Low earning professionals, do you regret your career?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Psychologist

Yes, I regret it.

I thought therapists make a decent amount? Also, do psychiatrists make a lot more than psychologists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did as an architect. I left for an adjacent higher paying field. Glad I got out in my thirties.

Which field did you leave for?

I ask because I have a child who is considering architecture.

I’m not the pp but I was also an architect for six years and then left the profession. The pay is low, and the path to licensure is grueling with no real financial reward at the end of it. Unfortunately, this is very common for architectural professionals. A couple of the most common adjacent fields people go into to make more money is either commercial real estate or go work at large general contractors. I myself left the building industry entirely and went back to grad school at 28, moved into a stem field. I left architecture making 58k in dc after 6 years of working and 6 years later I’m making 165k. No regrets in leaving the low paid architecture profession. I have two young girls and would not let them pursue the field.

[Anonymous]

Early 60s and have worked at small non profits my entire career. I have no regrets. I have always worked for an organization who's mission I am passionate about, that I take great pride in, and I have had tremendous flexibility throughout (went PT for many years when children were young).

I have never made great money, fortunately my spouse has done well, although poor by dcum standards, but we saved to put 3 through college (2 private 1 public - 100% their choice), own our home outright, take what I think are nice vacations - abroad maybe 3 times in 5 years, US national parks and cities every year, and Carribean every couple of years but we are more mountain people than beach people. Sure, we drive our cars until they are dead and don't have the latest iPhones, but that is more about our values than anything else.

We are happy with our choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Early 60s and have worked at small non profits my entire career. I have no regrets. I have always worked for an organization who's mission I am passionate about, that I take great pride in, and I have had tremendous flexibility throughout (went PT for many years when children were young).

I have never made great money, fortunately my spouse has done well, although poor by dcum standards, but we saved to put 3 through college (2 private 1 public - 100% their choice), own our home outright, take what I think are nice vacations - abroad maybe 3 times in 5 years, US national parks and cities every year, and Carribean every couple of years but we are more mountain people than beach people. Sure, we drive our cars until they are dead and don't have the latest iPhones, but that is more about our values than anything else.

We are happy with our choices.

It’s way easier to have made less money when you are 60 b/c housing was so much cheaper when you were in prime earning years. You had a “long commute” from Vienna and lived in a nice new home on a non profit salary then. And you had support from spouse with regular job

It is a completely different world where housing has gone up 5x but salary has maybe doubled at best.

[Anonymous]

As noted by the PP, being happy with your flexible, doing-good career is more likely if your partner brings home enough money to take care of the DCUM basics: eventually paying off your single family home, getting the kids through college without big loans and occasional international trips.

[Anonymous]

Nurse.
Yes, the low salaries grate after 20 years in the field and no real increases. I just took a new job ($115K--woo hoo!) but prior to this I was making about the same salary for the past 10 years: $90K (in a variety of positions--so yes, I moved around). I know people associate nursing with the astronomical salaries that nurses are making these days as Covid travel nurses but when it comes down to it, the average nursing salary in DC is something like $75K.

I will say that I have loved the work: I've done interesting and impactful things in a large variety of settings.
I will also say that I'm married to a doctor whose salary pays our mortgage. My colleagues who are not married to a higher earner (most of them) live all sorts of great distances from DC because they can't afford to live closer in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Early 60s and have worked at small non profits my entire career. I have no regrets. I have always worked for an organization who's mission I am passionate about, that I take great pride in, and I have had tremendous flexibility throughout (went PT for many years when children were young).

I have never made great money, fortunately my spouse has done well, although poor by dcum standards, but we saved to put 3 through college (2 private 1 public - 100% their choice), own our home outright, take what I think are nice vacations - abroad maybe 3 times in 5 years, US national parks and cities every year, and Carribean every couple of years but we are more mountain people than beach people. Sure, we drive our cars until they are dead and don't have the latest iPhones, but that is more about our values than anything else.

We are happy with our choices.

Lol of course you have no regrets? Your *spouse* was able to fully fund three college tuitions, fully pay off a house, alternating between trips to the Caribbean and Europe every other year, all while you worked at a nonprofit and wore the badge of “we’re not affluent?”

This is why this thread should have started with a “not married to money/from family money” disqualification.

