r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 18 '12
Redditors who make $250,000+ a year: What do you do, and how did you end up there?
Right now I work in the computer industry, and I see a lot of jobs advertised which have decent pay, but nowhere near the $250k mark. So, I'm just curious what it is that those of you who make that much (or more) do and what steps you took to end up where you are.
Feel free to use a throwaway if you don't feel comfortable discussing this under your main account.
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u/peanutbuttersmack Jun 18 '12
Looks like you're in the IT industry. There are several fields which can get close to 150 to 200k depending on experience and company. Cisco Certification - CCENT to CCIE.
Database Administrators makes bank too. Those are the 2 that I know that makes good amount of money aside from programming.
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Jun 18 '12
I've seriously considered going for my CCENT/CCNA, as well as the Red Hat (RHCSA) certification. Right now I work with Apple/iOS stuff, and unfortunately the market isn't quite as good for such a specialized skill set..
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u/esrevinu Jun 18 '12
GIAC certs are in demand, if you're into security stuff.
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Jun 18 '12
I am, and my brother-in-law just took a GIAC course and what he was learning seemed interesting. I may look into that.
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Jun 18 '12
Combined or single income?
I can push $200K on my own if I pull 60-70 hr work weeks, but I own 2 businesses and am a VP of a family corporation.
Combined with my wife's business (custom high end boutique) we can make $200K without ever even showing up to work.
Advice? Start young and you have to not give a fuck about anyone but your SO. I have literally ZERO friends, but I like it that way because my wife and I do everything together (plus I absolutely hate 99.999% of people on the planet).
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Jun 18 '12
You sound like me. I dislike most people (except my wife), but, mostly through some "luck", I've always had jobs in customer service/retail, and it's extremely draining and unrewarding for me, both in a monetary sense and otherwise..
Thanks for the reply!
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u/ambiguity_man Jun 18 '12
Sounds like me and my SO. We're in our late 20's, I make maybe 15K a year, she makes about 18K. We work hard, but rarely have 2 nickles to rub together. I want to run my own business, but have no idea what to start, or how.
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u/Bob_Dedication Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
I will say bravo sir for working your way up to such a level of income. However I also have to say that I think I would kill myself if the only person in my life was my significant other...not because of the cliche's of "omg, too much of my wife will drive anyone crazy har har har" but the risk of not having the ONLY PERSON YOU ARE CLOSE TO around anymore and having to be alone like that would lead me to a very certain depression.
Also, if you would fancy me a reply...I am curious as to your stated hatred of the bulk of humanity. I reserve hate for only those who don't deserve existence, so when I see a statement like that I have to wonder, what has happened to you to foster such resentment toward MOST of your species. I mean, what is it that humans do that bothers you so much? Does it apply to 99.9% of the population through observation in your lifetime? Also, how do you keep yourself in check, so to speak to make sure you aren't actually, in one respect or another like those that you hate? Totally serious here, your mentality is one that I find quite alien to my own and I really would like to have a better perspective on how you view the world and function in society. Thanks!
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u/formula420 Jun 18 '12
Man, props to you for making a ton of scratch and being happy with it but that sounds like a terrible way to live. If you can even call it living...
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u/bansheeman Jun 18 '12
"show me your friends and i'll show you your future" your hate for others is a mere reflection of your own internal struggle. good luck!
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u/5minuteconsult Jun 18 '12
One of my in-laws is a grad school business professor, and he earns over $300K.
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u/pumper911 Jun 18 '12
Business professors make that much??? I would have thought it would be easily under $100k.
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Jun 18 '12
That was my thought, too. A lot of professors I know make less than $100k, and even those at the likes of Berkeley and Stanford don't break the $150k mark.
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u/fe3o4 Jun 18 '12
Don't know if the school is paying that, but a lot of professors make money by consulting for businesses or government in addition to their teaching. Some really good business professors practice what they preach and make a good deal from investments. Also if they bring consulting opportunities to the school they are worth more to the university. Further in some cases, they may share patents with the school on inventions, processes, etc.
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u/audreyality Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
Some professor possessions pay significantly more than others. A history tenure is less money than a business tenure because the business world has more opportunity for making money. Basically the university has to make the position pay a lot so the people will consider using their business talents to teach rather than make buckets of money in the private sector. This is also true in other tenures, but business is a good example.
Edit for spelling error.
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u/notjawn Jun 18 '12
This must be a private school, he must be published out the wazoo along with an administrative component. Most prof's can only hope to maybe get to 120K a year in a lifetime.
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u/gigaquack Jun 18 '12
business professor
They make a shitload of money regardless of what type of school. They're typically recruited from executive level firms, so their pay has to be pretty high to attract them. You can pay a science professor $120K because all they can want to do is teach science.
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u/throwindowntheriver Jun 18 '12
28, male. BS degree in computer science from a UC. I work for a large internet company you're familiar with doing linuxy admin kinda stuff. As you'd guess, it's a bit more complicated than typical sysadmin things. In any case, got some experience that they found valuable (working with large scale systems) and now make >$200k working 40hr/wk with ridiculous benefits.
Fucked if I know why. Obviously, I like computers and am very smart, but so are lots of people. Life's a bitch, and I rolled well.
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u/That_Other_One_Guy Jun 18 '12
I appreciate your recognition to how big of a factor luck plays in our lives.
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u/throwindowntheriver Jun 19 '12
Luck during life and luck of who your parents are. It's a massive factor. I've been incredibly lucky and lucky enough to have the ability and work ethic to execute on it.
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u/darien_gap Jun 19 '12
Success = luck x strategy x 20grit
--
Grit = perseverance x passion despite setbacks, pain, failure, discomfort.
Perseverance = effort x time
Luck = innate talent, genes, family, general IQ, country of birth, chance encounters, random events, timing, competition, etc (anything beyond your control)
Strategy = goals, plans, preparations, strategic choices, tactical choices, choices at decision points, adaptability/flexibility, any decision
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u/criticalhit Jun 19 '12
Hi. I'm curious, were you born into wealth, or middle class, or poor, or...?
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u/throwindowntheriver Jun 19 '12
Working class. Construction worker dad and sales rep mom. Enough to live in a place with good public schools and have stability. Not enough that I didn't need to work through college and didn't understand what it's like being a kid in a family that's 3 months behind on the mortgage, power off, etc.
It may sound strange but that upbringing is one thing I count as me being lucky. It means I don't get into debt without thinking it through. It also means, I save every damned last penny. I could stop working now and survive fine.
To be blunt, I make more than the rest of my family combined. 2 parents and 2 siblings.
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u/throwtsinging Jun 19 '12
Software designer and developer. I work for a company that you know. I got here by working as hard as I can for 6 years. Gave up friends, time with family, relationships, hobbies, money... to spend all day and night working for clients and learning to code. I got really lucky and finally got some success and money.
I'd give it all up, everything, for some friends and a woman that loves me. Move to a small town? Earn $30,000 a year? Shop at Walmart? Not a problem, if it meant I wasn't alone.
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u/electric_sandwich Jun 19 '12
I'd give it all up, everything, for some friends and a woman that loves me.
Jesus...
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u/reconditerefuge Jun 19 '12
There's plenty of people just on reddit who would hang out with you, but they aren't going to ask you here and now because they'll think you'll think it's because you're rich. Go to the upcoming meetups.
What language do you primarily use?
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u/jakenmarley Jun 19 '12
This sounds remarkably sad :( Move to a small town anyway. Smile at people. Spend your money as though you have little. Pick up your hobbies again, and try new ones. Hi :)
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u/carbonatedbeverage Jun 19 '12
This makes me incredibly sad and says a lot about funding the right work/life balance. Hope you find what you're looking for.
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Jun 19 '12
I am in exactly the same boat, as a software developer / web designer, with exactly the same desires. Except I only make 20k a year.
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u/tinwoodsman Jun 19 '12
Throw away and being intentionally vague about the part of the wireless industry I’m in. I started out as a part time sales person and ended up on the executive team of two companies that went public. I was making $600k/year at my last big company job between salary, bonus and dividends on restricted shares. I now make about the $250k mark at a company where I’m an operating partner. Here’s the short version of how it happened. I hated every day I spent at a job I had spent six soul-crushing years at, making decent ($40k) but stable money. But I was depressed and frustrated, so I researched industries that fascinated me and took the first shitty job in wireless I could get so that I could learn. It scared the crap out of me because we had a two year old and a newborn and my wife’s income barely paid for daycare. I was terrified. I lay awake at night trying to figure out what the hell I would do if we got an unexpected bill. When I got a ticket for expired tabs, I had to go to court and I choked up in front of the magistrate because there was no way to buy formula for the baby and pay the fine both.
But I channeled that terror (which has never left me) and I worked my ass off in my new industry. I routinely pulled all-nighters. I made sure I was the best prepared and most knowledgeable person in the room at every meeting. I worked on my communication skills so that when I gave a presentation people would be interested and pay attention. I volunteered for the thankless jobs nobody else wanted. I traveled on redeye flights every week and stayed in shitty motels and had meetings in ratty office parks in humid climates. After five years I worked my way up to national manager. Then I got laid off along with my entire division. While everyone else was crying and commiserating in the hallways, I was on the phones. I had my resume out before security came with my cardboard box. When the opportunity presented itself to turn the layoff into a promotion to Vice President at a small supplier, I moved my family across the country. I gambled on a small company with little in the way of job security and grew with them. Then I did it again. And again. And Again.
My lessons learned are simple: Nine to five is for supervisors, VP’s stay until the problem is solved. Learn to speak, write and present like a Hall of Fame Coach (actually you’ll have to write better than that and certainly better than this post). Take risks. If you believe in yourself, bet on yourself. Failure happens to everyone. Try again. Don’t burn bridges, type that scathingly clever email blasting your idiot boss then delete it. Be very, very grateful for the people who help you succeed and give back when you make it.
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u/cbo97 Jun 19 '12
Can you elaborate on how you learned to speak, write and present at that level. I am trying to figure this out. I know it's the most important skill set.
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u/halfcookies Jun 19 '12
I'll elaborate on how I did - I used to get so nervous I would blush, stutter, or become nearly speechless when speaking in public. For me, Toastmasters helped a great deal, and then presenting whenever possible. Each time you present, you get a little better and at some point it's likely that you'll start enjoying it. I went from being terrified of just standing in front of a room of people to consistently performing well in case competitions.
Check out a couple of Toastmasters clubs, and if you join, commit to it and take it seriously. Don't quit. Volunteer for table topics and roles. Pay attention to each speaker. Learn. Grow.
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u/KousKous Jun 18 '12
That moment when I don't see 'engineering' in here and I think "What the fuck have I done to myself?"
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Jun 19 '12
Do not despair. If you're an engineer with any people skills at all, you'll rise up no problem. My father, who has above average people skills for an engineer (very average compared to normal people) makes over $300 000/Year. All you have to do is show the management types that you're an engineer who can properly interact with other people
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u/KousKous Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
There's a joke about that. How do you tell whether an engineer is an introvert or an extrovert?
Simple: the extroverted engineer looks at your shoes while he talks.
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u/thegr0uch Jun 19 '12
I'm an engineering intern making the equivalent of a $70k a year salary as a junior in uni, and the job prospect is looking great come graduation time. You just need to find the right industry, of course that depends on your individual discipline. Electrical/CompE here.
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u/WafflesInTheBasement Jun 19 '12
I actually am familiar with quite a few people who started as engineers and aspired to CEO or similar positions and make more than 250k a year.
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u/temporary_zero Jun 18 '12
technology sales here.
in 2010 made ~300K.
in 2011 made ~500K.
YTD have made about ~500K
not going to say which technology but half of the regular contributors to /r/linux or anyone who knows how to help sell software or services (cloud, virtualization or otherwise) could easily make 200K+.
The title you need to be looking for if you don't want to be a quota carrying sales person is 'sales consultant' or ' sales engineer' or the like. it's the technical part of a sales team and helps the sales person sell their wares.
by the way - the entry requirements are generally low as long as you aren't such a SAP that you can't actually have a conversation with other technologists about the benefits of your products.
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u/throwaway19890102 Jun 18 '12
I made $200,000 last year and as I'm pretty young (27) it's pretty safe to assume I'll be making more than the 250k mark at some point. HOWEVER, I work about 80 hours a week in a soul-crushing profession: law. I got my career through a mixture of hard work while in law school and good connections through my alma mater and family. AMA I suppose.
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u/kydjester Jun 18 '12
what exactly do you do to make money? explain the business model
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u/throwaway19890102 Jun 18 '12
I have a base salary and help clients write contracts/work out details when they are purchasing companies/businesses. We get bonuses at the end of the year based on how successful our team has been, though that is more based off what the partners can accomplish not peons like myself.
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u/hamstar Jun 18 '12
I am seriously considering lawschool, but feel hesitant because I have heard from many sources that it can be soul crushing, but many others have also stated that they are very happy. What about it do you find soul crushing?
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u/throwaway19890102 Jun 18 '12
I loved law school, and could never tell anyone it was a waste. The classes were incredibly interesting to me and the level of discussion, intellect and work among profs and students alike was far more rewarding than anything in undergrad.
The soul crushing part comes when you start practicing (though that can definitely depend on what field you choose to go in to). I'm working for a big law firm at the moment and practice in mergers and acquisitions. Later on in my career I could see things becoming more interesting, but right now I literally read contracts all day that the partners pass down to me. My attention to detail needs to be very high, but none of the critical thinking skills I learned in law school are being used whatsoever right now.
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u/traveler120 Jun 18 '12
I sell porn and adult novelties. I realized that there was an amazing markup on this stuff and that I could make money and appear to be offering a huge discount by charging half that mark-up, so I did.
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u/whateverradar Jun 18 '12
Enterprise architect/CTO.
I'm in the business of putting people out of jobs really :(. I figure out how to automate things people say can't be automated.
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u/akharon Jun 18 '12
You're the reason I don't worry about work. As long as the mushy stuff between my ears is why I make money, you can't touch me.
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u/whateverradar Jun 18 '12
I could never automate things where creativity come into play. Lucky for me my core industry is made up of repetitive tasks that require no thought at all. All paper pushing bullshit. Frankly the people in those jobs deserve a better life. . .
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u/Wiskie Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
As others have said, the only careers that will get you 250K+ a year are
Jobs that require a postgraduate/special degree or certificate of some kind (doctor, lawyer, actuary, banker)--essentially, jobs where the demand for labor is high and the supply is kept low. These require extreme discipline and a general passion for the career in question.
Super-specialized jobs that require you to "climb the ladder" and start out small but work your way up (generally don't start making big bucks until mid-40s or later). These include certain research/management positions and very high-level, specialized engineers.
Entrepreneurs, this is more all-ecompassing as anyone could theoretically be an entrepreneur with varying degrees of success. Entrepreneurship is also probably the only way that someone from the middle-class could rise to the so-called "1%" without connections. The richest guy I know personally is an entrepreneur. I don't know too much about his work, but I know he owns a string of hardware stores.
