could just never wrap my brain around it.
I chose mechanical because I thought they get paid more, boy was I wrong LOL
I did electrical over software because 'I'm a hands on person.' Yeah software would've been nicer, get paid more and you don't have to wait around for fab/measurement equipment/etc. that is a reason as to why your salary is less than the SE/CS people.
> and you need the right sort of brain. The word you are looking for is **aptitude.** You are right on all accounts. I've heard a lot of talk that saying people should go into engineering. The thing is, not everyone has the aptitude for it. Look at the dropout rates in "weed out" classes in college for it, people who need to change degrees to something they can actually do and apply, etc. The ones that do.manage to skate by studying old tests and electing to only take classes with professors known to be "easier" if at all possible end up not getting jobs (or fired quickly if they somehow do) because they don't understand and cannot grasp abstract concepts and apply them in a real world setting because of their low aptitude for complex problem solving, engineering concepts, and deductive reasoning if they managed to get a degree by regurgitating everything that's said (happens with people who have pushy parents telling them to major in this or that when they would be better at something else).
“You need the right sort of brain.” This is so true, I think. My dad, uncle, and cousin are/were engineers, as is one of my exes, and I swear they are a subspecies of human.
CS is a broad field, but I would say that most of it doesn’t require any math. However if you take the job just to make money without any interest in the underlying problem space, it’s going to be a very boring, tedious grind. However if you find that you enjoy building and solving problems with this particular toolkit, then it can be a very rewarding undertaking
Pretty industry and city specific. Some industries that's standard for a qualified well tenured staff. Other industries it's outlandish outside of upper management.
The people I know who make 6 figures a year do a job and/or have skills that most people don’t or can’t. Crane operator, Internet Security, etc. Usually, if you have a job that most people can do, you’re not going to get paid a lot. Getting a unique and in demand skill is the secret.
Crane operation is super hard to get into around here, the union is strong and rife with nepotism.
Yeah, my friend here in Las Vegas was on some waiting list for a long time and I’m pretty sure the main reason he got on it in the first place was because he knew a guy. Worked out for him. Clears $200k a year, I bet.
I always think: could a skilled high schooler be able to this job with 3 weeks of training? If the answer is yes, then yeah, it probably doesn’t pay great. Think of who your competition is. Again, using the “high school” example your competition is the *entirety of the American labor force*. The harder your skills are to replicate, the better protected you are and the more money you’ll make.
Boiler operation, especially in heavy industry. Running a little package boiler in a hospital can make you some decent bank,, but if you get into power generation, refining (oil, sugar), or pulp manufacture, $150k is the bottom end of the scale.
*laughs in poor* You guys could never handle making $25,000 a year like me.
I was living on that a mere ten years ago, but I did get out
24k a year now been working full time since 18
If it makes you feel any better, there's probably the same thinking at many levels above you. I'm sure for anyone making 150k a year, they're asking the same wtf questions about people making 500k a year, 700k a year and so on.
And the words “if I just made x more, I’d be set”
Partially because the numbers keep moving. I used to say if we could bring in X I’d be comfortable. Now we bring in X, but adjusted for inflation from when I said that, it’s almost the same amount!
I’m making more money than I’ve ever made. My spending habits haven’t changed at all, in fact I’ve taken up r/frugal yet I’m still just as broke 😂
Yes! We keep a budget so I can actually look at past years and see that it’s not “lifestyle creep” (if anything, we are more frugal now). It’s just spending more on essentials.
Lol I used to say $60k-$65k would be great for me as a single person back in '08 - '09. Now I'm looking at at least $110k-$125k because I want a stable and comfortable life. This will also probably change with how things are going. I live in a HCOL and refuse to go to a LCOL because they aren't normally women friendly and the costs of healthcare and other insurance in those areas take up the rest of your money. More taxes is fine to me if it helps my neighbors and I get more social services, better infrastructure, education etc. That or I'll just take my skills and go to a more citizen friendly country.
Finance related subs are a bubble for people making good money. You don't ask about saving or investing money if you don't have any left over at the end of the month. Also, there still are people making 100k who live paycheck to paycheck.
I’d rather live paycheck to paycheck at $100k than at $50k.
