Those of you with 200K+ jobs & are NOT doctors/lawyers: what do you do & how did you find your jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God this whole string is depressing. Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I would have to work for the rest of my life and that I wanted to make a lot of money. Now Im 47 and make seven figures in law and real estate.

How many more years you gonna do that? I'm a lawyer who retired at age 52 and I never made more than $275K a year. You must spend everything you make, or you'd be retired already.

Ha! I enjoy it actually. I could retire, but then my wife (who makes more money than I do) would have even less respect for me

Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I wanted a spouse who would respect me. Now Im 47 and am married to someone who respect me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God this whole string is depressing. Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I would have to work for the rest of my life and that I wanted to make a lot of money. Now Im 47 and make seven figures in law and real estate.

How many more years you gonna do that? I'm a lawyer who retired at age 52 and I never made more than $275K a year. You must spend everything you make, or you'd be retired already.

Ha! I enjoy it actually. I could retire, but then my wife (who makes more money than I do) would have even less respect for me

Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I wanted a spouse who would respect me. Now Im 47 and am married to someone who respect me.

Zing!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you to all the helpful posters who responded. You gave me a lot to think about.

Someone suggested moving out of the area; I am actually considering doing that. I know that I don't have the skills for sales (or even working closely with the sales team -- it just didn't jive with my personality, which is why I left product management). Similarly, I have worked for myself as a contractor/consultant, but never made more than I am making right now.

I think if I can cut my living expenses and commuting expenses, I will be ok.

As for those in the same shoes, I completely agree about the lack of knowledge/blind, almost fervent belief in education as the answer -- I genuinely believed that getting the most expensive/prestigious education possible would be my ticket out of poverty. (To the person who asked why I paid for my master's degree: my undergraduate degree -- which I also loaned heavily for -- was in political science, so I didn't really have the option of working a great job at a company right after college that would provide generous tuition reimbursement). I still feel as if investing heavily in education paid off, in a way: I'm not living in poverty like my parents, and I actually make more money than most of my friends from back home. But I'm drowning in debt as a result, so maybe I'll move to a cheaper area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God this whole string is depressing. Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I would have to work for the rest of my life and that I wanted to make a lot of money. Now Im 47 and make seven figures in law and real estate.

How many more years you gonna do that? I'm a lawyer who retired at age 52 and I never made more than $275K a year. You must spend everything you make, or you'd be retired already.

Ha! I enjoy it actually. I could retire, but then my wife (who makes more money than I do) would have even less respect for me

Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I wanted a spouse who would respect me. Now Im 47 and am married to someone who respect me.

Zing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God this whole string is depressing. Why didn't you plan better? I knew when I was 18 that I would have to work for the rest of my life and that I wanted to make a lot of money. Now Im 47 and make seven figures in law and real estate.

NP here, and I grew up poor like OP. Growing up, I thought six figures was a lot of money! If I had planned better, I would have gone into a technical/IT field, but I went to a liberal arts school. Now make decent as a gov't lawyer, but yeah, I do wish I had planned better. [/quot

Develop a side gig - mine is real estate. I bet you could double your income if you wanted.

Hi! This is my goal! DH and I own two condos that we rent out, but we bought when we lived in them, respectively, so they aren't the best for investment purposes (one is okay in terms of cash flow, one is break even). I'm currently looking into property in the DC area, and even put an informal offer on a multi-unit, but I'm finding that proper DC might not be the best place in terms of investment, given the high prices. Where do you go for your information? Have you found any helpful meet-ups? I've spent some time on biggerpockets.com and have read a few books. I'm thinking of branching out and looking outside of DC in PG county or elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make 120K and seem to be "topped out." I work in IT management at a university and I am drowning in debt. I'm 33, divorced, 1 kid, and don't even own a house yet. Most of my friends make less than me. I have a master's degree from a top school (one of the reasons I am drowning in debt).

