I have a friend who is also an ER surgeon in a major texas city, he clears close to 400k. Insurance makes a dent but he said the worst part is his schedule, he's either working days or nights and it'll be that way until he retires.

Ag with kids said:

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BigOil said:

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Career stability for engineers??? Only if you're good like me. Been working nearly 29 years and survived a layoff every 3-4 years so far to where I'm darn close to taking the voluntary package next time they offer.

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Had an engineer buddy of mine take a buyout for a layoff...basically he got something like 1 year of pay.

Then awhile later, he hired into another company just as his original company was buying it. They actually allowed him to come it with his accrued years at the original company.

Then 10 month later, they did more layoffs and he took ANOTHER buyout with another year of pay as severance...

That lucky ****er.

I've actually been employed (almost) continuously (or in school) since 1988 (as a coop until 1992). Went through all the numbers of layoffs unscathed. In fact, I managed to get through 2 of them while I was a contract engineer.

Then, I took my current job. Worked for a large company that was contracting out to a research center based out of TAMUCC. Worked there a year and a half. Boss decided he wanted to cancel contract and make everyone a university staff employee.

The university took so long getting their **** together that when the contract ended, they still hadn't switched me over. So, I spent 3 weeks unemployed while I waited.

I wasn't worried, though, because even if that fell through, I had a job offer from my previous company.

But, I spent 3 week hanging out in my backyard on N Padre Island giving no ****s. It was cathartic.

Finally, the school got their **** together, so I've been back at work there for 6 years now.

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I live on N Padre too! Lots of Aggies (and t-shiirt sips) on the island.

AxelFoley85 said:

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I have a friend who is also an ER surgeon in a major texas city, he clears close to 400k. Insurance makes a dent but he said the worst part is his schedule, he's either working days or nights and it'll be that way until he retires.

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Honestly, that is terrible. For the amount of training that he has had to do, and the skills he needs to keep up, and for the amount of stress that he has to deal with, he should be compensated way more than that.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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combat wombat said:

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If I were a doctor, I think I would open up my own shop that provided concierge care or didn't take insurance. There's some doctors offices where they don't take insurance and you pay an annual fee. I don't remember what that's called, but it gives them more time with each patient. It's less expensive for the patient and the patient gets more attention and the doctor makes more money

But I'm a CPA.

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You don't remember what it's called, but you used the name in your opening sentence!
Concierge Medicine or Concierge Care.

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Direct primary care is the term I was looking for.

Kenneth_2003 said:

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While $1,000,000 isn't the nest egg that it once was, it's still a very good benchmark.

Every YouTube finance channel will tell you it's not about timing the market, but time IN the market. The tax advantaged 401(k) is a remarkable vehicle to allow/facilitate steady and automatic saving and investing.

That list is quite frankly hot garbage as it's pretty much a list of higher paying jobs/careers. While a great job/career can make the path to millionaire status easier, the simple truth is if you want to retire with a 7 figure nest egg the time to start investing is yesterday.

$500 monthly contribution with a 10% avg rate of return will yield a $3.1 million portfolio after 40 years (age 25-65). You'd cross the $1,000,000 milestone at the end of year 29. It's the fact that the first million takes 30 years that keep so many from making it. but the next two only takes another 10 years.

if you make 48,000 a year with a 5% employer match, your employer would contribute $200 and you'd need to come up with the other $300; A MONTH. That literally is cutting back on restaurant lunches or happy hour with friends 3-4 days a week.

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Be careful assuming a 10% annual rate of return. I have seen info that the average return is historically 8%, Also it risky to investing stocks alone. You need some diversification into bonds to guard against stock market downturns, especially the closer one gets to retirement.

Failed SEC coach

Kenneth_2003 said:

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While $1,000,000 isn't the nest egg that it once was, it's still a very good benchmark.

Every YouTube finance channel will tell you it's not about timing the market, but time IN the market. The tax advantaged 401(k) is a remarkable vehicle to allow/facilitate steady and automatic saving and investing.

That list is quite frankly hot garbage as it's pretty much a list of higher paying jobs/careers. While a great job/career can make the path to millionaire status easier, the simple truth is if you want to retire with a 7 figure nest egg the time to start investing is yesterday.