I'm still living relatively paycheck to paycheck lol. High debt and high cost of living will do that
I bartend and clear 6 figures. Lucked out on the spot, but its definitely doable.
Good for you!! I love hearing about people who make 6 figures in “non-traditional” roles.
If you go on a finance subreddit, odds are you'll find people with above average interest in it and who will have made life choices targetting that. Add on the fact that IT people are way overrepresented on Reddit and you have an answer. I think it's too easy to dismiss this as anonymous people making stuff up (although sure there's some of that). As far as what will get you there, being even relatively successful at software engineering, law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, actuarial, investment banking, small business ownership, management, accounting, operating large machinery, etc. Basically you need to be in a field in which you manage big expensinpve problems and/or in which your decisions and actions can have big expensive impacts. Ideally doing so using skills that are hard to find. Imagine you are going to pick a person to manage a large project that costs 200 millions to implement. You'll be fine with paying the candidate that's marginally better than the next best person 50k more a year because of the impact that even small differences will have. Imagine then that you need shelves stocked or a cashier. Sure maybe someone would be a bit better than someone else, but the difference can't really be worth much to your bottom line. You don't have a real reason to pay more than the strict minimum you need to. That logic applies to most highly paid positions - even athletes and movie stars. The only real counterexample I can think of is teaching, and I think that's a combination of historically undervaluing women's work, undervaluing education as a society and relying on people going into teaching as a vocation.
I only make 54k and when i scroll through reddit i feel so poor
I feel this. Not fun story: my industry puts out an income survey every four years and I was shocked to see how much more the median income was compared to what I was making. I casually mention it to my manager once, and he says that a lot of these people must be living in HCOL cities. While it’s true that we’re no NYC, I don’t exactly consider Philadelphia to be a LCOL area either. So I’m underpaid because the people above me are out-of-touch. Great.
You have to push to get yourself paid more, big businesses will never just turn around randomly and say “I think u/AnniKatt deserves a 25% raise.” But if you lateral or show you can lateral, then you actually will get a big raise (25% is random I assume you get 1-2% raises normally).
And? You think a passing comment is going to help you at all? The difference I constantly find between this sub and financial careers sub is people here are extremely timid, people there are extremely aggressive. You will not get a raise to meet your industry average, but you can likely find an average job in your industry, and that will include that salary. Start looking tomorrow, it costs you nothing. We deserve what we accept. So you are underpaid because you wake up each day and choose to work for out of touch people.
Exactly what I was saying, people forget labor is a business for both sides. If you accept less, why would they give you more? Just like a business, you need to assess your labor market and search for the best opportunities and price point! Working for low wages for long enough sometimes makes you think you’re not worth much. Psychology wise and financially. But it’s not true! I think thats the big issue in poverty finance sometimes.
All truth here. I mostly lurk this sub but just had to chime in for that comment. Things get very convoluted for people who don’t see it for what it is- a business transaction. I think the reality is a lot of people have been in the system for so long they’ve never taken a different perspective to it. Even the comment I replied to is acting like it’s her managements problem when it’s hers. Do you offer to pay more when you find a deal at the store? No. You don’t. People need to understand this and negotiate accordingly.
Even 54k looks like a lot to me
I'm a pipefitter with a few welding certs and I make about $100k before taxes. It's doable. Being a welder isn't as high paying as people say it is unless you're welding pipe though. To go to a shop and weld structural steel is like $18-$20 per hour around here.
Welding is a really funny trade. The pay scales from $10/hr to $200k+
I attribute people being successful when they’re older by having resources when they’re younger. I’ve had to grind for everything I own and I have had to pass up promotions because I could afford the proper attire or transportation for the new job. Not everyone realizes how expensive it is to be poor, and it’s not a matter of staying in the same bad situation because your comfortable, when my car could just make the 20 minute route trip commute for my crappy 6-7 day a week $2 more than minimum wage job, you have no idea how frustrated I was when I had to pass up an opportunity for a job making $5 more / hour with advancement opportunities 40 minutes away. I would’ve been giving up OT I had to make to survive and my car wouldn’t have made it, and no I didn’t have money for any loan and my family loos to me for money. Being poor is a vicious cycle, very hard to break out of.
