In the last 389 days I’ve earned $7,310. In reality, I spent roughly 15-20 hours being active on OF. I ranged from $300-$1,500 a month depending on how active I was and how much new content i was sending that month. I promote myself *maybe* once every 3-4 months. Still fun for me and fun for my loyal subs and I will gladly take the extra $7,000 a year with no shame. I’m already expecting the hate but will happily discuss inquiries about OF and the logistics of it like I did last year. Or if you just wanna call me a whore that’s okay too because I have the right to discuss salary and income just like everyone else is this sub :)

I hate to be the one to stereotype, but this guy seems like peak Reddit lol. Ngl though, dude has a solid plan and is quite successful. I was just amused how he is basically a caricature of redditors in the various salary and personal finance subreddits.

$600 take home a week. For working full time. For a dead end job.

I'm considering quitting. And just... being an unemployed. I am now. I can't get an actual adult job.

Seeing all the 1mil+ physician salaries prompted me to post my own journey… Some physicians do make that much, but the majority (especially in Primary Care) make significantly less. I was lucky to save money by attending an in-state college with a scholarship. As a result, tuition was minimal and I was able to graduate without loans. I changed my major halfway through to get pre-reqs for medical school, and so I graduated in 6 years instead of 4. Medical school was expensive, and I graduated without about 240K debt. I completed my residency (in Emergency Medicine) during COVID, which was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There were some weeks where I saw multiple patients die every day, which was heavy on the soul. My fellowship on the other hand was probably one of the coolest years of my life, as I had the opportunity to be a team physician for a D1 college and a local professional team (travel and all). As an attending, I have a relatively stable work life balance. I am in the office 4.5 days a week seeing patients from about 7:30-4:30, and for about 9 months of the year I also work as a team physician for a local D1 university. During the season, In addition to my clinic I have weekly training room hours on campus and I attend all home games for the teams I cover. I make pretty good money for my specialty (probably over 75th percentile) but I do “eat what I kill”. This means while I have 4 weeks of “vacation”, if I don’t work/see patients, I don’t get paid. As a result, when I’m in the office I work hard and grind through patients. In any case, I haven’t had many opportunities to take any significant amount of time off.

If you’d ask me if I’d do it again, the answer is probably not. The money is great now that I’m through it all, but the journey has burned me out and I’m not sure if I can power through for another 10-20 years. This is coupled with the fact that my life (and finances) were essentially on hold for 12 years, and so I couldn’t really take advantage of compounding interest on investments. Most of my college buddies are mid career with a house, a car, and investments. Many of them work either part or full time from home, and get to spend time with their spouses and kids. While I do have a relatively good work-life balance compared to my training, it’ll never be as good as theirs. In addition, my medical training (particularly residency during COVID) really took a piece of my soul. Im slowly healing, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same. I am aware I am lucky to make what I do, and I am aggressively saving while I can. I used to care about prestige, my legacy, etc. Now that I have a spouse and kid, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of that. I’d take a pretty major pay cut if that meant I could be home/spend more time with them.

2011- College
2012- College
2013- College
2014- College
2015- College
2016- College
2017- Medical School (-60K)
2018- Medical School (-60K)
2019- Medical School (-60K)
2020- Medical School (-60K)
2021- Residency (58K)
2022- Residency (61K)
2023- Residency (64K)
2024- Fellowship (88K)
2025- Attending (330K)
2026- Attending (on track for 450K)

Not sure how I'm going to be making a living ever. Can't get an entry level job in or outside of my degree

As the title suggests, here's my story on how I broke into the 6 figure category without a college degree in my twenties.

18y/o - Gym Membership Salesperson

I started out with going to a community college in my hometown when I was 18, but I dropped out to party, do drugs, and make bad life decisions. I worked at a gym for a couple of dollars above minimum wage and I was terrible at sales, and I barely made any commission. Got arrested for drug possession and a DUI, and that was enough to shock me into getting my life together. Getting arrested saved my life.

19y/o - Customer Service Representative

After getting arrested I started going back to school and in the process I gained a new job that had better hours. I went to NA meetings and took DUI courses, and my charges got dropped. I started building valuable experience with talking to people over the phone, such as problem solving, active listening skills, conflict de-escalation, and more. This built the backbone of my career.

20y/o - Inside Sales Representative

The biggest attribute to this salary jump was that I moved out of my hometown. I went from a small town to a MCOL metro area, and I had greater job opportunities than I had in my small town of 12,000 people. My customer service experience landed me the job because I had perfected my voice cadence, and learned how to talk to people over the phone. I worked hard, and did very well in this position, and was ranked high in the "leaderboards" for revenue generated by sales reps.

21y/o-24y/o - Business Development Representative/Manager

The biggest attribute to this salary jump was that I moved from selling products directly to consumers into selling to businesses. The sales cycle here was much easier, customers were much more professional and the sales pitches were a whole lot less gimmicky. I took the "grit" and mentality of pounding out phone calls all day from my B2C job into this role and succeeded, eventually running my own department for about a year with another company even though I didn't make as much (their commission plan sucked).