$500 monthly contribution with a 10% avg rate of return will yield a $3.1 million portfolio after 40 years (age 25-65). You'd cross the $1,000,000 milestone at the end of year 29. It's the fact that the first million takes 30 years that keep so many from making it. but the next two only takes another 10 years.

if you make 48,000 a year with a 5% employer match, your employer would contribute $200 and you'd need to come up with the other $300; A MONTH. That literally is cutting back on restaurant lunches or happy hour with friends 3-4 days a week.

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I crossed 1Million after age 40. A bit late. My son is expected to hit it at age 26-27 and he doesn't even know it. He probably won't have to work past 35.

Almost every job is, in one way or another, a sales job. And every interview is a sales pitch. Learn to be good at sales.

He works like a dog. He hates it but he's stuck unless he becomes a medical director and he has no desire to do that.

AxelFoley85 said:

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He works like a dog. He hates it but he's stuck unless he becomes a medical director and he has no desire to do that.

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My ER friend is 47 and is sick of it too. He says he wants to get out of the medical industry and do real estate or something. He doesn't even have kids yet, he wants that too.

maverick2076 said:

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Almost every job is, in one way or another, a sales job. And every interview is a sales pitch. Learn to be good at sales.

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This is good advice.

I've said it before and I will say it until I die. You won't get 'rich' working for someone else. I'd bet those folks on that list are self employed. I cannot speak for anything but sales, but owning businesses and being a sales professional is where I currently steer my kids. They are all part of our businesses as owners and I put them on the street for door to door when opportunities arise. My kids will bring in 3x-5x more per week at 15/16 years old at peak times than their part time working friends make in a full month. That includes working noon to dark with the requirements being 5pm-8pm in the summer, Saturdays/Sundays, and if there is a holiday, those are hit pretty hard. You gotta work to get paid....you don't get to draw a free check just by punching in. Work all month and don't sell anything? No pay. It's not about working more hours, it's about working more efficiently and being good at what you do.

Sales is an incredibly rewarding role and in my industry, I get to help people by doing it. The best part about it is that I control my income 100%. I can't be fired. I can't be laid off. I can quit working now or I can work until I don't feel like it anymore. That is the big draw for me. I don't personally WANT to retire. I like being out and about and doing SOMETHING. I'll be out today meeting an adjuster for a roof because I scheduled it that way and I want to do it. It sucks to hate your job.

dermdoc said:

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1. Dermdoc

Prove me wrong.

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My wife fully agrees with this assessment. What a specialty to pick!

Joined an upscale country club in Austin. Never met another physician. Everybody was tech, business and finance. Doctoring is a good, stable living and you have to abide by all the tried and true rules of estate planning and investing to get to the finish line but those professions are where you can make the big money.

Jason_Roofer said:

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I've said it before and I will say it until I die. You won't get 'rich' working for someone else. I'd bet those folks on that list are self employed. I cannot speak for anything but sales, but owning businesses and being a sales professional is where I currently steer my kids. They are all part of our businesses as owners and I put them on the street for door to door when opportunities arise. My kids will bring in 3x-5x more per week at 15/16 years old at peak times than their part time working friends make in a full month. That includes working noon to dark with the requirements being 5pm-8pm in the summer, Saturdays/Sundays, and if there is a holiday, those are hit pretty hard. You gotta work to get paid....you don't get to draw a free check just by punching in. Work all month and don't sell anything? No pay. It's not about working more hours, it's about working more efficiently and being good at what you do.

Sales is an incredibly rewarding role and in my industry, I get to help people by doing it. The best part about it is that I control my income 100%. I can't be fired. I can't be laid off. I can quit working now or I can work until I don't feel like it anymore. That is the big draw for me. I don't personally WANT to retire. I like being out and about and doing SOMETHING. I'll be out today meeting an adjuster for a roof because I scheduled it that way and I want to do it. It sucks to hate your job.

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Then how did Sundar Pichai of Google get rich?
Tim Cook of Apple?

In general I agree with you that figure out something to do independently but one can get rich working for someone also.

Be careful when you throw out terms "working for yourself."

Even people who are self-employed have clients and customer bases they have to answer to.

Burdizzo said:

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Be careful when you throw out terms "working for yourself."

Even people who are self-employed have clients and customer bases they have to answer to.

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One way to "work for yourself" (Not 100% but as much as possible) is to invest. You decide what investments and what the allocations are. You make the mistakes and own them. You experience the highs of a successful investment. You decide when to move out of an investment.

Now yes, each company you buy has a CEO and likely hires H1Bs and the company has customers but you are not wedded to them, you can easily move out and into something else.