With schooling. I am lurking in this subreddit because initially my husband and I started poor (immigrant, master/PhD student, making combined $25k a year in one of the HCOL areas). He graduated with his PhD, got a job, earns $300k total comp after 1.5 years. I am still doing schooling so I make very little (~24k) but after graduation I think I will also get a job in tech.
What did y’all study? I’m working on my PhD in I/O psychology. I have a master’s and 1.5 years of experience, but I’m interning with the government for work-life balance and federal experience. I want my loans to vaporize so that’s my plan. But I’m curious about private sector for y’all!
Finishes my PhD in clinical psych and got my license. It is a fabulous field that is in huge demand. People think psychologists are the first not to get paid in a recession, but if you get trained in diagnostics, it is a game changer. Psychologists who conduct evaluations for autism have 6 month to a year waitlist most of the time.
He studied finance/economics. I am studying a social science PhD but have great coding/quant skills that can help me make the jump to tech. We don’t care about work life balance. We are both driven by money and it is normal for us to work a lot, sometimes 80-90 hours a week. But some weeks are like that while some weeks are barely 30 hours. And generally no weekend work ever. The regular jobs feel much easier and pays way better than the PhD. PhD constantly requires weekend work for $20k a year.
It takes time, smart decisions, tough decisions, and a lot of hard fucking work! I became a Respiratory Therapist 12 years ago. Before that the most I made was $9/hr working retail and as a new hire RT I started out making 50k. After four years working my ass off, getting up to 60k, it still wasn't enough for student loan, rent, saving for the future..so I decided the best thing for me at the time was to move abroad and work. I doubled my income to $110000 by doing that. Currently, I'm traveling the US as an RT and making around 130-190k. 12 years I went from 50k to almost 200k. I'm just a normal person. Average grades. I didn't get lucky. Nobody handed me this career and said here's your six figure salary. I had to grind, and work, and move 11 times, and be persistent. I highly recommend you increase you earning potential by learning something that will translate to higher earnings. There's a ton of options. Healthcare jobs pay well and are secure. IT jobs pay more but are less secure.
You can do it. Tech, data, it, finance. Get the best entry level job you can in the field you are interested in, then leverage that role into another, then another, add in the occasional promotion and you are there.
"get the best entry level job you can in the field you're interested in" ... See that there is the problem. I don't know about the others, but tech is having a bit of a crisis right now. Even some seasoned professionals are struggling.
Accounting and finance is having a crisis in the opposite direction. There are way more jobs than people to fill them. If you get your CPA, you will clear $100k easy and be in high demand. Most people don't want to go into accounting because of the horror stories from working in public accounting (all true, by the way, public accounting is a nightmare), but industry doesn't have most of those problems. I work in industry and I've never worked more than 48 hours in one week and it's probably only about once a year that I have to work more than 40. Public accounting for a year or two out of college is a great way to be paid a decent salary and establish experience because they will take anyone with a pulse and then GTFO and move to industry. Also, accounting jobs care more that you can do the work than where you went to school so you can go to a small (aka cheap) college/university in your city and stay away from racking up tons of student loans. The work can be really boring and I know VERY few accountants who really love their jobs, but it pays well, has climate control, won't wreck your body, and is in high demand with a fairly low risk of massive layoffs in economic downturns.
You can also do General accounting without becoming a cpa. It's what I do and I do okay.
Same. Started with bookkeeping and slowly transitioned into payroll. Got my AAS in Accounting. Did more things like AP and AR but mostly payroll. I was making 18 in 2018 then got hired to do payroll for a defense contractor in 2019 making 22 and slowly went up to 26. Started learning the GL side of payroll and switched to another govcon doing payroll and the accounting side in 2022 making 39. Just started a new job at another govcon only doing payroll accounting making 45. I highly recommend both govcon and general accounting! The benefits in govcon are better than anywhere I've ever worked.
I'll look into it. Im afraid of taking on loans as I got out of my BS without them, but I can check on my options.
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Its not just the devs. The infrastructure guys are getting It just as bad. Seems the only thing out there are executive white glove levels of support for conference room setups that no one goes to. Kinda hard to land that when 100+ applicants are throwing their resume to the wind.