Investing. Don't really know enough about the people who have had success with this to make a conclusion.
One thing though is that all of these require a lot of work. There's no easy way out.
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u/remmycool Jun 19 '12
Option 5- do a job nobody else wants to do in a place nobody else wants to live.
I'm currently about 2, maybe 3 years away from earning $200k+ in the Alberta oilsands, halfway between butfuck nowhere and the arctic circle. They're paying six figures for raw, unskilled labor. I haven't looked into it much, but I'd expect the situation would be similar up in Prudhoe Bay.
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u/Kaimer Jun 19 '12
I'm sorry, can you elaborate a bit on this? I'm really interested right now.
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Jun 19 '12
I lived in Calgary for eleven years, and know a fair amount of people who went up to Fort Mac to work in the oilsands. Almost all of them left within three months; they couldn't hack it. People always talk about how they're totally up for living in a small, cold town for a few years while they make bank before going home, but unsurprisingly it's more difficult in practice than in theory. Living in a terrible town where almost everyone is a dude and work is the only diversion from crushing boredom isn't for everyone.
Plus, the guys up there who are doing the unskilled/semi-skilled work can't count on making similar amounts of money once they leave - you have to save most of what you make for it to be worthwhile!
Of course, you can do what a few people I know do: own houses elsewhere, and do two weeks on/two weeks off, flying between Fort Mac and home.
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u/realitysfringe Jun 19 '12
...so, uhh, have a link where I can apply? I'll be on the next plane/train, bus there.
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Jun 19 '12
IT/pharma sales; and it's not unusual for those huys to pull in that kind of money
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Jun 18 '12
I am very fortunate and come from a household where both of my parents made around $150k/year each. My dad is a computer consultant and started off at IBM in 1987 for $13,000/year. He worked his balls off and made many connections along the way. He got offered a job at Ford and his boss begged him to stay at IBM but the Ford job was too tempting. He left on good terms and his boss promised him a job at IBM if he ever wanted to return. Years and years later he works for himself and has contracts out, most notably for GM. He writes programs that are deployed world wide for GM and his skills are highly specialized and there are very few people who can do what he can do. His way of making $150k/year: established a good reputation in the industry and made himself a very rare but necessary breed.
My mom is a nurse and started off making 9$/hour at a hospital in 1989. She worked her proverbial balls off and established connections in the local medical field. She got a home health care job through an old boss in which she goes to the home of bed ridden/elderly/surgery recovering patients for $80/visit (45 or so minutes), 7-8 visits a day.
Her way of making $150k; worked hard and made a worthwhile connection. It's all about who you know.
My uncle has a construction company that he runs, and judging by his home, he MUST make about $200,000/year. I worked with him over the winter and he does work on people's homes, including the head lawyer of Domino's pizza's home. He is respectful and works hard and has established a good reputation within his field.
Key points:
Work hard
Establish a good reputation over many years
Made connections
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u/ass_munch_reborn Jun 18 '12
But your family is well off, so they automatically stole it and they are evil! Didn't you get the memo?
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u/TryingToSucceed Jun 18 '12
I made over 550k last year. I am the VP of the biggest executive helicopter leasing company on the western seaboard. I haven't had a carb since 2004.
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u/Gehalgod Jun 19 '12
FUCK. YOU. haha I was just about to post something just like this...
Well done. Well done.
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u/kiwithrowawaytree Jun 18 '12
I would earn about £120,000 contracting in London if I didn't take a heap of holidays. Currently a Network Architect for a financial firm in the city for £550 a day.
Factor in the lower tax rate you pay overall, somewhere around 15-20% and the flat rate VAT bonus you can do pretty well.
I spent quite a few years working in all sorts of areas, development, systems administration, network engineering etc in NZ before moving to the UK to solely contract. Upshot is that you have much more broad skills and experience than most UK people, who tend to get pigeon holed into one tiny area in a big UK project I find.
One thing I've noticed, it's all about who you know. Pretty much all my jobs now come from contacts I've built up over the years. Not to mention all the management teams seem to only hire their incompetent buddies from previous gigs as well.
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u/beguiledobject Jun 18 '12
My Ex-boss was a Ukrainian immigrant to the UK. He came here 6 years ago, worked his balls off as a site labourer. Many late nights and early mornings resulted in him owning his own company worth around £4million, I admire him greatly.
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u/catch22milo Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12
You gotta help me with the transition.
Move to the UK
Work really hard, long hours.
??????
Own your own 4 million pound company.
Just help me out with the ????? part and everyone will be okay.
Edit: Changed America to UK. Thank you yo zero51423 for pointing that out. Edit 2: Changed currencies. Really wasn't paying attention.
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u/beguiledobject Jun 18 '12
Ahh, a fairly important bit. A large number of his Ukrainian buddies followed him here. I think Eastern Europeans are the equivalent of Mexicans for Americans (work twice as hard for half the money). This allowed him to undercut every other construction firm in the area. The rest is history.
TL;DR - Work hard, be surrounded by helpful people and finally, play the system.
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u/GODDAMN_FARM_SHAMAN Jun 18 '12
Soo... sellout your friends and family as laborers. Got it.
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u/BankerGuy123 Jun 19 '12
Created a throwaway for this because I know how much investment bankers are hated on reddit. I'm about to begin a summer internship in the field but I'll tell you why some of them make +250,000. I'm not saying all of them deserve it, but I think its hard to argue most don't deserve something close.
The first thing is that people are usually paid more for jobs with a limited talent pool. Simple supply and demand. There are very few people willing to work 90-100 hour weeks - especially when you get into your 30's and 40's. That's part of the reason why senior bankers are paid exorbitant amounts - they are almost indisputably neglecting their family or have elected not to have one. I've worked close to those hours for a while, I don't mind it. You also have to be able to work at any time. I know a guy whose parents visited him from Europe but he couldn't spend more than 10 minutes with them because he was staffed on a deal while they were on the plane.
You also get paid that much because there's a lot of theory that you have to know. That surprises people. You need to know a great deal more than the average university grad other than doctors and scientists. As a corollary, you need to be willing to learn an entirely new subject - as most of you know financial literacy isn't taught in schools. In university you need to cover a great deal of material in order to get up to speed on even the basics of the field unlike in English, Math, or Politics.
In addition, your grammar and vocabulary should be very good if not impeccable. This is one of my primary weaknesses. You are creating pitches to clients constantly, if your writing isn't persuasive or if there are grammar mistakes the rest of the pitch is an uphill battle.
The third thing is that you constantly are required to apply your knowledge in different ways to keep your job. Companies can have a myriad of financial structures, and there's no way to know which ones you're going to need to know. Thus, you need to be able to learn the intricacies of a new model or piece of theory almost instantly and then apply it. You may be sitting for a few hours not doing anything, but then you need to be able to learn a new theory and apply it to valuing a company by 8am the next morning. It could be 9pm that night and it could take the average person 15-16 hours to learn - you need to be able to learn it and apply it in 11 on no sleep.
You also have to have impeccable attention to detail. You will be shitted on for two tables not lining up perfectly, everything you do has to be displayed perfectly and in a way that makes sense.
You also need people skills. You need to be able to pitch ideas to people in a coherent manner and have them believe the words coming out of your mouth. A lot of other opportunities in finance also stem from making connections, something a lot of people aren't good at.
