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

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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? [/quote]

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.
 [/quote]

This is good advice, especially on locking in housing costs.  The benefit of a 30 year fixed mortgage is huge and shouldn't be passsed up.  At the same time you don't want to view your house as an investment or be house poor.  I have many friends who make a lot more than I do but they are still renting in NY.  Our mortgage was similar to our rent when we purchased a few years ago.  Except rent, especially in NY, continues to increase every year.  In 10-20 years we will have a joke of a mortgage.  Already our incomes have gone up at least 75k since purchasing our home.  
[/quote]

This. We are in house #3. Got into the market in 2000. Our PITI for our 3,300 sqft SFH on a half acre 20nin un traffic to our jobs is $2,300/mo. Our income at this point could support a PITI of doyble that, but id prefer to have the extra $28,000 cash in my pocket. Gives us a comfortable life.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics