This may be true for some areas of the country, but it’s not true for NYC. My father is an RN (with an Associates degree, not even a Bachelors) with 20+ years experience and some supervising experience; he made ~100k last year. Nurses who train in particular specialties, get their Nurse Practitioner master’s level degree, or become supervisors, can make six figure salaries. 50k here in NYC is generally the starting salary, and with some overtime even newly minted nurses can make much more.
Mind you, they still deserve more than what they’re getting!
Of course, a one bedroom apartment in manhattan is gonna cost $3000 a month… It’s important to keep in mind in these discussions that just as salaries vary by market, so does the cost of living. What’s the starting wage for nurses in Joplin, Missouri?
I did make mention that NYC, Hollywood, Florida and other high income areas make much more, but if you compare it to cost of living, it is more or less the same as anywhere else, most often less though. You can compare cost of living and income with other areas doing the same profession on salary.com.
Of course I didn’t outright say it, but I did hint around at it in my first post.
For example, the median range here in KC for a pharmacist is about 80k. Going to San Francisco nets me about 10-15k more a year, but the cost of living drops me down to living at about a 50k a year job living here. Quite a bit of difference, don’t you think? Salary amount isn’t everything.
As far as 40hrs/wk, no worries when you leave, I’ve got to go with astro. The L.A. area docks have forklift drivers that started (as of ten years ago) at 65k a year. They are union jobs though, so you do have to have some connections to get your foot in the door.
Many people do not realize that CRNA’s provide almost half of the anesthesia in the country and in many if not most areas do not work under the direct supervision of MDA’s. For good information on CRNA salaries you can go to www.gasjobs.com (you have to sign up, but it’s free, and takes about two minutes, this site also lists positions for MDA’s in a seperate area of the site and you will see that they earn approximately twice what CRNA’s are paid). Generally, speaking CRNA’s are utililized more extensively in rural areas (where MDA’s are often simply not available in sufficient quantitites), and $100.00 per hour is fairly typical. For further information you can also check out http://www.aana.com/ which is the primary organization representing nurse anesthesists in the United States. Also, in terms of pay relative to cost of living Texas is one of the best area of the nation for nurses. www.salary.com has a good tool for comparing salaries to cost of living in various parts of the country. As for my brother’s salary the information he provided was sufficient to qualify him for a $450,000 Jumbo mortgage
If you are an intelligent, attractive, well educated and well turned out woman with highly flexible joints and a rugged vagina who can mingle sucessfully, top flight call girls can make hundreds of thousands a year.
No cite, but I heard underwater welders are well paid.
Tower climbers cost something like $1-2k a day (IIRC),
if you could do that 250 days a year, thats $250,000-$500,000
Of cousre, a lot your money goes to insurance.
The problem with the question is, once you get to a certain point you WILL have to have skills “completely unrelated to your area of expertise.” You’ll be expected to manage a department, train other employees, publish articles, set up (if not actually close) deals, draw up budgets and timelines or something else besides just doing the job.
There are a couple of other things to consider.
What’s the apprenticeship for a given occupation. A doctor, for example, has to go through years of training - including low wages and huge medical school debts.
What are the costs of doing business? My father in law was an auto body rebuilder. He made great money, but he had to buy all his own tools – an investment of thousands.
Are you talking about per job or per year? A model can make thousands of dollars per day, but only work a few days per year.
Do you want a steady paycheck? I know a lot of people who work in construction who make great money about 6 months out of the year, and have to live off it for the other 6 months.
Are you looking at a lifetime career in the same industry? A lot of industries like broadcasting, entertainment, etc. can pay very well for a few years, only to spit you out by the time you’re 40.
By the way, I couldn’t find any salaries for nursing jobs in Joplin, Mo., but 80 miles up the road, the newspaper had an ad for experienced ER and surgical nurses for $38-$40 an hour. Not bad, but full of stress and definitely not enough to retire at age 30.
Usually, (but not always) to earn that much as a simple RN (which surgical nurses are in terms of formal, education) you have to work for an agency or as a so called “travel nurse”. On the other hand you can be an ER nurse with a couple years experience and an ASN/ADN two year degree (although BSN four year degrees may be preferred most nurses still have the two year variety some even have the “old” diploma system RN where the hospital did all of their training). To be a CRNA you need a four year nursing degree, plus at least one year critical care/ICU experience then you apply to a CRNA program which lasts anywhere from twenty to over thirty months (during which time you will generally have over a thousand hours of supervised, clinical experience in addition to your classroom work).
The prostitution suggestion is especially good since most of the income is probably “tax free” in practice if not theory.
I’ve known a bartender (when I waited tables) who earned over $400.00 on a Friday double shift at Apple Bee’s . If you can earn that kind of money at Apple Bees then I have to believe that there are bartending jobs where you can earn upwards of $600.00 for a double shift. This job also has the advantage of being able to “limit” your taxation exposure (most waiters/ect claim 9% of sales for tips which I think may be the minimum, and is less than the 15%+ usual, actual tip rate).
I once knew a guy struggling to finish his final semester so that he could accept a 100K actuarial accountant position. Of course the math he had to take was so difficult that I’m not sure that a 100K to start was really to high.
As a residential real estate appraiser I have had years where I grossed over 170K and netted around 150K. However, that is changing as appraisals are becoming ever more limited, and automated (hence one of my reasons for returning to school). Three years ago it was not uncommon to get three orders for full appraisals bringing about $300.00 apiece in a single day. Today, you are lucky to see an order for a “full” appraisal even once a week. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have even started to waive appraisals on refinances for people with good credit scores.
Good sales people can earn well over 100K with little education selling everything from windows and automobiles to Real Estate and pharmaceuticals.
If I was going into medicine for the money I might consider dermatology. Consider, that we have an aging population at a time when medical science has advanced to the point of actually being able to impact its effects on the skin. In addition, the malpractice insurance premiums for dermatologists is among the lowest of any medical specialty.
Hey! Mind your manners. We’re not all pointy-headed.
I read last year that (in the UK at least), actuaries had recently re-overtaken corporate lawyers as the highest paid profession. Why do you think that I entered it?
The best thing about the actuarial work-reward pay-off is that actuaries generally don’t work particularly killer hours for their money. Actual qualification is a bitch though – an average of seven years of nasty-ass exams post-degree whilst working full time.
By ‘few years’ do you mean an associates degree or vocational school instead of a bachelors and grad school? Probably ‘air traffic controller’ if you can handle the stress.
A good number of medical associate degrees pay around 20ish an hour. The problem with most medical associate degrees is they take closer to 4 years to complete. so something like a nursing associates (which can earn around $40/hr in places like alaska) are out.
Some vocational degrees can pay really well if you either start your own business or join a union. I was looking at HVAC degrees (1 year degrees) and the guy who runs the program told me expected pay with experience is around $16/hr. However if you can find a union that will take you you can make closer to $30/hr. not bad for a one year community college degree. It’d be hard to find a union though.
Getting a 1 year or 6 month CAD certificate could help you get a job that pays around 30k a year.
Hmmm, in the same company as corporate lawyers - nice friends you have! (and this from a venture capitalist!)
I have had actuaries try to explain things to me (usually why I had lost money on deals and derivitives) and I have yet to understand a single word these simple, timid, wood-dwelling creatures say.
Frankly, if they can do that kind of maths, then they deserve every penny.
I was also offered a job in Bermuda for helluva money. But nice as it would be to live on a tax-free beach paradise, there isn’t a whole lot to do on an island 17 miles long by 1 mile wide. But it’s nice to have options
Most of my uni friends went off to be corporate lawyers, as it happens. One of them has just installed a £5,000 home cinema system into his £700,000 Islington town house. He is 27. Frankly, I do not feel as rich as him. So I have my anecdotal doubts about the survey.
The thing that I like about an actuary’s life is that they seem to work reasonable hours, get weekends off etc as opposed to lots of folk who work in the city who earn good money but work bloody long and hard for it (I know this - been there done it had the t-shirt, ulcer, coke habit and bar bills from Corney and Barrow the size of third world debts).
The most money I’ve ever seen made for next to no effort was during the dot com era - specifically underwriting IPOs (although being a venture capitalist at that time was pretty damned good too).
Being a partner at Goldmine Sachs when they floated would have been nice too (I think they got something like £25m each).
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The most money I’ve ever seen made for next to no effort was during the dot com era - specifically underwriting IPOs (although being a venture capitalist at that time was pretty damned good too).
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Mind you, the IPO underwriters are being sued to buggery now.
[QUOTE=owlstretchingtime]
The most money I’ve ever seen made for next to no effort was during the dot com era - specifically underwriting IPOs (although being a venture capitalist at that time was pretty damned good too).
Well, as you know, their employers are getting done, they’ve banked the dosh.
Moral of this story - if you think an IPO is a “piece of shit” it’s best not to email people with this opinion.
I was an angel-finder in that period. That was a money-old rope transaction.
It’s important to keep in mind in these discussions that just as salaries vary by market, so does the cost of living. What’s the starting wage for nurses in Joplin, Missouri?