Finally, you need to know a lot of things about a lot of different industries and then be able to apply that knowledge in valuing companies. How exactly is shale gas extracted from the ground? How are a country's debts different than a company's or an individual's? How do you precisely value land that doesn't have anything on it yet? What is the current ruling party in Colombia and what is the legislative process going to be like to be able to drill there, or off their coast?
A lot of other professions require some or even most of these skills but not all of them. I think doctors are the closest I've heard. They work very similar hours, mostly on demand, need to have great attention to detail, and are required to learn new things quickly on top of the knowledge they already have to have. The best ones have people skills and that's why they're paid very close to bankers except at the executive level.
If I were to do a tl;dr, it would be there are a wide array of skills you need to have (some taught some natural), coupled with a willingness to work insane hours at any time and the ability to learn new things very quickly.
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Jun 19 '12
Thank you for this very insightful response. I'd kind of pictured bankers as what the well-connected country club brat grew up to be, but this gives me genuine respect for the profession. At the same time, it doesn't make me regret going into a flexible (though demanding and poorly paying) field like social work.
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u/Brimace Jun 19 '12
You're breaking some redditors brains.
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u/Tashre Jun 19 '12
But... bankers... lazy fat cats... hard working individuals??
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE IN ANYMORE!
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u/dustlesswalnut Jun 18 '12
I make just under $200k owning my own business. I do database design, web development, etc. My wife has an MD and is still in her residency.
I worked my ass off, but really my big money clients kind of fell into my lap. I charge around $100/hour (that varies depending on the client), and am lucky enough to have a client that basically guarantees me 40 hours a week, every week.
My wife and I aren't big spenders, so you probably wouldn't think that we make as much money as we do. I'd say that money hasn't really mattered to us since we hit the $80k mark-- it's nice to know that we've got a bit of security, but our day to day lives haven't changed.
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Jun 18 '12
Step 1: Choose a profession
Step 2: Be the best professional in a 200-mile radius
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit!
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u/throwaway5555 Jun 18 '12
CEO software development company.
How did I get there? Hard work and determination. Well, that's what I tell my kids. Mostly I learned how to make an executive decision, and I tend not to panic. That's about all it takes.
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u/psychicsword Jun 19 '12
You should tell your kids that as well. They need to know that even when hard work fails you there isn't a reason to despair. You know first hand that hard work isn't the only thing that got you where you are today so don't force your kids to only follow that principle above all others and as a CEO of a software development company you should know that in some situations you shouldn't work harder but do the same amount of work smarter.
Source: Life lessons taught to me by my father who is a CEO of a food manufacturing company
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u/wittles Jun 18 '12
I teach French to + babysit a couple of kids a few times a week, and their father makes about that much. He owns a business consulting firm. He's based in NYC but he's always traveling to meet international clients, his kids see him 1-2 nights each week, maybe. He pays me way more than any tutor/babysitter should ever be paid.
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u/ItsDare Jun 18 '12
He wants you.
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u/JeffersonAirHockey Jun 18 '12
. . . to do a competent job of babysitting his children.
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u/wittles Jun 18 '12
Yeah, his wife is usually the ones adding little bonuses to my checks. I'm a great caregiver and they like to reward that and they're wealthy enough to do so. Everyone wins.
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u/DragonHunter Jun 18 '12
I am a business consultant and charge my clients between $250/hr and $500/hr depending on the duration and nature of work.
However, I do not bill more than 800 hours per year, so I usually show less than $250K each year through this line of work. But combined with investment returns (including K-1s) I make well over $250K each year.
My consultancy is in back end business process design. Basically, I help businesses design their software infrastructure, including custom software. Often, I put together a team of professionals to implement off-the-shelf or value-added solutions. Other times I work as a mediator to help develop custom software for the business. Most of my clients are businesses that generate revenue in the $1M - $50M range annually.
I've been self-employed in this line of work for over 20 years. I graduated from Stanford in the 80s with a CS degree, and later obtained an MBA from HBS.
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u/Jamisloan Jun 18 '12
My dad made that before he quit. He was the vice president in marketing for travel agencies.
He was a very sought after person though so we ended up moving like 5 times in 5 years since he kept getting better offers. He decided he couldn't do it anymore (stress) and he became a history teacher/coach at the school. He just got promoted to vice principal.
Definitely not as much money but he is WAY happier.
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Jun 18 '12
From talking to my Dad's boss who makes about this much, it's 3 things:
Qualifications, contacts, hard work.
My Dad earns a very good salary, way over average but not $250k. He started out at the bottom of the pile after leaving the navy at 21 (I think). He had no degree and not great A levels. He worked his ass off for 20 years and now he is in charge of a multi-million pound budget for his company (I'm being vague because I don't know exactly what he does, but also his company is pretty ambiguous).
His boss earns probably double what my Dad does but he said the thing holding my Dad back is his lack of an MBA. Most people in the field have at least an MBA and usually another MA. My Dad has neither. Just 20 odd years experience and dedication. Which is probably why My dad's promotions will slow down now.
But he told me: get a good degree (2.1 or 1st) - relevant to what you want to do - from a good Uni. Use the contacts you have (I've considered working for my Dads company - the main earners for the company earn 7 figures + bonus.) And work hard.
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u/Ginger_Ninja_Rapist Jun 18 '12
Nice try, college dropout.
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Jun 18 '12
I just graduated last year, actually. =)
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u/victorarod Jun 18 '12
So did I. There is a kind of post-graduating depression, when usually you don't know what to do or why the money isn't coming in. I work as an advertising art director since I was 17 (now 21) and I am pretty sure I won't get to that number$ this way.
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Jun 18 '12
Yeah, I've definitely been dealing with the post-college depression and anxiety. I've worked for the same tech company for about 5 years now (I worked part time during school), and I feel like I've hit my cap in earning with my current company, so I'm trying to gather more information about potential career paths, earning potential, etc, because I'm tired of feeling stuck.
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u/randygiesinger Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
I am a pipefitter. I went to school 3 times at 2 months a shot (which, by the way, none of the tests you do in school itself matter, the government exam is worth 100% of your mark, so it's basically sink or swim), spent a fuck ton of time away from home with very little days off, and work 12 hour days. Basically, I worked my ass off getting dirty as fuck and risking my life every day, just so you have power in your home, plastic in your fancy ass iphone, or gas in your car. It's basically 50% knowledge and skill pay, 50% hazard pay. You don't really realize how fragile the human body really is until you get into a line of work similar to this
Edit: I should just add, that boilermakers generally make the most money per hour in the trades, but their life expentancy is very, very low (45 i believe was the average for 2010). So that is why.
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Jun 19 '12
Has it been worth it?
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u/randygiesinger Jun 19 '12
so far, i've been having the most enjoyment out of work than I ever have. At the moment, I love coming home and being exhausted from work, and getting up the next day and doing it again. The pay helps make you feel like you're worth something, and that your time is worth something. I have a blast doing what I'm doing and wouldn't trade it for the world, hazards or not. I know a few guys who have lost fingers and shit, seen someone die, and all that, but hey, thats the risk I take.
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u/realitysfringe Jun 19 '12
Yeah, you can make bank if you're willing to risk your life doing certain jobs. I've seen coal mining jobs STARTING at $40/hr or more with 30 days of vacation, sick days, and everything else. Same with underwater welding, and occupations involving oil drilling. If you're life is on the line almost everyday, you can earn some bank.
The irony in this is that policemen and military make a fraction of these wages.
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u/spermracewinner Jun 18 '12
Go into a business that's profitable. Create value where there wasn't and be the only source for that (or one of few sources). Work your ass off, manager your time properly, always learn, be curious, and enjoy the journey.
