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1. Washington, Master’s with 7 years and a stipend: $96,000. Doing pretty well in my district; getting along great and being appreciated.
2. Suburb of a major Texas city, starting salary is 61k. I have 27 years experience and a masters degree. I make 68k. I’m furious that my education and decades of experience is only worth about ten percent more than a rookie with bare minimum certification requirements.
1. My background is welding but I branched out and learned more trade skills. I make $45 an hour with pretty much unlimited overtime. I know I’m far above average in pay. I was making $50k for a couple years. That’s pretty normal for average welders doing shop and fab work.
Unless you are willing to endanger your life or be moving around constantly with no job security you probably won’t be making 100k a year.
Living beyond our means has unfortunately become all too common in our consumer-driven and debt-heavy society. With the ease of impulse buying online and the reliance on credit cards, many of us end up spending more than we earn, putting ourselves in precarious financial situations and accumulating consumer debt.
1. This is probably a strange answer, but joining the military.
I was able to mature and save up a small nest egg, get access to the Post 9/11 GI bill, and some combat wounds were 100% worth it for the disability check and healthcare lol
That let me go to to college and a great law school with no debt, and led me to where I am today.
Plus, I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything. Home run.
I’m almost 30 years old my mother is early 50s with little saved for retirement. She was a single mom raising 3 kids and didn’t have the luxury to save. She has a small 401k with the school (she’s a lunch lady) and makes only about 25k a year. She has a paid off house thanks to my dad that passed away when I was 12.
These past two years have been the first years I’ve made good money. I’ve paid off her credit card debt (7k the card was used to make ends meet and she only paid the minimum), I pay property taxes, power, internet, and insurance for the cars. I’ve got 30k in student loans (low interest rate), 34k auto loan, and no other debt. I’ve got 16K in sep Ira, 7.5k in Roth IRA, 20k emergency fund, and 10k in other bank accounts.
My girlfriend, is about to graduate with her RN and will have no debt. My GF is understanding that I will always support my mom and do everything I can to help her. I’m reaching that stage in life where I want to move out with my GF but I’m worried I’ll struggle to pay for two households. GF wants our privacy and for us to live separately (which I totally understand) just a bit lost on what to do.
1. In CA, it’s not that hard to make 300k.
Depending on how you manage your OT, it can be a ton of effort or minimal effort.
For me, it’s easy as pie to make 260-300k. I’m not beating my body up. I choose when I work so that helps tremendously.
If you stay on top of your OT, you can pick and choose when to work. We use an evergreen to determine who gets first dibs at overtime.
Also, all OT is double time. It just makes it that much easier.
At SCE, you will make 200k without even trying. I was hitting 250-265 and hardly worked weekends. Just picking up hours during the week here and there.
My gig is even better now that I’m transmission, 300k with minimal wear and tear.
We finally finished digging ourselves out of a financial hole, have good credit and are finally saving money. We’re planning to put a downpayment on a little house within the next 3 years and everything is marching smoothly toward that. And then I get a call from his mom.
“I want to sell my house that I have $180K equity on, and get a mortgage on a new one, and I was wondering if my son would co-sign. I’ll give him $15K from the sale of my current house.”
I guess she needs his income for the mortgage application because she runs a home hair salon under the table and rents out an efficiency illegally and that’s where her income comes from. She says she’d be able to take him off the mortgage after a few months. Is this true? Should we consider it? Why does his mom always get the family mixed up in her convoluted financial schemes?
1. I feel sick to my stomach whenever I think about this, but I sold a customer who was about $10,000 underwater a new Ecosport and due to her credit the interest rate was well into the 20%’s. She bought everything in the finance office and left with payments just over $1000/m for 84 months. The car was ~$24,000 (with rebates), her negative equity and taxes brought it to ~$37,000 and then bought about $4000 in back end products. I have no idea how the deal ever got funded but AFAIK all the back end stuff stuck.
Paying $85,000 for an Ecosport just makes me physically ill.
The longstanding belief that renting is akin to “throwing away money” has pervaded financial advice for generations. However, this perspective oversimplifies a complex decision and overlooks the substantial benefits renting can offer.
While homeownership has its benefits, it’s crucial to understand that renting can be a perfectly valid and smart financial choice depending on your circumstances. Let’s explore why:
