Anonymous wrote:what's wrong with putting heart and empathy before money? In this forum and in much of American society, there is nothing more important than making as much money as possible. What results from the fact that money seems to be the highest goal in life, we see in the pollution and destruction of our livelihood. My advice: be content for once and don't always compare yourself with others.

+1

what's wrong with putting heart and empathy before money? In this forum and in much of American society, there is nothing more important than making as much money as possible. What results from the fact that money seems to be the highest goal in life, we see in the pollution and destruction of our livelihood. My advice: be content for once and don't always compare yourself with others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's plenty of people with basket weaving degrees earning $150k+. In sales, or consulting, or as a Director of whatever. You need to work towards promotion, or lateral into higher paid position elsewhere, or do consulting or sales.

Yep, me. Degree in English. Making $170 at 32. Been in consulting since I graduated college.

Me, I have two English degrees (BA and MA). Own my own biz and make $350-400k depending on the year

How did you land that first job with just a BA and MA? Sounds like support from daddy and mommy or just their money.

Growing up with foreign service parents can make you idealistic. That’s a nice thing. Lots of lawyers, bankers, business types are working all the time, treated poorly, never see their families and are beyond miserable. But State Dept and non profits can also be extremely demanding and time consuming.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thank you for the ideas but I feel stuck as my nonprofit job is administrative so I have little business skill to be able to transition to consulting.

An entry level consulting job pays same or more than your salary now. Plus, has enormous promotion potential. Your real problem is laziness or learned helplessness. Daddy brought you around nonprofit folks, you got into it because of daddy, but now daddy doesn't have a magic wand to make you earn a decent living, so you will do nothing but sulk. No. You get out. You need to grow up and take initiative by yourself to get ahead.

I agree with the laziness. You don’t seem to want to work hard, OP.

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids is going down this path. I worry about regret coming down the road, but I don't feel like there is much I can do about it (other than ask the occasional concerned question.) She has huge heart and lots of passion for her field, and she says doesn't care about living the kind of life she grew up with. But I wonder if she'll still feel that way ten years from now.

If she’s researched the career path and talked with people who have been it for decades, she will have a good idea of what to expect. Some people really don’t care about money.

Anonymous wrote:Man, I didn't realize how impoverished I must be. My HHI is only like $150k per year in Takoma Park.

Most people are poor in Takoma Park so you made the right choice of neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:63 k is not piddly, it’s all about how you spend not how much you make

Yes it is. Especially when your peers are making 500+ At law firms/finance Etc.

But, on the other hand, they probably face more stress uncertainty than you do.

And you’re at a fairly early stage in your career. If you have the personal attributes that would have made you successful as a lawyer or business person, then you can still rise up in the nonprofit world and make decent money at a richer nonprofit.

To do that, maybe you have to go get some kind of nonprofit management master’s degree.

Or, go get a life insurance or financial planning designation. Shift to helping rich people cut their taxes by giving money to charity.

Man, I didn't realize how impoverished I must be. My HHI is only like $150k per year in Takoma Park.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry I have no sympathy. You had access to more than most people and squandered your opportunities.

Someone's having a bad day and was just looking for someone to take it out on.
Sorry OP. Your story was interesting and I can see why it's hard to talk about unless it's anonymous.

It's not too late. I'm sure there is some way to transition into a better paying field even if you have to take a bit of a cut now - it will pay off later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's plenty of people with basket weaving degrees earning $150k+. In sales, or consulting, or as a Director of whatever. You need to work towards promotion, or lateral into higher paid position elsewhere, or do consulting or sales.

Yep, me. Degree in English. Making $170 at 32. Been in consulting since I graduated college.

Me, I have two English degrees (BA and MA). Own my own biz and make $350-400k depending on the year