Car designer

figher pilot

surgeon

Gatyr wrote: Well paid high-school teacher. Wait, that's not realistic. No teachers get paid well.

They do around here.

I'm gonna have to go for network engineer.

Darur wrote: Microchop Design for AMD, Nvidia or Intel. Or Motherboard design for DFI, apprenticing under Oscar Wu. Or if all else fails, a comfy job in IT as a Systems or Network Administrator.

AMD needs all the help they can get right now.

thebuickguy wrote: Gatyr wrote: Well paid high-school teacher. Wait, that's not realistic. No teachers get paid well.     They get paid about 40,000 a year in my neck of the woods considering the only place that also pays that much is hard labor at a lime quarry teaching seems like a brilliant idea.

40k is not a lot of money once you have family and obligations.  That's basically twice minimum wage.  And unlike the quarry worker, the teachers had to go to school for a long time.  I don't think that is a fair comparison.  Relative to others of comparable education, teachers are clearly underpaid.

40k is well below the median national income, and probably below the median income in each state.  If you adjust for the 9-month work year, then it is basically median.  By no measure is that a lot of money.

As for me - I would very much enjoy an unstructured existence with a mix of speaking engagements, writing opportunities, and teaching gigs.  All of which would somehow make lots of money.

tallen702 wrote: Trust me, it's not.

I'll second that.  Granted that I am greedier than most, but I am also confident that most students drastically underestimate the amount of money they will need/want once they enter the real world.

Here in MKE, for instance (where PCF and I both live), a decent house in a middle-class suburban neighborhood will run you $300,000 or so.  If you have $60k for a 20% down payment (which you got how?), then your mortgage payment is about $1,400 per month, plus $200 for taxes, so $1,600 total.  If you like to live in the city, a decent apartment will cost about the same.

Your $20k car gives you a car payment of $500 or so.  Electricity/gas bill - $150 per month.

Total so far:  $2,250 per month, and we haven't eaten yet, or taken out insurance, or bought gasoline or clothes.

And your 50k salary?  Figure 20% effective tax rate, so that leaves 40k.  Now take out $1,000 for insurance, $3,000 for health/dental insurance, and we are left with $36,000, or $3000/month.

After our fixed expenses, that leaves $750/month for food, gas, clothes, entertainment, travel - and we still haven't saved a dime for retirement.

That is doable for a single guy - but certainly not living the high life.  And add a wife and child(ren) to that, and 50k is basically starvation money.  You will be choosing every month between food and electricity.

procarbinefreak wrote: It may not be enough to live the good life, but it's a pretty good starting point

Agreed - and I think that's the key.  $50k is (a) a good starting point and (b) a respectable amount of cash for a single guy living the simple life.

What it is NOT is enough money to raise a family in comfortable surroundings.

My experience has been that students have a tendency to focus far too much on the starting salary, and not nearly enough on the 5-10 year earning expectation.

50K in Texas goes a whole lot further lol. You can get a really nice house here for about 150K, and if you look in the country, you can get a nice house with about ten or fifteen acres for about the same.

I'd like to hit around 100K a year, which is about the most my profession will ever top out at. 50K is a minimum to leave comfortably around here, but I realize it's alot more in other places.

stratoaxe wrote: 50K in Texas goes a whole lot further lol.

Certainly true, and many other places as well.  Of course, in Manhattan 300k gets you a cardboard box.  You have to judge by local standards.

This tends to be reflected in salaries, though.  Almost all of the high-paying jobs are in/near big cities with high cost of living.  Incomes in rural areas are much lower.

These are of course also things to consider when choosing a career.  Don't plan on being a hot-shot investment banker while living in Broken Bow.

Thor wrote: I want to be a jump qualified sniper and then go JTF-2. Just need to get the ol' PT up to snuff and it'll be a reality in 2-4 years. Muwahahahahahaha.

Dude, you sound like this kid I taught on BMQ last year.

Those numbers are fair.  A million dollars buys you a multi-building mansion estate in the middle South, or a studio apartment on the Upper East Side, and something in between most places.

Cost of real estate is the biggest determinant of cost of living, and it varies drastically across the country.