I go on Indeed.com, Idealist, etc. all the time and I don't really see jobs posted that pay more than mine. How do you get these super-high paying jobs? Are they unlisted?

I found out recently that even my BOSS only makes 10K more than me. Where are you guys finding the "big" jobs? What did you do to get there?

Let me start by saying 120K at 33 is good money. Really good money. You say drowing in debt...how much is that? How is your credit?

FWIW, at 33, I was making about 1/2 of what you make, with probably less debt (no student loan) and more education (PhD); in 2017 dollars, it converts to 90K. Today, 20 years later, I make 175K, I have a house that with 400-500K equity, and I have 900K in retirement.

What did I do? I bought a house. And, I put money away for retirement. Buying the house was done to fix payments at 1999 levels. I was paying 1500/month in rent, and bought a small house (bigger than my appt) in the 'burbs with good schools without changing my payments. So, I locked my payments for rent in at a level that was sustainable with a 60K salary. I got lucky with the appreciation -- but there are places you could buy a place for 400K, which would cost about $1900+taxes; taxes and interest are deductible. Note that, in theory, you should be able to pay about 600k, which would just about buy my house today (with similar loan to income).

At 3% income growth/inflation, when you are my age, you will be making 235K. If you fix your housing (biggest cost) at your current rent, you will be in good shape. Meanwhile, you have paid 20 years off the mortgage. in another 10 years, you own the place.

At the same time, put in 10% to your 401K (or 403b). I assume the company is matching at least 5%; With 8% grown in the markets, and 3% income growth, you about about 1.15 mil in retirement, and you will have paid off half your house -- assuming a modest 2% growth in housing costs, your 400K house is worth 600K, and you now owe 200K.

So, your net worth is about 1.5 mil....

that is how you get comfortable on a middle class salary.

3% income growth--is that a joke?? We haven't seen annual salary increases over 1% in probably 7 years. Health insurance goes up 5-15% a year, so if you stay in the same job, you just get poorer. The only way to get a meaningful increase is to change jobs.

[Anonymous]

OP, in IT you have to job jump to get a higher salary. Its rare a company will give you a huge increase in less you move to another position or company. My husband has had to move every few years. He has a degree from a no name university that no one has ever heard of. At some point your technical skills and willingness to learn new technology are far more important than your degree. There are plenty of IT jobs but the better paying are contractor/DOD/cleared jobs. Otherwise, some of the bigger companies like Amazon are here and are hiring and they pay better. The university and government are comfortable and secure jobs so you have to be willing to take a risk and have enough savings so if your contact cuts you, which is common, you have safety net for a few months. If you have kids and the University has perks like free college, it might be worth staying just for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, in IT you have to job jump to get a higher salary. Its rare a company will give you a huge increase in less you move to another position or company. My husband has had to move every few years. He has a degree from a no name university that no one has ever heard of. At some point your technical skills and willingness to learn new technology are far more important than your degree. There are plenty of IT jobs but the better paying are contractor/DOD/cleared jobs. Otherwise, some of the bigger companies like Amazon are here and are hiring and they pay better. The university and government are comfortable and secure jobs so you have to be willing to take a risk and have enough savings so if your contact cuts you, which is common, you have safety net for a few months. If you have kids and the University has perks like free college, it might be worth staying just for that.

This. It's not just for IT. I've done well professionally and make over 200k without an advanced degree. I've done it by moving around and always having a plan as to what my next move will be. I could make way way more but I value work/life balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in software and earn $1M+. Base is $300K and the rest is bonus and stock grants.

I grew up in the DC housing projects. My single mom got me into the better know high schools in the city as Eastern HS was my home school. Went to average state school majoring in math and computer science.

Worked as a civilian for the DOD the summer before college and learned about a program which got college paid for with 3 year post college work commitment. DOD paid for grad school at a average private DC university. Moved to DOD contractor and then to the west coast at a software company because of a former colleague connection I had there.