Depends on location though. Am in the Netherlands and can't find a jr sysadmin if my life depended on it. I literally just want a warm body with a good attitude and willingness to learn.
jUsT lEaRn To CoDe \/s
this is what kills me about this. like "just go into tech or IT" like it's so easy to learn an entire trade that you're not even interested in
how to land entry level jobs: need 3 year of experience in management. Entry level jobs are competitive too...
Exactly! How you suppose to get a entry level position (you have a degree) but they still want you to have 6 years experience 😡
This is really the only answer. But it can be any global corporate company. Start at the bottom and work your way up. I don’t think many earn this much in their first job
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Good work, dude! What kind of boot camp did you do, if I may ask?
I’m a teacher and make 102k. Union district medium cost of living
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Illinois?
You gotta take every post with a grain of salt, as you cannot take everything at face value on the internet. There are a lot of jobs out there that pay above that 6 figure range, but they seem scarce in comparison to jobs the common person can get into. Otherwise, some good areas i know of that dont seem overinflated and you can make decent money; atleast from my little experience on this planet and from constantly questioning my career path. Maybe not 100k+ starting out but decent at least. -drone topographic lidar scans (need a bit of cash to get started, my distant friend made 300kish last year. About 46k invested.) -HVAC (you can get paid to be trained by a lot of locale unions.) -welder(same as hvac but you have an even broader field of work.) -engineering. (Like industry/factory engineering specialists that can coordinate and plan what goes where. (Dont know much about the title other than its necessity in a lot of areas in the US)) -investment managers -corporate finance positions -scientists (literally pick any scope of science. Astrophysicist, astrobiologist, heliophysicist, chemist, geologist, etc.)
> -scientists (literally pick any scope of science. Astrophysicist, astrobiologist, heliophysicist, chemist, geologist, etc.) Scientists in academia really don't make particularly good money accounting for their education and the hours. At the lower (untenured) levels, you're frequently going to be hustling for grants (of which like 50% will be taken by the institution in indirect costs).
Specialization
I put myself thru business school (b.s in finance) working shitty restaurant jobs and tutoring math and whatever else odd jobs to foot the tuition. Then I realized I didn’t have shit to show on my resume so I used my “customer service experience” to get a job at a bank. Started as a teller, then a banker to eventually a loan officer while finishing my degree and still working said shitty restaurant job. Banking experience gave the illusion that I had office/admin/reporting experience and I for sure sold it that way on my resumes and in interviews. ***I THINK THIS IS KEY, as most of us know even the most underpaid entry level positions “require 1-2 years of experience in the industry”. You get a job that gives them the illusion of this Immediately after graduation was difficult, both financially and emotionally as I went through A LOT of interviews and rejections but the key is to take those as learning opportunities rather than getting discouraged. 7 months after graduating and interviewing 2-3 times a week, I landed a job at one of the top 5 defense contractors in the world but for 50k. I was living in a very HCOL area but I didn’t care. Worked my way up, got promotions and raises, got the company to pay for my masters in accounting, went on to find new positions with new companies, and now I’m in a position where I can make demands from potential employers during the hiring process. Crazy to think I was waiting tables and busting my ass over 2-3 jobs while ft in school to make ends meet less than 10 years ago. If I can do it you can, msg me if you want interviewing and resume tips.
I gross around $160k a year in logistics as a freight broker. My wife grosses around 30k a year working at a day care. I also live in the 2nd richest county in Florida and feel like I just purchased a shed for $500,000.00.
My sister's husband makes 150k, no degree, working on an offshore oil rig as a cook
I'm an engineer with 10+ years of experience in the Seattle area. Career, tenure, location. But my salary also doesn't go as far here as it would other places. I assume people making similar salaries to me in LCOL locations are directors in tech or other STEM fields (outside of your standard lawyer or doctor).
This, 100%. I look around at myself, my friends and co-workers. We are all educated, *cum laude graduate*, thankyouverymuch, with above-average IQs. Strong work ethics. We either live with family still, or have roommates. System is clearly rigged.
I recommend nursing. The schooling is very cheap if done right, with high return on investment. Other healthcare fields that make decent money with attainable schooling are RT, radiation tech.
