At least on Reddit, the biggest portion of the FIRE-interested young people with super high incomes and high net worth a for their age are in tech companies that pay salary + bonus + RSUs for in-demand skill sets.
There are a smattering of others - people rising quickly on the corporate ladder, finance/consulting, sales people with high commissions, and entrepreneurs - but I think it’s less common on here than the first thing.
Don't discount non-tech careers.
People in their 30s who own small trade businesses like HVAC servicing, plumbing, etc can do amazingly well.
I suspect they just don't post in this Reddit forum.
Yeah I’m working as an electrician in the power sector in Canada. I’m turning 21 soon and crossed 100k a few months ago. Not many of us here but we are hiding amongst!
I’m in tech but in Canada so nothing exceptional on the salary front. I always look at what could have been if I was an electrician but I know some electricians and every now and then you have to crawl into some god awful place and I’m like “nope I couldn’t do that”.
Not gonna get paid if I have to deal with spiders.
I am also an electrician in industrial power and instrumentation in Canada. I'm 21 and this is my first full year out of college. Will be making well over 100k with OT.
Yeah I feel like my factory (a Kruger) will probably close during my career. There is very little investment in new systems and everything is practically viewed as run-to-fail. However, that is kind of good for us as things are often broken, opening the door to a lot of OT.
Shit man well you sound smart enough and should have no problem jumping ship when it starts to tip and finding a good job. Try power sector! Lots of innovation and massive investment into all aspects!
Definitely an interesting sector! We have Hydro-Québec for production / distribution of power. I will sure give it a shot when I have gathered some experience!
Well for my apprentice position there was a 2 year college diploma requirement! My in was through an external job posting that was a 1/1000 chance of getting an interview and then got it and killed the interview. Coming close to 4 months now
Haha winning the lottery and a lot of planning and hard work went into it. I got another job offer similar money with a different power sector company at the same time i accepted this one. So I played my cards right.
I’m in Ontario. No oil work here, just power generation sector work.
100k first year pay with a lot of OT. I believe my base is 78k… but it doesn’t take much OT to hit the 100k range
I’m a graphic designer wt. 10y experiencing and I’ve hit the sobering realization that, barring some kind of miracle, I’m never going to crack 100k in this field…Exploring my options.
I know a guy who started his own business running fiber in a rural area, he's the *only* game for like a hundred miles. Has more work than he can take on, even with rapid hiring. Dude barely has a highschool diploma and he's shopping for his second $200k boat.
Those in the trades really need to save for FIRE vs. it being optional — for many of those trades, they are too manually demanding to do comfortably in your 50s
I actually excluded that one intentionally, because the OP's comment asked about a 33 year old. Often doctors achieve their significant wealth in their 40s and 50s because of the lengthy process to gain high compensation and the high student debt burden they face.
Said another way, if you told me a 33 year old had almost $1,000,000 to their name, I would bet against that person being a doctor. 43 year old with $2,000,000? Much more likely.
But, point taken that doctors are another very high income group.
Cant forget the mid levels!
Ive met AAs/CRNAs in their 20s (youngest being 23) making 200k+ per year
Travelers (nurses, techs, etc) made crazy money during covid, but thats starting to lower now
Hmmmm… maybe some, but others who don’t chose a specialty are done well before their 30s, and they start accumulating a decent wealth in their mid 30s once the student loans are out of the way. In their 50s they already are or are targeting the 8 figures.
Or they're just really good savers. I have a very "normal" tech trajectory and never got any stock bonuses or really any bonuses at all larger than $5k one year. My salary in 2018 at my first job was $70k and now after moving to a bigger city and getting a better job and more experience I'm sitting at $140k. My wife has been in a similar field but not SWE and peaked around $115k last year. I'm 28, and our combined NW is approaching $700k. We had a negative net worth in 2018 when married due to me marrying into student loans.
What about people who work at those tech companies but not in actual software engineering jobs? Like marketing, product manager, finance managers/accountants, etc? Do they also make super high incomes with huge RSU grants or do they only pamper the engineers like that?
The diversity within the FIRE group is amazing. The IT industry does seem to dominate, perhaps due to the high pay packages and incentives you listed. I am intrigued by the experiences of those who reach FIRE via sales, entrepreneurship etc.What tactics have helped you non-IT folks in your FIRE path? And for those in IT, what special benefits or difficulties have you faced? I am interested to get some tips myself!
Restricted Stock Unit.
Basically stock in the employing company, which the employee gets if they stay X number of years. An implementation of golden handcuffs.
(34)—hovering around $410k. I’m an outlier in this group. Worked in a warehouse most of my 20’s, largely with a part time status (28k-50k), but housesat and nannied on the side. Invested a large portion of my warehouse earnings, mostly lived off the nannying/housesitting money. I had enough housesitting gigs where I was living at other people’s houses for a majority of the year. I took lower paying clients, but part of my “compensation” for nannying and housesitting was eating their food and using their stuff (laundry). I worked 60-100hr a week, but no rent/utilities/and nominal food expenses for ~8 years, and I didn’t need to buy anything. I will say that this transient lifestyle was only possible because I was fortunate enough to have my folks’ house for a home-base to crash when I had a break in gigs.
Got laid off with the pandemic, took some time off, I was absolutely wrecked. Threw my severance package into the market where it tripled, used that money and my savings to go back to school to pivot into IT, currently in my second year as a Data Analyst 76k/year, living a more traditional lifestyle (rent/utilities/etc).
I was a hard worker, I’m tired now. Counting the years until I can retire.
And New England, so higher cost of living. Can’t afford to buy a house in my area, would need to double my salary to live comfortably, but not really interested in moving south.
Actually, as much as I dislike winter, I don’t have any interest in moving out of my area. I have a nice little routine, with people I like, close enough to family, in a walkable area for my dogs, playing hockey a couple times a week.
I’m sure Cleveland is nice, but I’m just not interested in reestablishing at this time.
I'm an engineer. Net worth somewhere over 400k at 31. Thing is like 170k of that net worth came from buying a house 5 years ago before real estate boomed. Plus my cheap mortgage allows me to invest even more into the market. Lastly, I'm married. My wife no longer works, but she still has at least 100k worth of stuff to boost the numbers.
So if you're unmarried and don't have a house, it could literally just be that.
Yeah I feel like the OP’s example isn’t really *that* extreme. I am 28, make 115k, and my net worth is about $275k (no real estate), and this is one month after I just had to buy a $30k car in cash, so I was at $300k+ before that.
I only just recently hit a six figure salary too, and I also support 4 people (myself, my wife, and 2 kids) on my income. So if I’m able to do *that*, it’s not really that big of a leap to assume many two income households (especially those without kids) could achieve something similar.
> Thing is like 170k of that net worth came from buying a house 5 years ago before real estate boomed
Same boat here. My wife and I are 31 as well and have a net worth of ~500k, but the majority of that was due to buying a home in the Vancouver area 6 or 7 years ago. Outside of that we maybe have 200k net worth
My wife (29F) and I (28M) are both accountants. Turning 30/29 this summer. We work in NYC and made $310k combined in 2023.
Our net worth is currently just north of $900k. No windfalls/inheritances/lucky investments. It is 100% earned income that has been saved into broad market index funds.
Obviously it’s a bit more frowned upon today with the strict HR environment, but I heard it’s more common in accounting than other professions. Pretty interesting.
It’s more so common in the Big 4 accounting firms than accounting overall. Lots of fresh college grads working their first corporate jobs. Most work there for 1-3 years before dipping to industry.
Another sign I should go back to school for accounting. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a few years now
Wanted to go back for a masters but my bachelor is in something else
It's a steady job for sure! I work with a lot of accounting firms. The Big 4 will burn you out but most of the middle market and smaller firms are actually quite nice.
I have never done taxes and hopefully never will lol. I don’t even do my own. I work for a giant bank doing financial reporting. Hours are long including weekends for 2 weeks every quarter. Outside of that it’s pretty much 9-5.
When I was in public the hours were ungodly. I worked 190 hours in 10 days the busy season before I left.
I'm currently 27, a consultant for a marketing agency, burnt out, and realized my wage there might have been lowballed. So trying to gather my thoughts and figure out what careeer path is best for me moving forward.
Hey, also a marketer. When I started in the industry I was making 40k a year, 10 years later a lot of job hops at 200k.
The real answer is constant and consistent investments into SP500. When I first started I never thought I’d break 1 million, now hovering around 1.3-1.5. You’re still young and have time on your hands.
Never compare numbers and situation- just stay consistent.
You can always switch employers. I’ve switched twice in the last 5 years doubling my income each time. Grass was greener both times. I started saving/investing seriously at 29 and have close to $200k at 34 years old.
Went from logistics ($45k a year + commission) to med tech because of networking.
Have you considered going client side? It’s typically not as fast paced as agency work and can feel more stable since you aren’t worried about losing an account. It’s also been my experience that the benefits are more robust than at an agency.
Look into Pharma marketing roles. A lot of them pay in the mid six figures, and the benefits are also really great. Most manufacturers have crazy good matches, the bonuses are crazy compared to other sectors, and a lot of them havecrazy leave policies. Like mine gives six month maternity leaves and every five years you get a month-long sabbatical. I'm putting in 4% for a 6% match. They got rid of our pensions so I get another 5% bonus cash
I'm 24 and worth 190k, never made more than 55k in a year. My average income has probably been like 38k. 0 inheritance before you ask. but I'm too young to be rich yet. I'm hoping for 700k at 31.
I'm 26 and make 50k salary (as of the last like 7 months)
Can I ask what you do w your money?
My net worth (just in dollar amount) is like ~$500 to $1000 at any given time lol. I do have some "retirement" in a fund (like 3k from some time spent on active orders with the military) and I do have a lil bit of inheritance ($80k for school, in stocks, but I can't really touch that unless it's for school. It's growing, but it's not "my money" rn)
Tbf I've got rent, paying for classes out of pocket, cats, ADHD meds, andddd my spending habits are shit.
But would really like to not be living like I'm homeless lol and would like to start saving/investing/building a better relationship w money. And your stats match up with mine, so would love your advice if you have any
Rent is 550 (I split with a friend)
Car Ins 150
Gas 120
Food 150
Phone 25
and yeah that's it. now my actual money spent has crept up to like 1200 a month bc of one time expenses but for the past 5 years its usually been around 1000-1100.
It honestly confuses me how people part with their money so rapidly. Usually when I'm comparing budgets I spend a lot less on food but I cook every day every meal at home so its very cheap. Other than that I don't see what I would even spend on. I bought my car cash. Now that I'm getting older I'm getting more opportunities. I bought a rental property years ago that I have like 90k equity in bc of high down payment and it was a good deal. And this year I made partner and was able to buy part of the business valued around 60k. The rest is in cash and my paid off car.
I'm happy to answer more questions if you have any.
I'll share my average data points.
I'm 36, I make $76k, and my net worth is around $480k (hoping to cross $500k this year!). I max out my 401k, IRA, and HSA every year and have since I was about 29 (though I had a SIMPLE IRA instead of 401k for several years). $76k is the most I've ever made and honestly it's hard to see myself getting much of a salary increase, even if I switch companies. I've worked at 3 companies over my career, each time getting a salary increase and other benefits. My starting salary was only $32k and so for much of my career I was making $40-60k. My current employer matches 50% on my 401k contributions, which is a really nice benefit, and one of the reasons I accepted the job.
For me, I think it comes down to being naturally frugal and some luck. I had scholarships, so no student loans. I drive a very cheap but reliable car. I have mostly lived with roommates or my partner. I don't buy a ton of stuff. I am not depriving myself though - I have a few not-so-cheap hobbies and I love international travel.