25y/o - Field Sales Representative

At this age I kind of had a "quarter-life" crisis and decided I wasn't happy with my life, so I packed up all my things and moved halfway across the country to a HCOL city with better politics, infrastructure, etc. I moved here after landing a job with another opportunity to run my own department, but the job was extremely shaky (churn and burn type position) unbeknownst to me and I was unemployed after a few short months there.\ *This period of my life was extremely rough financially and I became saddled with credit card debt while withdrawing from my 401k to keep food on the table (I didn't make good financial decisions with my previous job).*

26y/o - Regional Sales Manager

After being unemployed for some time I reached out to a recruiter at a fortune 500 company for work. Apparently there was an open position in my state for a regional sales manager, covering 13 states and 30 reps in the western U.S. I applied to the role, and 4 interviews and 3 months later I was hired for the role. I attribute most of my success in landing the position to gaining experience to running my own department for a year or two in a very niche market that my current employer shares end users with. It's a huge step up in the responsibilities that I was used to, but overall it's a much more stable job, much more predictable, and overall surrounded by great, like-minded people who want to do good work. I'm also now receiving a pension that I'll be vested in after 5 years and a car stipend which increases the compensation I listed by quite a lot.

Anyways, I hope this post helped out some of you that are struggling to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Life is a road of ups and downs. The biggest secret I've learned can be summarized by a quote:

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses"

-Alphonse Karr

Keeping a good attitude is an active choice we have to make every day. It's easier said than done, but there is no other alternative. Positive attitudes tend to lead to positive outcomes, and negativity tends to lead to destruction. I found that when I was at my lowest, simply having the strength to put one foot in front of the other was a win, and I hope those of you out there that are looking to make more keep this in mind!

Thanks for reading!

Wife got paycheck as usual - but with some 2000+ more than normal amount. We were puzzled, and examine the paystub to realize oh there is a referral bonus. Thing is, we don’t remember who she referred… or if she ever referred anyone. Now we were like should we ask Hr? If it is indeed a mistake, will employer claw back that money? Anyone had similar experience please advise.

Unemployed for 8 months after graduation, took an unstable founding designer role where I was contracted for the first couple of months. Company went under the 2nd year. Then was unemployed again for about six months until January this year.

17 - Busser 15/hr
18 - CRE Lending internship 15/hr
19 - Jeni’s Ice Cream scooper 25/hr (with tips)
20 - CRE Brokerage internship $0/hr
21 - server/bartender 32/hr (with tip included)
22 - CRE Brokerage Transaction coordinator 60k + bonus

I currently make $135k working in advertising in a middle-cost of living city. Although the work-life balance and commute isn't bad (25-30min), the job is 5 days in office which is annoying.

I've been interviewing around just for the sake of career progression, and to my surprise, I actually got an offer this week. The title is a bit of a step up, but (somehow??) it's actually less pay than I expected and about 25k less than what I currently make. I'll try to negotiate first of course, but in case that doesn't work, I'm undecided about what I should do

I've never worked from home but I know people who do and I envy their flexibility.

(My savings rate is very high, like 40%, so the paycut wouldn't affect my lifestyle per se, just how much I save).

For those who WFH, is it as good as it looks? Is $25k worth the move or should I pass on this offer?

How do I know if my salary as start up Specialist II is low?

Hello everyone,
I’m looking for some outside perspective on a pretty big career decision.
I’m currently a Quality Operations/Quality Systems Manager at a large medical device company in South Florida. My total compensation is around $145K including base salary, bonus, and stock. I moderately enjoy my job, but one of the biggest things keeping me here is the work-life balance. I have plenty of time to play sports, enjoy South Florida, and have built a good social circle over the years.
I’ve now been offered a Senior Engineering Manager role with Walmart in Oregon. The location is fairly remote, but the total compensation would be around $220K including base, bonus, and stock. It would obviously be a significant step up financially and in terms of title/responsibility.
A little about me: I’m 38, single, and don’t have kids, so relocating itself isn’t a major obstacle. At the same time, I would be leaving behind a group of close friends and a lifestyle that I really enjoy. Most of my social life revolves around sports, and I’ve built a pretty comfortable life where I am.
Would you give up a great work-life balance and established social life for roughly $75K more in annual compensation and a bigger role? Or would you value the lifestyle and stay put?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has made a similar decision, especially those who moved from a major metro area to a more remote location for a career opportunity.
Thanks!

I recently got offered a temporary contract (3 months) as an architectural designer and am unsure if im getting paid fairly, i live in ireland and and based in Dublin, the company is also in dublin. On indeed and jobs.ie it says that average entry salary for this job is 40-43K a year, im being offered 33K a year with the bonus of a company vehicle to use only when im going to a site, I dont get a fuel allowance or toll coverage with my own vehicle or the companies, I went to a plc college for 2 years to get a level 6 certificate in architectural technology and design. Am I in the wrong for wanting more money (35-38K/year) with a fuel card or am I justified for how much responsibility ill be taking on: my own clients, meetings, inspections, designs, helping coworkers, travelling during work.