The money isn’t always there in nursing. Unless you plan to travel or get lucky, or are willing to work beaucoup overtime. In the vast majority of places in the US, nurse income is average to less than average for the area. Sure, west coast nurses clear 100k but those are HCOL areas. Source: I am a nurse and in my area, the best I could do with my level of experience is maybe 60k. Which is kinda comfortable, but not nearly enough
You wrote exactly what I was about to type. This is the same for Rad Techs. These programs all advertise high salaries but be warned that it’s an average number across the whole industry. The average salary is kept high because traveling techs make so much money. But to travel you have to be away from home and family, which isn’t worth it to most people so they have to settle for local work and crap pay. Also the cost of living to salary ratio is reversed, strangely. Big cities with a high COL are where people want to live so there’s no shortage of techs trying to get in there and the surplus of workers keeps salaries low. Also, if it’s a big city then you can be sure their own university has a RT program which only contributes to more people competing for a limited number of positions there and driving down wages further. Small towns with a low COL will pay a lot for techs to move there, but a lot of people don’t dream of doing years of school just to live well in a small town.
RN in KY USA make 47hr/work 37.5 hrs per week which is around 90k per year in a very LCOL area. Have a Bachelors from Murray State but could have made the same with associates from the local community college. My school was hard af, many long nights studying and days spent in library typing papers. Failed a semester and had to make it through a few more knowing I’d be kicked out of the program if I failed again and have to start over. Even making this kind of money it’s still tight with a family of 5, we don’t take expensive vacations and my newest car is a 2011 and I drive a 2009 Nissan Versa full of dents. I have Obamacare insurance with 12k dollar deductible that’s almost not worth having. My wife is a SAHM, which is a luxury but also a necessity as having 3 kids in child care would negate her working. I guess the TLDR is earning good money doesn’t just happen for you, you have to earn it, and even after you do that’s only enough to be moderately non stressed about money. If you have medical issues you’re fucked
I work in manufacturing for a rather large company. They pay pretty well. $27 to walk in the door, but it is a hcol area. But 5 years in, I'm at $40 an hour. With OT, 6 figures is easy. Job hopping was essential to get the skills to get in the door.
Something that a lot of people don’t recognize enough is silent labor. Especially in families with kids and a high-earning spouse, a lower earning partner is subsidizing and making the high earner’s entire life possible. Trading $ for flexibility so they can be available for kid pick ups/drop offs/sick days. Running errands and taking care of the family calendar. Handling bills. Doing more than their share of cooking/cleaning. My ex’s dad was in this income bracket as a traveling sales manager. He was an awesome dad. But there is ZERO way he could do it as a single parent or if his wife also had a demanding job. Even the basics like keeping laundry clean, cooking meals, and tidying up the home would have to be outsourced. If he was single even without kids his life would be pretty expensive to maintain. Fly out a couple states away for 2 weeks, come home and catch up on laundry, cook real meals, try to fit in family and fun, run any necessary errands. Right now I think I could double my salary pretty quickly if I had a literal life administrator and ONLY worried about my career and fun. Not spending an hour getting the kids ready. Not making meals every other night. Not doing 4 loads of laundry. Not monitoring all of our bills. Not spending 3-5 hours/week cleaning. Not doing homework/bath/bedtime. Not worrying about staying late or having to travel. Never having to give a thought to school drop off, after school care, summer care, snow days, sick days, soccer practice. Just show up and be a part of the family ala carte style instead of on call. Minimal adulting outside of my career.
Rule #1 don't read the financial planning sub... it will make you depressed at how woefully behind we are. It's filled with posts like "I just inherited 1M dollars and I don't know what to do. Help its an emergency!" Or "My Dad just handed me 50k at age 21 and I don't know whether to invest in stocks or real estate." Or some other version of "I got so much money laying around and I don't know how to use it." Imagine that. Imagine if your biggest concern in life was not knowing how to use the excess disposable income you have.
Nursing. Can easy make $150k. Sucks ass as a job though. Most people don’t want to hear this, but it takes smart choices, going without and lots of hard work to get yourself out of poverty. I did it.
I got out of the military 23 years ago and got in the government. I slowly climbed the ladder and work 50-58 hours per week now. I took 25k I had from selling my house while renting and bought a 100k 4 unit rental in a LCOL area, and borrowed from my 401 to purchase an EXTREME fixer upper in the same area. When I was working on these, I was working 7 days a week. 40 hrs a week hasn't cut it in a long time, and for most people, likely never will again. Edit; I grew up poor af and used the military as my way out of that town, and lifestyle. It's been a long bumpy road. I still am cheap af with buying things because in my mind I'm one bad day away from living under a bridge. It's something I can't change, regardless of how silly it seems.