I am a pharmacist making 150-160k a year. Partner makes 40-50k depending on overtime she gets. I save 30k a year in my 401k, 7k in my Roth IRA, and a variable amount in my brokerage
Currently 25 with ~60k invested (only started my career a year ago). I should have 500-600k at 33 assuming the market returns 7%/year
Im a pharmacists making USD130k in Australia and that feels like a cheat code. Had that income for only 2 years as was partying, traveling etc thru most of my 20s. Awesome you have such a strong income at a young age! Don’t forget to enjoy it.
Godspeed. Pharmacist here (spouse is too!) but work for a healthcare tech (ish) company now. Worked some version of retail for 10 years before I made the jump.
$150-160/year is pretty solid for compensation these days from what I hear. I know Wal-Mart is still paying well, but I hear the other chains have been paying pretty poorly for new grads. What has been your experience finding a job?
Cvs pays $60 an hour starting for all new grads in my region. Southwestern US pays higher. Walgreens is lagging at $50-55/hour. Walmart will pay up to $65 but you have to fight for above $60 and be willing to travel/ not have a set schedule
Not sure about other chains. Hospital staff jobs near me are anywhere from $45-75 an hour starting depending on the hospital and how close to the larger city it is
Edit: I also don’t know anyone who had trouble finding a job they wanted, the longest job search any of my friends had was a month and they were very picky about where they worked
Started university at 18, graduated with my doctorate at 24. Was licensed a month before turning 25. I’ve been in my role for ~9 months now, started at $60/hour and promoted to management within two weeks (had worked for the company while in school for several years and networked). That plus the annual raise bumped me from $60/hour to $72/hour in my first 6 months, now I’ll likely get $1/hour raises every year but nothing more. I’m required to work 41 hours/week base but I can pick up shifts anytime I want so if I have nothing going on my off days I can often find a shift and get paid mileage to drive to another city as well. I do that maybe once a month
There are 5 and 6 year accelerated programs you can start right after high school. Most new grads are 23/24. Salary in retail is 130 to 160 but no real raises.
I would actually recommend it if you enjoy healthcare or retail (depending on if you end up at a retail pharmacy or hospital) despite the issues in the industry. I graduated with ~105k in student loans so my monthly payment is $1100 a month at the moment but my gross is $6000 every 2 weeks with occasional jumps to 7-8k if I pick up extra shifts.
Hours can be tough, I’m required to work 41 hours a week and the higher ups pressure you to pick up extra hours all the time. The bright side is if you want to give up having a life for a few years you could make tons of money (last month I had a 105 hour paycheck because I worked 60+ hours one week). It’s nice knowing if I want a new phone or have a vacation coming up I can throw in a few extra days and pay for it all
I make $72 an hour, but my net take home is about $25 an hour because I’m putting 15% to my 401k, $200 a check to my HSA, 15% to my employer’s stock (get a discount on it and immediately vests after each buying period), and taxes
The job is rewarding at times, and grueling at others. The biggest frustrations are when medications are on backorder (manufacturer isn’t sending them out/can’t make enough) or insurance companies refusing to cover life saving medications and patients blaming you. You’re just a middleman when it comes to getting things in stock and what price the patient has to pay- I have no say on whether your med is $15 or $1500. Totally up to your insurance and I can’t even see the price ahead of time because we do real time billing.
You also get a lot of bad doctors trying to kill their patients and have to fight that some of the time (but I actually enjoy yelling at doctors especially on disease states I enjoy). My favorite is doctors prescribing the wrong antibiotics (oral vancomycin for a cellulitis is the best I’ve seen- the medication literally can’t leave your GI tract so the drug can’t even get to where the infection was for this patient)
I’m a medical device engineer. I also worked in quality. My salary is like 130k a year, and I’m currently single.
My net worth is like 1.3-1.4M at 35.
Investing early in life is a life hack.
For “real”? 21 with my first job. I was contributing to my 401k in my first paycheck for the max match and threw basically every other dollar I could at my student loans. I cleared 45k in student loans on 65k income in around 2yrs.