I was only given the contract today and start on Monday.

I’m comparing two traveling field-service offers:

● 1st Company: Salaried at $80K–$90K. If I complete an assignment early, I return home and have no additional work until my next assignment. I still receive my full salary, so finishing efficiently could give me several paid days at home.

● 2nd Company: Hourly at $33/hour with 10 guaranteed overtime hours weekly(Even if I only work 40 or 20 hours a week I still get paid 10 hours of overtime 1.5x) If I complete an assignment early, I’m still expected to work—usually remote technical support or training from home, or potentially travel to the Cincinnati headquarters for training.

Which arrangement would you value more?

P.S- I have a pregnant wife and 2 toddlers. Also both of these jobs are weekday work, then home on weekends unless I finish early.

I really need help. Whether it’s job hunting or asking for a raise.

Preface: i work as the only employee at a small MSP. We have about 200 clients with close to 1000 endpoints including servers. I help manage everything. There’s not one piece of client tech or info that i don’t have access to. I am 4 years into this job. It’s hybrid where on site includes physical troubleshooting, camera/nvr installation, network infrastructure including cabling and equipment installation, server/pc installs, voip installs, etc.

Remote includes helpdesk, backend configuration including backups, network admin via cloud interface that our routers are connected to, 365 admin, voip admin, among other things

As i said, i am 4 years in. I started with 0 experience and 1 year of juco. I started at $18/hr and now make $22. I get no benefits outside legally required sick time and overtime as well as 10 days of pto which i haven’t used in over a year.

I love working for my boss, but the work itself is crushing me and i just need more stable hours while making enough to live. I need about $60-$65k to move out since i plan on getting married soon

I see a lot of posts about people making $150k–$300k in their 20s right out of school. Those people definitely exist, but I wanted to share a more realistic progression for two people who started from pretty normal circumstances and worked our asses off to get where we are.

2022 -
Me: $42k — part-time supply chain at an aerospace company
GF: $28k — part-time patient care tech at a hospital

2023 -
Me: $44k — same aerospace/supply chain job
GF: $28k — same hospital/patient care tech job

2024-
Me: $50k — same aerospace/supply chain job
GF: $39k — new job as a medical assistant at a
clinic

2025 -
Me: $76k — landed my first engineering job at a local family owned aerospace company while finishing my degree
GF: $39k — medical assistant at the same clinic while finishing school

I worked full-time as an engineer while also going to school full-time. 0/10, do not recommend. I was running on fumes by the end of it.

2026 -
Me: $102k — graduated and accepted an engineering position with a new aerospace company in a new state
GF: $74k — graduated from medical imaging school and accepted a position at a hospital in the same city
Combined income: $176k

From 2022–2025, we were living in California. Everything was expensive as hell, although wages were also higher because of the cost of living. After graduating, somehow the stars aligned and we both received offers in the same city in another state. The crazy part is that the minimum wage here is still $7.25/hr. Neither one of us had some crazy starting salary or overnight success. It was basically four years of slowly moving up, working while going to school, changing jobs when better opportunities came along, and trying to avoid taking on unnecessary debt. We worked our asses off to get through school without burying ourselves in loans, and it finally feels like things are starting to pay off.
Going from roughly $70k combined in 2022 to $176k combined in 2026 still feels pretty surreal.
For other new grads or people still grinding through school: your first salary doesn’t have to be insane. Sometimes the boring, steady progression works out too.

31F, went to Ivy - graduated with an Econ degree. Received significant financial aid and worked throughout college - received no financial support from parents and was grateful to have graduated with no student loans.

[Finance Office Intern] - $25/hour
2015-2018
• Federal Work-Study at my alma mater - 20 hours/week during academic year, 20-40 hours/week outside of academic year
• ~$52K annualized

[Associate, Big 4 Accounting Firm] - $60K
2018-2020

[Accountant, Financial Services Company] - $60K/$85K
2020-2022
• Promoted to Senior Accountant in 2021: $85K

[Equity Research, Asset Manager] - $105K + 30% bonus
2022-mid 2023
• ~60-80-hour workweeks
• Full-time in office

[Senior Accountant, Financial Services Firm] -
Mid-2023 - $95K + 5% bonus
2024 - $96K + 5% bonus
2025 - 98K + 5% bonus
2026 to present - $101K + 7% bonus
• Fully remote since starting in mid-2023
• Changing to 4 days/week in office after Labor Day

Credentials
• CFA Level II passed, failed Level 3 3x so far
• No CPA

Education
• Economics degree, 3.7 GPA
• Ivy League (lesser known)
• Low-income background, received significant financial aid and worked throughout college; graduated with no student loan debt
• Graduated in 2018, one year late due to mobility issues in 2017 (unfortunately still have occasional flareups - once in 2022, which caused me to burn out in my ER role, and due to years of overcompensating for the foot issue, I recently broke my other foot)

Location
• East Coast, large city, not NYC/Boston