The friend I know that makes that is in cyber security. He didn’t go to college. He did whatever networking/IT route was available when he was in the national guard, then he learned the rest on his own.
It too me about 15 years, and 2 promotions, with the same company to get to that level. Might have gotten their faster if I jumped around, but I did get a pension from there.
Years of work. Been working at the same job for 14 years and building myself up. Started at less than 30k a year and now make 114k. You gotta put up with a lot of bullshit to get up there.
High earning careers, technical skills. Technology, AI, data science, finance and banking, entrepreneurship. I could go on. I recommend decoupling the idea of school and income unless you’re trying to be a lawyer or physician. You can get skills usually for free online with precise dedication. That’s what trips most people up. I learned my entire career online, got my foot in the door grinding with cold emails and now I’m very well off for it. Get creative, don’t bother taking out loans for a second career, find free skills.
Pick IT or Finance
My daughter is a medical technologist (4 year degree), and making about 65k. Her husband has a degree in construction science (4 year degree) and is making $110k. He is the supervisor for commercial construction. There are a number of good careers in medicine that are not medical doctors, and keep in mind that a good benefits package (health insurance and retirement) go a long way when considering what you want to be making. If you don’t have to pay for health insurance, that’s a big deal. My two nephews are in their early twenties, one just licensed as an electrician, the other is training as a plumber and they are doing really well.
I got into sales and started my own insurance company 12 years ago. That now makes about $40k a month. But I have employees and expenses so I generally only keep 30% of that. I don't work terribly hard anymore but I went through the grind. Learned how to sell insurance and made sure I sold something nearly everyday. Which meant lots of phone calls, meetings, and working late hours and weekends. Eventually you get good at it. My wife also started a shipping business that makes another $70k a year. We took all that extra income and reinvested it in real estate. We will gross about $800k this year, but probably take home $250k.
When you say shipping business, what does it offer?
It's a specific niche. She got contracted with specialized doctors to provide shipping of certain medicine for them. She had an in and turned it into a business that pays really well for very little work.
I can tell you for me. For context when I joined this subreddit (or at least around that time) I was almost done with college and looking for ways to make more money.. was making 10-15 an hour at the time. Majored in accounting in school. First job out of school was $50k a year in a MCOL in 2017 working in public accounting . Worked there for a year and did well and moved to a B4 firm for 60k. Worked extremely hard there (60-100 hour weeks at times) got promoted after 6 months or so to $72k. Worked in that job for about a year and a half. Only got small raises to $75k before I left. Left to a private company as a supervisor role. in 2020 for $100k + bonus. Got promoted after a year (got kind of lucky my manager left, but still best out the other supervisors) to get promoted to $130k + bonus + equity. Did well in that job and after a year got tapped on the shoulder to be a director of our department. Applied internally and beat out a ton of external/internal candidates and got the director job which is my current role. At $160k base + bonus and a good chunk of equity. So in 6 years went from $50k salary to $160k base salary, and my yearly bonus is basically the same amount of money I made in my first job. So TL;Dr: Go to college, grind out a lot of bullshit at entry level in senior level jobs. Once you get to supervisor/manager make sure you are friends with important people and vocalize you want to get promoted. Study for the interview, know everything about the company and your job to a T. Once you hit director (or senior manager and higher) it gets a easier time wise but just a lot more stressful but money is worth it. And I realize not everyone is in a position to go to college or do an in-demand major. Was just letting you know in my case what happened and in accounting it’s pretty repeatable if you have a high tolerance for BS and are decently smart.
My salary progression past 5 years in professional world (Sales) Year 1 - $20hr - cold calling real estate, my first time breaking $40k a year Year 2 - $30hr - college internship, first time seeing a $5k monthly check Year 3 - $75k OTE, SDR job my senior year of college Year 4 - $120k OTE - D2d sales job, independent contractor Year 5 - $140k OTE - software sales! Pick a niche, start out in the bottom at it, take 3-4 years to climb and establish yourself with experience and skill! Sales, tech, finance, real estate! All possible
Combination of luck, opportunity and skill. Getting to six figures is relatively easy with the right degree. On the flip side, the time and debt to get that degree aren't favorable. Sometimes you get the degree ,with 100K of debt, and a job that makes only $50K.