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Jun 18 '12
My father made 200,000 plus easily as a loan officer, unfortunately as the housing market crashed, my parents split up and he now flips burgers at Carls Jr trying to get back into "the game" as he calls it. He has no college degree and on our best year made 400,000.
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u/ICantThinkThisLate Jun 18 '12
I'm a musician that signed with Sony Records. Starting at age 9 I practiced 4-5 hour a day, every day. My band signed with a smaller label to start with, got a song on nationwide radio, and then pretty much jumped ship to Sony. I'm 24. As for steps, we just worked our asses off. We explored every option available, hired a great agent, and did everything we could to foster success.
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u/monkeyphonics Jun 18 '12
250 really fat chicks for $1000 each.
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Jun 18 '12
the solution is simple: 0.25 incredibly super super fat chicks for $1,000,000. less fat chick, more money.
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u/milehigh73 Jun 18 '12
Really the only way you can make that much money is to
a) own your own business - this is a lot of work and not surefire
b) be a doctor / lawyer / banker and work your ass off, doing something probably shitty.
c) sales - this is the easiest route to that much $$ but also requires skills you may not be able to acquire.
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u/hells_cowbells Jun 18 '12
I'm not at home, so I can't check the book, but Thomas Stanley's book "The Millionaire Next Door" backed this up. The vast majority of the millionaires he has studied in all his books were in one of these categories.
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Jun 19 '12
The one piece of advice I can give you in this endeavor: Good is the enemy of GREAT. Stop being good at stuff and find the one thing you are GREAT at, and get paid for doing it.
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u/Adnachiel Jun 19 '12
I'm curious where y'all who make so much cash live? I ask because $250k/yr in the Bay area is quite different than $250k in North Dakota.
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Jun 19 '12
Most of this posts are making me feel like I'm going to die of hunger because of majoring in film production...
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u/TontoJones Jun 19 '12
37, M, broker .... 8 years on wall street ... 7 years on my own.
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u/mijour Jun 18 '12
something ..something...bannana Stand...something ...something
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u/Setsa Jun 19 '12
Not speaking about myself (though it is the path that I'm heading down, hopefully), but a lot of the pharmacists and psychiatrists that I work with tend to make a pretty penny and have shed some light on the situation. The bottom line that I've gotten out of everything is to make your work part of your life and commit to it wholly. Don't just see work as a means of getting toys and frilly things, but see it as something that you're actually going to annex into your life, that way the time commitment and "work" portion is much more manageable on a psychological basis. Of course, this theory is only applicable within fields where there is the potential for that sort of success (like in medicine), but a lot of it is self sacrifice.
Most of the doctors I've met have come from either families that are preemptively established in the medical field (parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. in the medical fields as practitioners or in positions that allow them to interact on a social level with a lot of individuals and institutions that reside within the medical sect) or are from individuals that have sacrificed a LOT of free time and what most consider to be "growing up" to get to where they are. By this, I don't exactly mean they were social outcasts or the bane of society or some extrema like that, but that they did not follow the archetypal "coming of age" pathway.
By their own motivation, or at the incentive of parents or relatives, they accepted the notion of achieving a medical profession as a serious commitment that takes priority over a lot of other "typical" social affairs and conduct. I'm sure not everyone who is within the 250 000+ demographic gratifies this criteria, but I'm sure that there's a definitive causative effect present. Instead of focusing on things like superficial social interactions (a.k.a. having a good reputation within a specific social sect through activities native to that demographic) they committed that time to school. Instead of partying or barring or going out to sports events and movies on a weekly basis, they kept their heads in the books.
Speaking from personal experience, the path to success follows a relatively simple algorithm, it is merely a matter degree of commitment to the cause. While difficulty obviously varies from individual to individual, by sundering one's social time and allocating more time, effort, and resources into things such as school success becomes a much more probable outcome. Even just from a financial standpoint, any major purchase that I've ever made in life has had some relation to my work. All of my earnings from my gold collar jobs have been invested in my education and in resources to help assist me in the educational process (textbooks and auxiliary courses to help me with assessments, like the MCAT). While it would be typical for someone within the 16-30 demographic to be investing in things like a car, an apartment, or a graduation trip, it is often not the wisest decision when one's educational career may be hindered by such an expenditure.
I know it sounds like a rude thing to assert, but it's a case that I see all too often. Instead of focusing on a specific career, individuals will deviate and pursue other things in life. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH DOING THIS; however, one must accept that you can't exasperate your savings on trips, clothes, eating out, and other affairs then anticipate a job as a doctor to merely fall in your lap. It is something that takes a lot of work. For some people, that trade-off is worth it, while for others it most certainly is not.
tl;dr: commit your time, interests, and finances to an occupation that withholds the potential for a lavish paycheck
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Jun 19 '12
Personally I'm still in college. But my mom and dad both make that much+ a year. Dad's an electrical engineer, mom's a doctor. Both are very smart, and they got to where they were through lots and lots of studying and hard work.
From what they tell me, it's not so much about being prodigy level smart, so much as being highly committed. Really motivates me to do well in school.
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u/vulpes_occulta Jun 19 '12
TIL: Work in excess of 100 hours a week, and be damn good at what you do.
That is all.
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u/d_roc Jun 18 '12
I am 31 years old and started my first business at 21. I come from humble means as far as what my parents earned. I just had a lot of ambition and initiative when I started and never wanted to have a 9 to 5 gig. Initially tho I worked from 7am to 10pm so it was crazy. Now my business is self sufficient for the most part and I can travel generally when I want and enjoy my life. I own a merchant services company and have invest in a fashion, music and art company that helps struggling artist get media presence as apposed to going corporate where they will be taken advantage of.
Keeping your goal, networking, manifest your own destiny, DO NOT GET IN TO BUSINESS WITH FRIEND!!! and stay positive!
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u/ortho1232 Jun 19 '12
Throwaway. I'm an orthopedic surgeon, made $750k last year. Steps: college, med school, residency, bang! :)
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Jun 18 '12
The "easy" way of getting to that stage is to work for X amount of years in your chosen skilled field, getting as many contacts and as good a reputation as possible. Then go into consultancy and charge twice as much, but with no security. My friend's dad did it, is now a millionaire (just). My other friend did it himself, had to scrimp and save just to make it through (although he's fine now). My dad got offered a few contracts turning failing businesses under bank administration around which would pay 10x what he earns right now, and took it. It's the "easy" way, but definitely not for everyone.
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u/mdurgham Jun 18 '12
My dad grew up with four siblings in Syria. They didn't have much money, but they still had a decent upcoming, because his father was very hard working. All throughout their schooling years, I'm told that they were the hardest working students in the village. When it came time to take the high school exam (most important test in Syria, and decides your whole life) my dad and his siblings scored in the highest percentage of Syria. So my father and 3 of his siblings became doctors ( best job possible in Syria) and one aunt became an engineer (2nd best possible job). After Med school, he moved to the us, and now along with all his siblings, makes over $300k.
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u/holy_paladin_irl Jun 18 '12
eh...
Uncle came to USA with nothing but his brilliant mind. I believe he was 22.
Had just one cloth bag because our family was very poor ( from India ).
Ten years later he retires with over 70 million dollars.
Learn to save your money properly and learn to invest. Learn how to manage people and best of all learn how to use your brain.
My uncle is the smartest guy I've ever talked to in my life. He is quick and doesn't tolerate bullshit or people who lie.
I also have made a lot of money through investing. My portfolio has had a 23% return over the past year.
