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Do you make over 120K? What did you do to get there?
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Anonymous
| The poster thinking of giving up her 200K salary to be a SAH mom got me thinking about the consequences of getting off the career merry-go-round. I stayed at home for four years and while it was beneficial for our family for me to be at home, I definitely feel that it decreased my earning power. I have been back to work full-time for a 18 months and work for a consulting firm and I am close to breaking the six-figure barrier, but not quite there yet. Now I am at a point where earning as much money as possible is important to secure the future for our family (retirement, college, living in DC) and basically make up for lost time. However, I am wondering if it is possible to still have a balanced family life and earn a high-wage. Luckily I do enjoy my job as it is now, but know that earning more means more responsibility. So I am trying to figure out how folks do it and remain sane. If you earn over 120K, what do you do for a living? Is your job demanding? Did it take long to get to your current wage? Do you feel you had to give something up in order to get there? |
Anonymous
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Here's my responses to your question.
Law firm partner. Got there by doing very well at a top 5 law school. Was a lawyer for 8 years before having first daughter. My job is demanding, but I make much more than 120K (our starting salary for first year lawyers is $145K). I moved from a higher intensity firm to my current firm for some balance and sanity and it has worked out well. I love what I do so it is not much of a sacrifice. I do however have less time at home with my kids than I could have with a less demanding job. We have a fabulous family life though and I do feel like a spend a lot of time with my kids and especially now that they are in school full time, I don't miss that much of their time (they get home from school around 3:45 and I am home by 6:30 the vast majority of nights). Also have great balance with husband since we both share kid responsibilities. |
Anonymous
| I am a consultant, work part time (3 days/week) and make $150K. I scaled back to 3 days/week because of the travel demands. I still travel, but I feel like it's the right balance for our family. |
Anonymous
| Went to a good med school and a very demanding residency in a surgical subspecialty. |
Anonymous
| I'm a HR Manager at a large company and I've been working there since 2000. Before that, I was in grad school getting my MBA (which I got from a 2nd tier school) and before that I was in undergrad. I make $125k. |
Anonymous
| Med school. But it is hard. See little of my kids. Almost always have to say no to invitations, and school events. |
Anonymous
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Here we go again....... |
Anonymous
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If you earn over 120K, what do you do for a living?
Lawyer Is your job demanding? Yes Did it take long to get to your current wage? Yes, 15 years. It is well over $120K, though. We now start our new attorneys at $160K. Do you feel you had to give something up in order to get there? Yes. Nights, weekends, sleep, time with the kids, time with my husband, taking a vacation without checking in, etc. I have come to the conclusion that there are no jobs with very high compensation that are not demanding (well, maybe supermodel, but I don't have the, uh, skills for that. Maybe some of them would say it is hard anyway). When I was growing up I was raised to strive for the top grades, top job, top income. I wanted to be on the cover of Business Week when I was young (oops - doesn't look like I'll make it). I hope to teach my kids that living a good and well-rounded life is perhaps a bit more important. I hope if they choose this life they do it with their eyes open and not because they think that money is the only way to measure success. |
Anonymous
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Good Lord, is this the poster obsessed with $400k a month ago?!? Because frankly, "if you have to ask"..... |
Anonymous
But she already said she's close to 6 figures and wants to know how others got to a place where they made over 120k... |
Anonymous
OP here - I am honestly looking for answers on how women manage to make all of this work. And just want to understand just a little bit the path that gets people on a high wage track. To the lawyers that have responded - I have several college friends that chose the law, many took this path because they didn't know what else to do. Some are really unhappy with firm life, in spite of the salary. It is good to know that lawyers can find a way to make it work. It seems that with law firms there is a clear understanding about what you need to do in order to become a partner and earn more. BTW I am asking about salaries over 120K because that is the bare minimum I need to make so that we could live on one salary if necessary. I understand that plenty of folks who work in specialized fields make way more. I am not asking these questions so people can gloat. I want to see the connection between making a higher salary, decisionmaking at different stages and how much you MAY have to give up to move up. Thanks to those who have provided helpful responses. |
Anonymous
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If you earn over 120K, what do you do for a living?
Work for trade association managing grassroots eadvocacy program Is your job demanding? Yes, but I have high expectations for my work Did it take long to get to your current wage? I have lots of experience and am well educated, so I guess it took a while Do you feel you had to give something up in order to get there? No |
Anonymous
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If you earn over 120K, what do you do for a living?
Lawyer in a federal agency My full-time salary is $155K but I am currently working part-time, so I'm making around $85K, which is fine for our family. I can switch back to full-time any time I choose. Is your job demanding? No. Did it take long to get to your current wage? 4 years in private practice; 10 years in government Do you feel you had to give something up in order to get there? Honestly, not really. Left private practice before I had kids, and my federal job has been very flexible & not very stressful. I consider myself VERY lucky to have wound up where I am. |
Anonymous
| Another lawyer here, but I work for the feds. My job is demanding -- I'm in a litigating component of DOJ -- but I'm not constantly under a lot of pressure. Even when things are really busy, I'm still out of the office around 5pm every day to make daycare pickup. Every once in awhile, I do an hour or two of work at night or on the weekends or in the morning while DS is slooooowly eating breakfast. It took me about six years to make somewhere in the neighborhood of 120k; I'm now about ten years into my career. The only thing I feel like I gave up is the chance to work at a big firm and make lots more money than I do now, pay off my law school loans more quickly, etc. That having been said, I'm really happy working for the government and wouldn't go back and do anything differently if I had the chance. |
Anonymous
| County government lawyer, making about $115,000. If we weren't undergoing COLA freezes and other pay cuts, I would have made $120,000 last year. I have been working in various government positions for 11 years, right out of law school. |