[Anonymous]

Ever since we had children, my wife went to SAHM status, and we lived on my salary during that time ($120,000 - $138,000, gov't engineer). It was tough at first, but once debts got paid off, it became easier.

Now that the kids are older, my wife is working FT again in the same field she was in before (social work), and is working from home. The money she makes more than pays for older child's college and the excess is essentially the first "disposable income" we've had in a long time.

No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Social worker - totally regret it. I grew up lower middle class at best so when I learned about starting salaries in the 70s for SWs I thought I'd be rich (since my parents never made that kind of money). Of course once I graduated with debt and actually started working I realized what a horrible grind it is, how disrespected and undervalued we are, and wish I would have aimed higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Social worker - totally regret it. I grew up lower middle class at best so when I learned about starting salaries in the 70s for SWs I thought I'd be rich (since my parents never made that kind of money). Of course once I graduated with debt and actually started working I realized what a horrible grind it is, how disrespected and undervalued we are, and wish I would have aimed higher.

Haha yeah another LMC worker who thought a salary of $60k would be amazing, that’s more than my parents ever made combined!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did as an architect. I left for an adjacent higher paying field. Glad I got out in my thirties.

Which field did you leave for?

I ask because I have a child who is considering architecture.

I’m not the pp but I was also an architect for six years and then left the profession. The pay is low, and the path to licensure is grueling with no real financial reward at the end of it. Unfortunately, this is very common for architectural professionals. A couple of the most common adjacent fields people go into to make more money is either commercial real estate or go work at large general contractors. I myself left the building industry entirely and went back to grad school at 28, moved into a stem field. I left architecture making 58k in dc after 6 years of working and 6 years later I’m making 165k. No regrets in leaving the low paid architecture profession. I have two young girls and would not let them pursue the field.

+1. My sister worked so hard for so many years to become an architect, and then has been disappointed to learn that the pay is about equivalent to a teacher (but without the vacation time and without the benefits).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did as an architect. I left for an adjacent higher paying field. Glad I got out in my thirties.

Which field did you leave for?

I ask because I have a child who is considering architecture.

I’m not the pp but I was also an architect for six years and then left the profession. The pay is low, and the path to licensure is grueling with no real financial reward at the end of it. Unfortunately, this is very common for architectural professionals. A couple of the most common adjacent fields people go into to make more money is either commercial real estate or go work at large general contractors. I myself left the building industry entirely and went back to grad school at 28, moved into a stem field. I left architecture making 58k in dc after 6 years of working and 6 years later I’m making 165k. No regrets in leaving the low paid architecture profession. I have two young girls and would not let them pursue the field.

+1. My sister worked so hard for so many years to become an architect, and then has been disappointed to learn that the pay is about equivalent to a teacher (but without the vacation time and without the benefits).

Honest question, how did she not know that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Social worker - totally regret it. I grew up lower middle class at best so when I learned about starting salaries in the 70s for SWs I thought I'd be rich (since my parents never made that kind of money). Of course once I graduated with debt and actually started working I realized what a horrible grind it is, how disrespected and undervalued we are, and wish I would have aimed higher.

Haha yeah another LMC worker who thought a salary of $60k would be amazing, that’s more than my parents ever made combined!

I'm a nurse in the same boat. I thought $70K was a fortune! I never had any perspective to think otherwise. It's more than my dad ever made.

[Anonymous]

It's a mixed bag. I'm a journalist who transitioned into non-profits and wish I had focused more on profitability when I had the chance. Now, my friends and neighbors who took a business path are making 2-3 times as much as me.

While I regret that I don't make more money, I am happy that I chose careers that have a positive impact on the world. I would have literally killed myself if my sole job was to enhance shareholder value for a company whose only mission is to boost the bottom line -- at any cost to humans and the planet. Most people I know who make a lot of money are doing so at someone else's cost, and I just can't stomach that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mechanical engineering and ended up in renewable energy. Three decades into it and never made more than $85k, while living in Washington. Not poverty. Not great.

I don't regret the field and the mission, which has been a blessing. I sure do regret not getting on to the money side of the business. I think my kids will be OK because they will have options in life and have plenty of experience living in a money-stressed household.

What? Have you never switched jobs?