All you with these high-paying jobs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I make 250k. I lead a 50-person department at a Fortune 500 company.

My rich friends make $60k-80k as artists, teachers, or NPR reporters. They are from exceptionally wealthy families who underwrite everything and live far better than I would ever to be able to afford to. It sounds like a cliche but it’s true.

very true, seen it a lot. And they can have much healthier marriages because they have flexible, low stress jobs but also have the generational wealth to support things like down payments or kids college funds. But those teachers won’t be able to do for their grandkids what their parents did for theirs

Depends if they are spending down the generational wealth and if they snagged a bag to marry.

They marry other trust funders OR a high earner (law partner etc). I say this as someone who knows a lot of artists and journalists.

+1

Yup. Entrepreneurs marry rich ones, too. There is a reason for this. Don't think because you divorced that they are your next unsuspecting target, because they are most definitely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 capped GS-15s in the DC area will make nearly $400,000. They aren’t exactly a rare breed here.

I was coming in to say exactly this.

In my house, one GS15 and one lobbyist.

Yep, I'm a fed (not on the GS scale) married to a public school teacher. Our HHI is $290k.

+1

This. Remember when Feds used to be "poor"? Now they own three homes (all in desirable areas too!!), renovations as they please, and have at least two big trips per year. Try it some time On your taxpaying dime, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Me: $155-160K
Him: $600K last year, but should hit over $700k this year

We both work in finance (me - corporate role at a large financial institution and him - private equity).

What does a person who has a corporate role at a bank or other financial institution do exactly?

Another PP, I oversee investments undertaken by my employer on a daily basis to make sure trading activities are not tipping our legal agreements.

AI could replace you.

Only if you are FAANG.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

The annual gifts of cash is what kills me - can you imagine an automatic bonus - regardless of your ability to produce?

WOWZA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

The annual gifts of cash is what kills me - can you imagine an automatic bonus - regardless of your ability to produce?

WOWZA.

Depends how much it is, my parents give us $40k a year in cash and that’s nice but not life changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do I get into tech sales? Are these in-person or online? I’m nice looking and have good networking skills if that helps. But I’m past 40.

Are you willing to make 50k a year doing cold calling and competing with a bunch of 23 year olds? And chances are you'll fail out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

The annual gifts of cash is what kills me - can you imagine an automatic bonus - regardless of your ability to produce?

WOWZA.

Depends how much it is, my parents give us $40k a year in cash and that’s nice but not life changing.

You sound UNGRATEFUL. Very ungrateful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I appreciate all the different answers assuming y’all are honest. And I respect the people who honestly disclose the hard work, grind and hustle it took to get there.

However, I just don’t see the numbers adding up. I’ve been a job seeker and I know the job market. I also know the housing market. By definition, only 1% of us can be the top 1%. Where are all the rest of the middle class people like me hiding? In their small outside-the-beltway condos and used Priuses? I just feel like I’m missing something here. The hidden high paying job market.

You’re missing family money. A lot of us got huge legs up - no student loans, help with houses, annual gifts of cash, etc.

The annual gifts of cash is what kills me - can you imagine an automatic bonus - regardless of your ability to produce?

WOWZA.

Depends how much it is, my parents give us $40k a year in cash and that’s nice but not life changing.

You sound UNGRATEFUL. Very ungrateful.

I’m grateful and I always say thanks, but I haven’t quit my job or anything to rely on this $40k that could go away next year. What would you do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Double biglaw. But remember I am happier to disclose my income on this board than other stats. Like, say, how many hours of screen time a day my kids have. When it’s a “good” number for you, you post it willingly. When it isn’t, you skip the thread.

Exactly this. Much happier to talk about my salary than my weight, for example. People like to bragg, even anonymously. All the people earning $50k don’t post about it here.

The OP didn’t ask us poors to post. Actually I’m not poor (in my mid-50s as a capped GS15 I’m almost up to OP’s standard but never will be) but I’m not exceptional on DCUM. On the plus side, I weigh the same 125 lbs as I did when I got married. So I’ll brag about that instead.

That’s something to brag about for sure.

I do too but I also earn $230K.

A capped GS-15 isn’t far off from that when you consider the pension benefits.

That depends. I work for a non-profit for 250K with an annual bonus of 50K. I also receive a 6% 403b contribution with 100% matching (vs. 5% in the Fed), much better health and dental benefits. I also receive a 1.5% pension for every year of service (vs. 1% in the Fed). In my case, the nonprofit sector is much better than the Fed.

300K for a non-profit exec? Susan G. Come-on!

I am less okay with exorbitant non-profit salaries than corporate; that money usually comes at the expense of the program. Donors beware.