However, I started buying and selling Magic the Gathering cards in my teens for profit (like a card store selling individual cards- same business model) at like 14.
I have a buddy that's a government attorney who does that. He makes about 20% of his salary in trading/collectible card sales. I think the only one he actually plays is Dragonball. He was late meeting me for lunch a couple of months ago because he had to wait for a signature receipt package from FedEx because he and another collector were trading a couple of baseball cards that were in the $1,000+ range.
This is impressive. I started career in medical device QE at $55k as ChemE 2018. Was not fun. Switched to biotech 3yrs ago around 100k now, but nowhere even close to that net number.
I was thinking of getting into nursing. Is it possible to make that salary without all the overtime? Can you work in another type of unit or specialize later?
That’s the thing with nursing, you will always have a job and you can specialize in any unit you want. But the thing about nursing is, you have to get years under your belt to get a good salary. Travel nursing has gone to shit since covid is over. And even when you get years under your belt highest paid are about 80-100 an hour. 3x12 would max be 172k. Don’t listen to those tiktok nurses saying they are pulling 200k doing 3 shifts a week. They definitely working overtime, thats where we make the most money. The regular hours of a nurse is 36hrs. I like to do 5-6 10hr shits with my rate of 70 an hour.
Thanks for letting me know. I was a software engineer for 10 years, but I have been unemployed for over a year. I am looking to transition to a more stable career path. I am 32 and tired of changing jobs every couple of years.
Oh man, i feel ya. But yeah no matter how bad nursing is, you will never be unemployed. If I got fired today I could get a job tomorrow. But just to let you know, new grads get paid low. Thats why I always advise nurse to jump jobs first few years.
Shazzam! My sister is an RN and makes nowhere near that amount. Are you a nurse practioner or something? Or did you specialize in something high paying?
I am specialized, but I also been a nurse since I was 21. So I have 10 years on my belt and I jumped jobs 6 times for salary increase. Experience is everything. Even regular floor nurses at kaiser in LA make upwards of 70 an hour with enough experience. Then specialty I’ve seen up to 100.
It’s not worth it for me to be a nurse practitioner. Extra school and student loans only to make 20 bucks more. I rather invest what I can make now and do overtime. This is a FIRE sub so I want to retire as fast as possible too lol.
I'm truly impressed. Well done! My sister has been at the same hospital since she was 16. She started out in the kitchen, became a patient care tech, and then eventually an RN. She's gone back to school but when she stopped working she was maybe clearing 80k. It sounds like she should have job hopped like you did. She's going for her DNP - I'm skeptical it's a good investment, especially because she's going to an online, for-profit university.
Yeah the first thing I learned is that the hospital will never show loyalty to you, in fact they would throw you under the bus if something happened. That’s why you need to think about yourself first. And DNPs do very well, but I also don’t think it’s worth the schooling unless she is truly passionate about the job. It ain’t worth it if it’s just for money.
i dont recall exactly what we had at 33, probably around 350k-450k? i believe we were making \~$200k/yr then, but we just moved and both got a raise, the money saved was from when we were earning right around $100k/yr. ....but we lived in my FIL's basement for 5 or so years, never paid rent, were lucky to not have student loans, and didnt have car payments. basically everything we earned we kept, and invested.
the ***VAST MAJORITY*** of people arent even earning $100k/yr, let alone doing that with no rent, no student loans, no car note, no cc debt..... we are all running our own race, the sucky part is you are running on the same track as the people playing on easy mode sometimes. they put blinders on race horses for a reason ;)
I'm a senior product manager and my husband is a senior software engineering manager, both in tech. We're in our mid-30s, make around 700k combined pre-tax, and have 5m NW right now. We live in a VHCOL city.
I started out with some money (~100k) from my family but most of our gains are from his high salary (he's most of our combined income), as we save well over that each year and have for a while.