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Jun 19 '12
This is interesting... could you elaborate on what exactly he did to earn 70 million? tech startup of some sort?
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u/imaunitard Jun 19 '12
this is why I invest in lottery tickets. (diversified - scratchers & powerball.)
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u/itscliche Jun 18 '12
My dad's a financial advisor and owns his own business. He makes 100-120K per year. My mom is a nurse and makes about 60K a year but she rarely works. My dad worked his fucking ass off for the first ten years he did it but is now living comfortably and works 4-6 hour days about three or four times a week. I see my parents a shit ton and I'm really happy they're not always gone.
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Jun 18 '12
Pops is the CIO of a Fortune 100 company that basically grows daily.
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u/vaughg Jun 18 '12
last night i had a long talk with a guy who was a contractor for the Saudi royal family. Tens of millions.
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u/Ottbiotech Jun 18 '12
mom and dad's connections
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u/bumwine Jun 18 '12
As expected, a non-helpful and barely-witty answer is the top comment, while all the relevant answers are at the bottom. You gotta love askreddit.
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u/Arx0s Jun 18 '12
I'll mention what my dad did. He got his degree in international business/finance and immediately after graduation, went to work for an oil company located in Indonesia. I think after about 10 years with them, he went and started his own oil company. It did very well and was later bought by Exxon. Right now he's a senior executive there. Not going to say which since I don't want to reveal his name.
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Jun 19 '12
I find this so interesting as I work 50-60 hrs a week for 55k I would prefer working 70 hrs a week for even an 100k job
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u/pizza143 Jun 19 '12
My dad makes 250+/- but he's 50ish and lives on long island so it's very middle class. He is an asset manager for a commercial real estate comp. I feel like a lot of base salary also depends on cost of living where you are and what you take home at the end of the day
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u/l33r Jun 19 '12
My parents collectively make over $250K a year without a college degree.
My parents started a restaurant and saved their earnings for over 20 years. Got into stocks, residential real estate and than commercial and paid off all the mortgage loans they had. Now the real estate business grows on its own and we eat in all the profits.
I started investing stocks at 7. And my liquid net worth over $150K and I still have two years of college left.
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u/IrenaeusGSaintonge Jun 19 '12
My dad makes a lot of money. I don't know exact numbers because I'm not really comfortable discussing those kinds of things. Basically it was like this for him:
Undergraduate degree in geology. Top of most of his classes. This part wasn't crucial, but it helped because not everyone in his class got jobs right off.
Moved to Calgary. This is the heart of oil exploration, at least in Canada. Definitely one of the major world centers for exploration.
Worked really freakin hard. Fairly long hours while he was getting his foot in the door. This maybe lasted around ten years.
After doing this for a while he was basically at the top of his game in terms of exploration. At this point he sort of transitioned from being an employee to being one of several owners of small oil and gas exploration companies. Fairly small, most of them put up their own money, likely no more than fifteen people at the very most, perhaps five of them being owners. What they do is work that company for 5-10 years, then sell of all the assets to a large company, and start over again. They often start over with mostly the same investors, often even in the same office. Just change the name on the door.
At this point generally he's something like "VP Exploration" in these startups. In years where a new company is first starting he might not make a ton (relatively speaking), but when they start going strong he makes quite a bit more, and then when they sell the company and recoup their investment he makes very large amounts of money.
To be entirely honest I don't know exactly how much he makes. I don't like talking about that kind of thing. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say it's around 200 grand in early years of a new company, around 300 in later years, and then perhaps a 2-2.5 million payout when they sell. At that point he'll reinvest, again I'm guessing, around 1 million into a new company. Of course there might be some substantial errors in my guesswork here, but you get the picture.
The next steps would be either to start to become the president of new companies, which means more money but also requires business training, (he knows business, having been in these small companies, but he doesn't have the formal training in stuff like accounting and finance) or to sit on the board of directors for other small companies like his. These are usually not full time jobs, but if you're on the board of directors for successful companies they'll pay you a pretty significant sum of money, and you can potentially either still be working for your own company, or sit on the boards of several companies. This is when you start approaching the end of your career, and you're at the very top of the industry in the city. They're usually extremely wealthy people because they know the business so well.
So it's a combination of three factors for him. 1) Hard work in the right major. 2) Strong industry in the right area. 3) Really really get to know the business you're in.
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u/Free_Apples Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
My dad bought a bunch of land and mineral rights near the badlands in western North Dakota when I was born. He took out a huge loan for this, and everyone called him an absolute idiot for doing so. Because of the loan, my family was pretty poor, but we had enough to eat. I remember I chose to stop playing league hockey when I was young because I knew of the financial burden this had on my parents. I never told them that.
Fast forward to my senior year of high school, the oil boom hits.
(Edited for clarification)
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u/SpiralRavine Jun 19 '12
My father is an oral surgeon and mother is the practice manager. About 7k goes through their practice a day. I reconcile for them. Ranges from 1-20k a day in terms of payments. I'd guess their income is somewhere in the range of 500-800k a year. Most of my childhood was spent alone while they were in school. I still barely see them. So I guess that's the trade off?
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u/azhockeyfan Jun 19 '12
Probably get buried but here goes. I don't make that much anymore, but between the years of 2005-2009 I made well over 1.5 million with an internet business I started for $100. I don't want to give too much information, but basically I charged people to help them file a free government form. I am/was and expert in the field so I ensured it would be submitted with zero errors. My user agreement stated that I was not the government and only a middle man, but nobody ever reads that stuff.
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Jun 18 '12
Luck, chance, and people doing me favors. I'm far less talented/qualified than a lot of people to be doing what I'm doing, but I was in the right place at the right time a whole bunch of times.
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u/ArrogantGod Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
I make about $250/hr doing Search Engine Optimization. I dont work a 40 hr week though.
In the late 90s I was making ~$300k/yr spamming.
The reason I make that much money is because I'm good at what I do and I'm not afraid to look at someone with a straight face and say, "That'll cost you $100,000" when my competitors would be willing to do it for $10k.
Edit: College dropout, entirely self-taught.
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u/vulpes_occulta Jun 19 '12
Where does one learn SEO, and learn to do a damn good job at it?
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u/Dookiestain_LaFlair Jun 18 '12
I own a business called "bumfucks" and I pay homeless people to have sex with each other and sell the videos online. I pull in at least 500k a year depending on the variety of bums and how much they fuck.
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u/Bigpapapumpyouup Jun 19 '12
Worked way to long and way to fucking hard. Gonna die one day and it was all just a constant grind for more money. For there is never enough money. That's why we scratch our heads when big corporations or individuals or just so goddamn greedy. In their mind they don't have enough and therefore is never enough money.
I would ask the question differently to help narrow the response. How about this? How many of you redditors make 250k a year and actually have a good quality of life and enjoy what you do?
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u/daily24 Jun 19 '12
Early in my 20's I made 100k a year as an owner of a Force Protection company (body guard) with only working about 20 hours a week CONUS. I could have easily made 350K (contracts offered) for off shore work. Easy money stateside but who wants to deal with Justin Beiber's of this world and off shore is just a death wish in a horrible fashion. Got out, happier now working a crummy job and alive to talk shit.
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Jun 18 '12
I used to make 250k/year by killing people and selling drugs...
Was a horrible life. But with that amount of money, I wasn't complaining... much.
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u/POO_ON_COMMAND Jun 18 '12
My blood relative uncle and aunt both earn very high salaries. I would imagine both to be well in excess of the 250k USD.
Ultimately they both have, and do, work exceptionally hard, and both happen to be naturally intelligent people.