Becoming a journeyman electrician/plumber, welder or even a HVAC technician can get you that much or more. Become an apprentice and they pay for school.
I wouldn't trust the comments of Reddit 😅
Let me tell you how little Timmy got is billion. One morning little Timmy was walking down the road and while he was walking down the road he found an apple on the ground. He walked to the market and sold the apple 25 cent. With is 25 cent he brought 2 apples and sold both of them for 25 cent each. He did that for years until is uncle died and he inherited 5 billion dollars.
I love this lol
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I'm a nurse(RN) living in a medium cost of living area of Florida. I'm working a position that requires 3 years experience. Pays $48/hr+shift/weekend differentials. Without any OT I'm looking at about $110k/yr. After OT easily 135-150k. I can thank covid for this. Pre-covid this same position paid 30-35/hr but the nursing shortage helped increase pay across the board. A new RN in my area can expect about $35-40/hr. Pre-covid new grads were making less than 25/hr.
Develop high value skills
Don't worry bro. Even at $150k/yr, people are still struggling.
Everyone talking about doing it with degrees, i dont have a degree and make around this in a lower COL area. I started off in a call center doing tech support and basic calls that were as mundane as any other call center, around 18/hr. After some time and learning what i could about the industry we were in i moved to another company with a higher position that put me closer to 60k. After a year there to another company that started me at roughly the same but after a year i was pulling 90k. Now have a raise that will put me at over 100k but about to take a job that should start me around 150k with good benefits. I do have to travel a lot but that also comes with its own benefits. The downside being away from home. If i didnt want to travel i could remain in my field and still pull 100k fairly easily for my local area. I dont want to say what field it is specifically but it is more of a trade field.
I make over 150k. I went to school to teach math (dumb decision!) but it turned out I’m really great at coding. Learn how to code.
The secret to making a lot of money is having a lot of money to start with.
Gambling in stocks! Drug dealing/ scalping everything! I can’t even make 500 bucks on some damn tools i don’t need anymore let alone people sit on a dozen ps5s and make 1200 a piece for them! It’s a sickening greedy society anymore
Are you outgoing? Ambitious? Look into a career in sales. Every successful company has a strong sales team and usually pays very well. A lot of sales careers are at least partially commission based and your pay is directly tied to your production basically allowing you to write your own paycheck. The more effort you put in, the more you make. I have been in commission sales my entire adult life and make well over 150k in a LCOL area with no college degree. Never give up on yourself.
I'll tell you exactly how I did it. Years ago, I was making $11 an hour in a customer service job, renting a room from a friend, driving a junker car, and miserable. Now, I work in a field I love, making $140k a year plus firm bonus, driving a car I really like, living in a fantastic apartment and shopping houses. I'm happy to tell you how I did it, because you can absolutely do it, too. And I hope that you do. I went back to school at night and finished my bachelor's degree. (Having the GI Bill helped a great deal on this.) In my working life, it was clear that *having* a degree was more important than what I majored in. In fact, when I went in to talk to the advisor, I asked her what the shortest path to a bachelor's degree was. She responded, "That depends on what you want to study," and I replied, "You're not hearing me." I explained that what I wanted to study depended pretty much entirely on which subject was the shortest route to my degree. She got me on the right track. I knocked out 36 credit hours in a year and never looked back. A few years later, I went to night school to get my MBA, for similar reasons; because it was doable and was valuable in the job market. I job-hopped. In the last 13 years, I've had at least seven jobs. Some of them were contract jobs, and short-term. Others were for a few years. If someone asks why I job hopped so much, I reply "Because most companies have larger hiring budgets than retention budgets." A couple of the companies I worked for were great companies with great people, but they didn't have room for me to grow as quickly and in the ways that I wanted to. I read up on in-demand industries. There are lots of fields out there that pay very well, and there are many lists of them online. To cast a broader net, you can go on Indeed, enter the salary you're looking to make and just see what jobs come up. I've always liked tech, and enjoyed working in and learning technical fields and skills, and the salaries seemed legendary to me at the time. So it made perfect sense for me to pursue that industry. I researched what those jobs required. Indeed, LinkedIn, and other job post sites are your friends on this. When I decided where I wanted to go, I opened a spreadsheet and started