Nonprofits can vary a lot in where their funding comes from. I am a nonproft exec that makes $200k. It's a research non-profit and we are funded by a for-profit industry. There are no donors. My staff are also paid pretty well because they have have science/engineering PhDs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 capped GS-15s in the DC area will make nearly $400,000. They aren’t exactly a rare breed here.

I was coming in to say exactly this.

In my house, one GS15 and one lobbyist.

Yep, I'm a fed (not on the GS scale) married to a public school teacher. Our HHI is $290k.

+1

This. Remember when Feds used to be "poor"? Now they own three homes (all in desirable areas too!!), renovations as they please, and have at least two big trips per year. Try it some time On your taxpaying dime, too.

Please find me a Fed, or anyone making under $300K in DC or equivalent area, who can afford to buy three homes in desirable areas and still have lots of money for discretionary spending. As someone living under $300K we struggle to pay for one house, have never renovated ever, and it has been five years since our last big trip. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I think I now realize I have been asking two questions.

The first question is what are the $200K+ paying jobs. Not industries. Actual job descriptions. If I were to network with someone, my ask being “how do I go from (my job) to become a (high paying profession)?”

The other question I guess is where are all the middle class people. The median household income is $110K, but single family homes are a million dollars. Which I think I can answer myself. Among my friends with normal-people jobs, with $100-200K HHI, this is where they live:

- Mid-sized apartment in a DTSS high rise
- Townhouse in Germantown
- Two different couples bought decent sized SFHs in MoCo, but they had parents helped with the down payments
- One couple moved to PG county to buy a SFH, which they could afford in 2018 but probably couldn’t afford to purchase today
- One single guy bought a 900sq ft SFH in Rockville, sold to him directly by a friend, below market rate
- Older people who bought in the 80s and then saw their homes appreciate tenfold

Maybe my overall question should have been “What normal-people jobs pay enough to live the 1990s white picket fence ideal” and the answer is none of them 😂

For your second question, Frederick County, PG County, Howard County, Baltimore County.

Not close in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m OP and I think I now realize I have been asking two questions.

The first question is what are the $200K+ paying jobs. Not industries. Actual job descriptions. If I were to network with someone, my ask being “how do I go from (my job) to become a (high paying profession)?”

The other question I guess is where are all the middle class people. The median household income is $110K, but single family homes are a million dollars. Which I think I can answer myself. Among my friends with normal-people jobs, with $100-200K HHI, this is where they live:

- Mid-sized apartment in a DTSS high rise
- Townhouse in Germantown
- Two different couples bought decent sized SFHs in MoCo, but they had parents helped with the down payments
- One couple moved to PG county to buy a SFH, which they could afford in 2018 but probably couldn’t afford to purchase today
- One single guy bought a 900sq ft SFH in Rockville, sold to him directly by a friend, below market rate
- Older people who bought in the 80s and then saw their homes appreciate tenfold

Maybe my overall question should have been “What normal-people jobs pay enough to live the 1990s white picket fence ideal” and the answer is none of them 😂

For your second question, Frederick County, PG County, Howard County, Baltimore County.

Not close in.

Also farther out places in Virginia like Warrenton, Gainesville, Purcellville/Round Hill.

[Anonymous]

You are doing great. I was making 103k in 2019 with 20 years in the workforce. My ex h was making 180k at the time. I now have a job I hate and will make 180k this year plus a side hustle. Now I am divorced.

You are seeing two incomes usually to get to 300k. I know I would never get there alone.

[Anonymous]

I was in my early twenties working in public interest making 40k and realized the salary would not be enough for me to raise a family the way I’d want. That prompted me to go back to school to become a medical doctor to raise my earnings. Very long road but luckily no debt (married and aid) and now I have the ability to make 300k or more if needed. I think it is about picking the right field as young as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP. I make 250k. I lead a 50-person department at a Fortune 500 company.

My rich friends make $60k-80k as artists, teachers, or NPR reporters. They are from exceptionally wealthy families who underwrite everything and live far better than I would ever to be able to afford to. It sounds like a cliche but it’s true.

very true, seen it a lot. And they can have much healthier marriages because they have flexible, low stress jobs but also have the generational wealth to support things like down payments or kids college funds. But those teachers won’t be able to do for their grandkids what their parents did for theirs

Depends if they are spending down the generational wealth and if they snagged a bag to marry.

They marry other trust funders OR a high earner (law partner etc). I say this as someone who knows a lot of artists and journalists.

Typically the super rich trust funders don't marry outside of the set they grew up with, so they are marrying someone else with inherited wealth.

Yes, definitely true of people with true inherited wealth. Look at both Hilton sisters—they married fellow trust funders from their childhood circle.