Worked my way up and moved to another tech company after 10 years. I had both coding and managerial experience.

I got an amazing offer at a PRE-IOP company that I took back to my then-current company. They were loosing good people left and right so my then-current company matched it. Before this four year package expired (and my comp. dropped to <$500K), I went shopping for a new job and stretched out my high earnings another four years.

A million bucks / year and doesn't know the different between loose and lose. What a world we live in.

A world where you can be anyone or anything on the internet.

It goes to show how misinformed you are about west coast high tech salaries. You should to be grateful to me as I pay your GS 13 salary along with the salary of three of your peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in software and earn $1M+. Base is $300K and the rest is bonus and stock grants.

I grew up in the DC housing projects. My single mom got me into the better know high schools in the city as Eastern HS was my home school. Went to average state school majoring in math and computer science.

Worked as a civilian for the DOD the summer before college and learned about a program which got college paid for with 3 year post college work commitment. DOD paid for grad school at a average private DC university. Moved to DOD contractor and then to the west coast at a software company because of a former colleague connection I had there.

Worked my way up and moved to another tech company after 10 years. I had both coding and managerial experience.

I got an amazing offer at a PRE-IOP company that I took back to my then-current company. They were loosing good people left and right so my then-current company matched it. Before this four year package expired (and my comp. dropped to <$500K), I went shopping for a new job and stretched out my high earnings another four years.

A million bucks / year and doesn't know the different between loose and lose. What a world we live in.

A world where you can be anyone or anything on the internet.

It goes to show how misinformed you are about west coast high tech salaries. You should to be grateful to me as I pay your GS 13 salary along with the salary of three of your peers.

Um, I work for Splunk you moron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't get out of bed for $120k a year.

You are an a-hole.

[Anonymous]

Retained executive search.

[Anonymous]

If you're in this area - try switching to a better paying industry. Financial Services or government contracting are pretty good. To get to one of those companies, network as much as you can. Go on Linkedin and connect to people as you meet them. See what skills they have and consider learning about them (AWS, cloud, and agile methodology are all good) Meet people through Women in Technology, your school's alumni group, or other networking groups. Let people know you're looking. Set up informational interviews with contacts at companies you're interested in to get some good advice (and so they get to know you). Get help with your resume. For most people, climbing that ladder takes knocking on lots of doors, getting to know lots of people, and keeping your skills current. The best jobs aren't on the job boards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in software and earn $1M+. Base is $300K and the rest is bonus and stock grants.

I grew up in the DC housing projects. My single mom got me into the better know high schools in the city as Eastern HS was my home school. Went to average state school majoring in math and computer science.

Worked as a civilian for the DOD the summer before college and learned about a program which got college paid for with 3 year post college work commitment. DOD paid for grad school at a average private DC university. Moved to DOD contractor and then to the west coast at a software company because of a former colleague connection I had there.

Worked my way up and moved to another tech company after 10 years. I had both coding and managerial experience.

I got an amazing offer at a PRE-IOP company that I took back to my then-current company. They were loosing good people left and right so my then-current company matched it. Before this four year package expired (and my comp. dropped to <$500K), I went shopping for a new job and stretched out my high earnings another four years.

A million bucks / year and doesn't know the different between loose and lose. What a world we live in.

A world where you can be anyone or anything on the internet.

It goes to show how misinformed you are about west coast high tech salaries. You should to be grateful to me as I pay your GS 13 salary along with the salary of three of your peers.

Um, I work for Splunk you moron.

Moron....? Are your twelve? But it is obvious the reason you work at Splunk and not at a more competitive high tech company. I'm sorry you can't do better.

[Anonymous]

My friends and I are all in IT and we all breaks $300k+ easy.

Several of them work from home and they take two 1099 jobs at the same time as one job is just wasting time. They pull in around $350k. That's work smart, not harder.

I on the other hand specialize in a very specific industry and I pull in $400 to $600k depending on the year. Will make around $650k+ this year.