No boss, no TPS reports, no outside consultants to deal with, no angry customers, no annual performance reviews, no layoff, no firing, no re-org.

Money can be pretty good too!

You can though. See my original post. My entire career has been corporate America or working for someone else. Same with my wife.

You can easily get rich once you get into the leadership levels with all of the financial perks thrown at you. It's frankly almost hard not to get rich once you are at that level.

If both of you are in that world, you can pull $700-800k per year in compensation, if not more.

My wife interviewed for a VP position at a Fortune 50 company last year and the compensation was going to be $900K per year at the f'ing VP level. We were going to buy a landing pad in the city where the job was just for her to have a weekly place to be while she worked there. Plan was going to be for her to work there about 3 years and then walk.

Came down to her and one other and she didn't get it. Oh well.

malibucharles said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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While $1,000,000 isn't the nest egg that it once was, it's still a very good benchmark.

Every YouTube finance channel will tell you it's not about timing the market, but time IN the market. The tax advantaged 401(k) is a remarkable vehicle to allow/facilitate steady and automatic saving and investing.

That list is quite frankly hot garbage as it's pretty much a list of higher paying jobs/careers. While a great job/career can make the path to millionaire status easier, the simple truth is if you want to retire with a 7 figure nest egg the time to start investing is yesterday.

$500 monthly contribution with a 10% avg rate of return will yield a $3.1 million portfolio after 40 years (age 25-65). You'd cross the $1,000,000 milestone at the end of year 29. It's the fact that the first million takes 30 years that keep so many from making it. but the next two only takes another 10 years.

if you make 48,000 a year with a 5% employer match, your employer would contribute $200 and you'd need to come up with the other $300; A MONTH. That literally is cutting back on restaurant lunches or happy hour with friends 3-4 days a week.

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Be careful assuming a 10% annual rate of return. I have seen info that the average return is historically 8%, Also it risky to investing stocks alone. You need some diversification into bonds to guard against stock market downturns, especially the closer one gets to retirement.

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Dialing the spreadsheet back to 8% puts an investor across the 1 million mark in year 34 (59 years old if starting at 25).

I also included zero contribution increases in my spreadsheet. Just a simple $500 deposit each month.

Bottom line deferred gratification and disciplined saving will get ANYONE across the 7 figure threshold. You don't have to be on some list of top jobs. You have to be willing to eat a homemade sandwich a few days a week and drink Folgers. (Or if fancy coffee is your splurge find another avenue to save $500 a month).

YouBet said:

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You can though. See my original post. My entire career has been corporate America or working for someone else. Same with my wife.

You can easily get rich once you get into the leadership levels with all of the financial perks thrown at you. It's frankly almost hard not to get rich once you are at that level.

If both of you are in that world, you can pull $700-800k per year in compensation, if not more.

My wife interviewed for a VP position at a Fortune 50 company last year and the compensation was going to be $900K per year at the f'ing VP level. We were going to buy a landing pad in the city where the job was just for her to have a weekly place to be while she worked there. Plan was going to be for her to work there about 3 years and then walk.

Came down to her and one other and she didn't get it. Oh well.

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100%

Agree with you!

900k! Amazing. I have never been even close to that in my corporate job. But I do more than that in my investing portfolio where I am the boss. 900k is wow. The fact that she was a top finalist is amazing.

It was shocking to say the least. We weren't sure we wanted her back in corporate America at that level, but once they shared comp...you can't say no to that.

I don't know if it was simply going from F250 to F50 or what but shocking regardless.

11. Plant shift work operators for major O&G companies.

Just about every retiree I know, retired with close to 3.5MM or more (including pension) after 25+ years of service (provided they max out their 401's from the start). However, the generous pensions have definitely changed and aren't as generous as they once were.

Re-ran basic numbers again, adding capability for annual increase in contribution....

• Initial balance $0.00
• Starting contribution -- $500 per month
• Annual avg rate of return -- 8% (0.667% monthly)
• Annual contribution growth -- 2%

7 figure portfolio early in year 32
$2,180,000 at the end of yr 40
Total investor contribution to portfolio over 40 years $362,411.90
Total from earnings -- $1,817,858.53

So a single investor that can set a % to their 401(k) that starts at just $500 a month (combined employee + employer match) with a 2% annual raise will have over $2million at the end of 40 years.

Interestingly that's only a $400K increase in the end vs never increasing the contributions from the baseline $500/month. It goes to show how powerful the early compounding is and how even the regular increases simply don't have the time to make a material contribution.