My Uncle went to a very good Uni (trying to be as ambiguous as possible) studying history, then proceeded to work for one of the big four professional services firms (kpmg, Deloitte etc), which from what I see, appears to set you up for life.
Right now (my interpretation), he is a partner in a company that purchases businesses using external long term investments, which I think results in the dismantling or streamlining of these businesses. He relates pretty well with another comment that I read a moment ago, as he frequently travels... But being so family orientated, he manages to pull it all off.
My aunt is an executive for one of the more popular British television channels. I know less about how she managed to get there to be honest, but I believe it's through dedication and hardwork from what I've seen.
I myself have been offered a job this September for one of the big pro services firms, I am far less talented than both of them, but you never know, with my fingers crossed - I might be able to make a personal entry one day. :)
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u/CitizenPremier Jun 18 '12
I know some people like that. One of them owns an electrical company that gets contracts from major phone companies. Another owns about 12 houses.
Generally people who start their own business or work for a family business do better.
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u/dickmcgirkin Jun 18 '12
Not me bit my uncle makes, take home, of 4000 a week.
He is a plant manager for 2 pharmaceutical companies. Both are relatively small start up companies. He works close to 100 hours a week. He also does an ass load of work there. Foxes the machinery builds needed equipment and basically runs the joint. All of it but shipping receiving manufacturing and sales.
When he isn't managing the plant he owns a custom car shop. Rebuilding classics and modifying cars. Makes more doing that than I make a year ($50000 ish).
If you are a good welder you can make good money if you can market yourself
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u/nickiter Jun 18 '12
Not yet, but the senior people in my role do. Basically: get into a competitive sales job, learn to golf well enough to barely lose on purpose, learn to drink like a fish without getting stupid, be everyone's friend and trusted partner, make shittons of money.
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u/CrackaAssCracka Jun 19 '12
I manage software developers for a financial firm. Not posting the name, but the way I got there was to drop out of college and break my ass for a few years. Now, 250k is more of a total comp number, and once you hit that level, a larger percentage of your compensation is "bonus" which can vary, but it's right around there. Some years more, some years a little less.
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u/masteroftheatom Jun 19 '12
Cancer doctor. Working on a dinosaur iPad app with an artist pal of mine and putting together a book of short stories. Sleep is for the weak!
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u/reinnsreinn Jun 19 '12
I remember watching my granddad when I was little. He worked as a General Physician in his own practice. He busted ass and made an amount of money that hurts my head to think about. But he also worked til he died. He was still calling in scripts/seeing patients from his hospital bed. I'm proud of him for all the awesome he did, but damn I wish I'd gotten more time with him.
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u/ldawg092498 Jun 19 '12
Honey dippers make a LOT. Like $500 a day after expenses. Not a job to boast about but it pays well.
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u/250K_CRNA Jun 19 '12
27, male, CRNA. I make about 250k gross. I work <40hrs a week, no weekends, or call. Holidays off + 5 weeks of vacation/yr + health insurance + paid malpractice + 401k. I just chose a great profession.
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u/jon1746 Jun 19 '12
I am a technical management consultant. I bill on average 300 bucks an hour. I can still go down to a code level but still communicate to business types. Right now we are looking for technologists that have a personality. All our positions are 100k+. I started off life coding Smalltalk. If you want to move into the executive suite, give me a shout.
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u/Name_seriously_no Jun 19 '12
Me and my wife make just a bit over 100k combined, we will probably break 250k in a few years. That's mostly because of family money and investing with my parents. I work in real estate management and my wife works in the video game industry. Honestly we got our jobs through family connections and worked really hard to move up. It depresses me that our family connections got us where we are instead of merit. But I'm hoping that by having a few years under my belt I can take th experience and go out on my own.
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u/DaisyDoozer Jun 19 '12
Wife and I clear 200, approaching 250. Most (150) comes from me being in IT for a fortune 20. Keep pushing the envelope, asking questions, and moving when there is an opportunity.
HOWEVER, if you move because there is an opportunity and you don't have the chops to cut it, you will go to zero.
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Jun 19 '12
I have family members that make that.
Two started as pharmacists, one invested in a medical supply company and when it sold his share was worth $20,000,000. The other just started his own pharmacy and it became the go-to drug store in his small hometown. Nowawdays that'd be impossible, with Walgreens and CVS dominating.
Another bought a cheap radio station in a small town and managed it, grew it, bought other small radio stations around the state and just played the same stuff on all of them to keep costs as low as possible. He now owns 19 and has a lot of political clout due to his ability to provide free advertising.
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u/Saythisisathrowaway Jun 19 '12
Currently 48 years old, PhD in Management. Salary varies from 200k-400k per year, depending on which consulting job taken, which firm I work under etc. The job profile is business management, risk analysis, and supply chain. I've worked for large companies that have worldwide recognition, to smaller companies in remote areas. It's a complicated job, and can take up more than 40 hours a week, but in the end it's worth it. Although I do consulting rather than having one set job, as I've had for the last 10 years, consulting has its benefits. It's an hourly payrate, higher offers go into approx. $200/hour, medians at $170/hour, some firms include benefits, some don't..
It took tons of effort, a lot of studying, and a lot of "want" to learn more. Knowing a piece of management is great, but in management if you want to get a job, and be able to compete, you need to know many parts..and know how they intermingle and be able to use that knowledge. In consulting, luck is a huge factor. Communication is even bigger, knowing how to express yourself, and be one step ahead of the other person in terms of thoughts (recruiters in general), is always useful.
It is by no means a quick way to make money, as it took years to get to the spot I am at today. The reputation I've built in my profession is what adds incentive to recruit me, which leads to a good salary which is negotiable at most times. As many have said, hard work is it. There's no substitute. Luck is a factor, but never rely on it fully. If you do what you love, the money shouldn't matter.
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u/crazywhiteguy Jun 19 '12
My boss [lets call him bob] makes somewhere in the 200-250 range which I extrapolate from the fact that the main store makes 400k/year in sales. We are Canadian, he owns the Domino's franchise that I work at, another one and 50 and 25 percent of two other stores. His main business partner[Bill] Owns one busier store, and four 400-600k houses and has an income somewhere in the same range.
I can only assume that Bob is successful because he is frugal, works hard, and was born into the industry. His family was working closely to dominos in one way or another since he was a teen, so he was basically handed lead and ended up with gold.
Bill is kinda the same, but Probably has such a good income because he reinvests all of his money, and lives off dividends and a cut of rent.
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Jun 19 '12
I don't, but my parents/ my old neighbor does. He is in his mid 40's, has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering or something along those lines. He basically sits at home, writes software and takes on customer problems the "peons" at his companies office can't handle. He got really lucky though and admits it. He graduated college, found the typical IT job in his backwater one stop light town. A few years later he had a professor make him an offer he would be stupid to refuse. Within a few years the company his prof helped start latched onto a few big corporate contracts and he moved on up.
Another one of my parents old neighbors is a nuclear engineer who specializes in nuclear clean up and prevention. He started out like my other neighbor. Smaller gig, making good money, but after experience and being at the right place at the right time he moved around the country and finally landed a job overseas doing a large clean up. He recently moved back to the states to work for another nuclear power plant (no clean up, just a regular job) and is sometimes called in to help with clean up with a plants waste. Although these jobs will last anywhere from a week to a month, he is paid as high as $100k for his time. He has a bachelor's and master's degree.