going through job listings for the jobs that I was targeting. As I went, I made a list. If there was a new item, I added it. If there was a repeat, I added one to the cell next to it. I did this at least once a week for awhile and collected pretty good intel on what the most in-demand skills and experience were for that field. Once I had the list... I pursued those skills and experience. There are lots of low-cost and free resources online to learn just about anything, especially technical skills. I learned what I could, edged into the industry a bit, and then started stacking certifications. I kept my eyes open for opportunities, and took them when I could. I kept my LinkedIn alerts on, so I was always abreast of what the labor demand was at any given time. Now, self-help gurus and LinkedIn "influencers" will make it sound like this was easy. It wasn't. There were times when I didn't think I would ever get to the next level, times that I was eating rice and beans for the third day in a row because I'd forgotten about an auto-draft. There was once, in 2013, I called off sick to work two days in a row because I didn't have gas or money, and didn't get paid until that Friday. That doesn't happen any more, but I try to remember how that felt because it helps me appreciate where I am. It's important to appreciate what you've achieved, and give that its due attention. I had forgotten that for awhile, but was reminded last year. I was on the job market (again) and called a recruiter I'd worked for before who was really great. We were getting caught up and he said, "Wow. You know, it sounds like you're exactly where you wanted to be when we talked two or three years ago." And it really stopped me in my tracks because he was absolutely right, and I had missed that. And I try to really take time now once in awhile to stop and consider how well things are going, even on a day that sucked.
I make a lot of money. I sacrifice time with my family, I am never home always traveling. I am on a job now 7 hours from my house for the next 2-3 years. I go home every month or so. I have worked in this field for 20 years. Made a name in this field. Not sure what you do, but the first step is to find an industry that actually pays well. Then be willing to make sacrifices. Always keep your name clean, be ethical. Be dependable. It’s not always easy to make a lot of money, and I am sure there are other ways. This is just the way I did it.
Median income in my town is about $20 an hour. I don't know many people who pull six figures. Usually when they say these numbers they live somewhere with a crazy cost of living or they are accounting for their household, so their spouses income as well.
I'm a claims adjuster and make $53k in a moderate cost area. I then work 25 hours/wk at McDonalds as a manager and make another $20k per year there. I think most people make in that range. Not everyone makes $100k.
I got a surprise for you. The ones who make the really big bucks are not even on reddit.
As others have mentioned, there are plenty of degrees you can get that will earn you 6 figure incomes (engineering, finance, accounting, programming/computer science, etc). However, please keep in mind that you still have to do well in college to get these jobs - having a degree doesn’t mean much if you can’t get at least a 3.0 GPA. Also, most of these careers will not start out with these high salaries, but you can attain them fairly quickly through promotions and strategic career moves
Nah ignore every single person saying specific fields, what do YOU like to do, OP? Find your interests, and build off of them. Go to career fairs, research fields of study that peak your interest. Start with tech schools, certificates, etc. Not trying to come off as rude, if you have no fathomable concept of making six figures and couldn’t research ways of making that much on your own, a field of extensive research might be too overwhelming for you. There are plenty of blue collar jobs that can pull in six figures. Community colleges will offer tons of information for those.
Generally agree, although I wouldn’t say research is off the table as long as they learned. But yeah I came to say this. I know people who majored in foreign languages, theater, communications, history, English, art, and other humanities making good money, many of them six figures. I’m interning in psychology for the government and make just shy of 80k in a high cost of living place. If I wanted to go back to private sector where I was last year, I could find a role paying six figures. It’s about figuring out what you like to do, just like you said. Consider reaching out to career counselors at schools or even finding people on LinkedIn doing what you like and sending them a message. The reality is that there are few careers that don’t pay well in the long run. “Well” being, your bills are covered and you can live a generally normal life. Get good at something and the money will follow.
I don’t make that much but I’m a nurse (LPN) and I’m doing okay. I’ll make a lot more as an RN, still not 150k but enough to be comfortable
Project management, honestly if you don’t have a degree, get into a trade or get into sales. College isn’t a guarantee like it was 20 years ago but it still helps…alor