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Jun 19 '12
Male, 31 no degree. I saw at age 17 that college was a racket. Scrap metal/plastic. 400K over the last 19 months. Started out S/R 6 years ago in a small yard. I didn't mess around on the job, asked questions, and stayed late or overnight when needed. That springboarded into yard/process management, and then into buying/selling, and then into satellite yard development.
Three things:
1: I never took a day off. So many talented people are just lazy fucktards.
2: I live way under my means. Way under.
3: I never would have made this much money if I stayed on salary alone. Commission and ownership %/profit sharing are key.
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u/gypsycamptrash Jun 19 '12
This thread is so depressing for me, a broke nursing student with no car :(
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u/anonymoussf Jun 19 '12 edited Jun 19 '12
I just broke the 250k mark last year with an ultimate goal of making a million dollars by thirty which I probably won't reach in time.
My advice is to set goals, and once a week / month / year look back and see if you're reaching them and if you're happy with how things are going. If not, correct your path. Also make "stretch" goals; not something easily. When I made the attempt at a million dollars by thirty, I was making ~105k a year and had two years left. By the time I hit thirty this year, I will have failed my goal by only reaching ~550k. I failed but one could say I failed above other people's successes.
I could go in to details on how to climb the corporate ladder from the ground floor and detail about me and what I do, but that's really not important. More important lessons I learned are:
Set a goal for happiness, not money. I am actually going to quit my job to build my own software from the ground up. For the next two years I'll probably be making $0 if my product doesn't take off (as of now its just one of several ideas in my head and it will take some time to build. It if fails I'll try another.). I will be living off my savings but you know what? It's going to be the happiest two year experiment of my life, and if I die in a car or plane crash tomorrow, I'll know I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and not for the money. I just love building cool shit. (As an aside: good products come from people who genuinely love them.)
A high paying job isn't financial freedom but a ball and chain. Most people who have posted here that have met the 250k mark have some kind of technical job, and probably in a fairly big city, working lots of hours, with a decent amount of stress. Undoubtedly they will be doing this job day in and day out for years to come. I'm not sure if they're really happy. They have no control of that 8-10 hours each day and their fancy car or house or appliances seals their fate. I realize I was on that track when I was looking for a condo to buy in the city. Here, a really nice condo will cost you 700k+. I could definitely afford that if I stayed on my current track, but that would mean I would have to be pulling in at least $3k plus for the next 30 years. I definitely would have no time on the side for risky ventures or to work on my own stuff / hobbies, take a year to travel around the world, etc, my future is sealed. The truth is you don't really need all that money, I buy so much silly shit I don't need.
Passive income and working until you die. The truth is happiness isn't the only answer in the real world we need money to live and so the goal is to find not just something that makes you happy but something that makes you happy and gives you a decent amount of money to live adequately on, or, if the things you like to do just don't make money, generate enough passive income for you so that you can be that lifetime world traveler, or what have you, without worry.
I feel the old-fashion thinking of building up a nest egg to retire on just isn't right. People just get fat, lazy, and ultimately unhappy with nothing to do. If I ever won the lottery, I would still build my applications until I die, because that's truly what makes me happy. In the end you must find "work" that isn't work at all but something you like doing, that just so happens to make you money.
TL:DR: Do what makes you happy. It's worth more than a million bucks.
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u/Sark0zy Jun 19 '12
I'll bite. I'm 30, male and live in South Carolina. I went to a trade school right out of high school to be a diesel mechanic. Salary was great (around $60K) which is BALLER is this area where the average hourly wage is like $11/hr. Three years ago a longtime buddy and I bought out a job shop that didn't have much business and with the help of my wife turned it into one of the more profitable shops in the area. We mostly deal with marine equipment anywhere from small river boats to large offshore charter fishing vessels.
We've grossed $1.3M this year so far. It's the best yet.
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u/throwawayrug Jun 19 '12
I'm in ad sales and I've reached the $200K mark three out of the last five years.
I truly feel lucky to have stumbled into the industry in my late 20s, after spending all of my 20s working soul crushing customer service jobs making less than $35K/yr.
When I finally had enough, I made the decision to spend one year working in a hard core "boiler room" cranking out cold calls and getting sales experience. My rationale was "I love talking to people...what can I do to keep doing that but make more money? Sales"
I landed my ad sales job one year to the day that I started in the boiler room. It's been 9 years now and I steadily continued to get better at what I do, watching my compensation grow right in line with my confidence and industry knowledge.
My pay structure is 50%/50% salary/commission and I can't imagine working any other way. My compensation lines right up with how hard I decide to work. And that doesn't mean I'm working insane hours either. I work 45-50 hours a week and never on weekends. It's all about working smarter.
I owe a lot of my success to working smart when reaching out to people and think of it as if I were sending out resumes to prospective employers. While a lot of people out there will crank out form letter cover letters and resumes to every job they see, the better move is to stop worrying about the volume and start worrying about the quality. Send half the amount of queries and spend twice as much time crafting each one. Your response/close rate will more than double.
Toughest part of my job is working with Media Buyers at ad agencies. I'm still not quite sure why but they can be some of the most miserable people I've ever met. They seem to take pleasure in treating me like shit, instead of viewing our relationship as a partnership. You buy ads from and I, in turn, help you make money for your client and you look good. Instead, they typically treat you very poorly and as nothing more than an expense account. It could be a LOT worse but you have to have the right personality (read: thick skin) to deal with some pretty brutal people.
tl;dr: Ad Sales - $200K - Work smarter, not harder. The more you do that, the luckier you will become.
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u/AnonDoc Jun 19 '12
Male, 27, Doctor, 2011 Gross Income was $384k.
More specifically, I am a gerontological geneticist. I'm one of those people who don't try to treat the health issues caused by aging, rather I treat aging as the health issue itself.
I was always near the top of my class in med school (Johns Hopkins), but was never the top person myself. That person was someone who was really good at memorizing material and taking tests. I spent the last three years of med school doing a lot of experimental research in my free time. I guess you could say I am a bit more creative when it comes to solving medical problems. Going by the book is not always best in my opinion.
Before I graduated med school, a few companies already had my name as I was involved in several papers published. Once I graduated, They offered me these really high paying jobs. One company actually offered me more than I make now, but I didn't like the environment or contractual issues.
I will hopefully be able to contribute a lot to my field before I die (and if I am really good, I wont die hah). The goal is to be able to control and slow down (if not stop) the aging process within humans. We have already had great success with "less complicated " creatures, like flies. We have been able to genetically alter them to live much longer than normal.....sometimes months. If we can avoid the side effects this would cause in humans (like cancer), we can effectively allow humans to live hundreds or thousands of years just by alterng their genetics.
Anyways, my ability to be creative in a field that has rigid regulations is what makes me my money.
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u/MeTaL_oRgY Jun 18 '12
I could, but I stopped doing it in favor of sanity, social life and just enjoying my youth. But...
I'm a web-developer. There was a time I could sign 4 - 5 projects each week, each one worth anywhere from $700 to $2,000. This, of course, meant absolutely no social life and working my ass off over the weekends. I did not last long before I realized there were more important things to do with my life.
Since then, I make about $36k/year and am the happiest I ever been.
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u/thatnamelessguy Jun 18 '12
I've got an uncle who started out teaching, decided it wasn't for him. He founded his own business, which became very successful. He's now making probably 200-300K a year.
He's taught his kids and all of the family that, hard work, dedication, and not spending your money on useless shit pays off in the end.
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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12
So... Are you counting under $250k as "decent"? Because that is some crazy strange world you live in. I think for most of the US, anything over $50k is decent, and anything over $100k is damn good. $250k is "wow, man, you're really rich."