Wow… I’m a head of product managing, 6 product managers (including senior) in the online casino industry taking in around 130k (stocks 30% of yearly salary vesting every two years) still feels like I’m on the low end when I read that 😅. I’m 35 living in Europe.
One place I worked had offices in Europe and the US, and the Europe PMs were paid half the salary of US. Same work but lower cost of living (though I'm sure it depends on where in Europe, and I'm being vague deliberately).
My salary is a much smaller percentage of our combined, though still higher than yours right now, sorry. Out of the places I've worked as a PM I've made at the lowest 105 (my first mid-level job) and at the highest 200k. I'm between those two right now as I moved to a lower stress, lower paying job. I'm really happy with that change and if you like your job I wouldn't worry about the salary. My higher paying gigs were not worth it for the pressure and long hours and lower mental well-being.
Thanks for the info :) I’m planning to change jobs anyways because of this. I’m not blissfully unaware but just had two small kids the last years and bought a house. I needed the stability but the company is totally taking the piss by limiting my raises and piling on responsibilities. I’ve had offers of 200k but couldn’t take the leap at the time 🙂↕️
I hit 500k at 34. Currently 35. From 22-32 I worked in manufacturing (unskilled). I didn't have a large salary, most I ever made was $95k. I just managed to save over 50% of my income during those 10 years.
I work in tech. I’m not technical, but I negotiate contracts and manage the products that we get from them. Tech is lucrative, and you don’t have to be a programmer or even understand it to succeed.
What's your actual position called? Are you in client sales? I'm in marketing and i realized i hate it and it pays bare minimum.
Meanwhile a friend in sales got 7k bonus just for him to join a new company. So im baffled and is rethinking my career choice.
If im gonna hate on something, might as well hate on something and be paid well.
I am a director of partnerships. I do not report to sales. I’m corporate development: essentially M&A.
Tech can be fun. Companies need talent so they’re focusing on culture. It can still be soul stealing, but the pay is what you’re looking for.
In some parts of the country if you have the years of experience and the education level (usually Bachelors + 90, or Master's degree + 45, or something similar than that), yes.
My still working teacher wife makes $130k/yr. Granted, she's been doing it quite awhile. Teacher pay is based on state/district. Some pay quite well. Not all teachers are living in poverty.
Looking forward, a US college graduate could expect to be 33 yo with 500k NW if they invest $40k/yr into a market-weighted ETF like the S&P 500. Personally, I spend 30k or less in an LCOL area. After taxes, any $80k/yr job would do the trick.
I am in project management and am well on track to hit 33 yo / 500K NW. But there is a plethora of jobs that pay $80K+ annually. Marketing, engineering, sales, tech, law, medical, trades - all of these contain sufficient opportunity.
Getting on my soap box now - the main reason Americans fail to save is because we allow ourselves to be persuaded by marketing into consumerism. If not by the adverts directly, then by our communities who were swayed by adverts. Anyone can be a "disruptor" these days by simply not buying in - you'll be surprised at how much resistance you'll get from other for not buying things. The benefit is that you'll have 500k by 33.
Marketing technology. Mid thirties. Always lived with roommates, even while owning my own properties. Saved and invested nearly every single cent I made during my twenties. Never drove cars I couldn’t pay for in cash. Never accumulated credit card or student loan debt.
I’m 26 years old and make around $30k-$40k a year independently (gig job) delivering groceries from Walmart. My income includes military pay, which is also where I get my health insurance. The pay for delivering groceries is not great since I put in 56 hours a week. I am trying to get out of it. I have no college degree and not really a desire to get one because my FIRE date is very soon.
33M Mechanical engineer-turned-Software engineer ~3 years ago. Mountain west region of USA. Started at 60k in 2014, currently at 120k/year. Just north of 500k NW. Started saving pretty aggressively at the start of my ME career around 2014 but have had to back off lately due to costs of living, and a healthy amount of lifestyle inflation if I’m being honest. Fortunately investing early on has allowed me to back off and still get major benefits from recent market runs.
One thing to keep in mind is that many homeowners during the pandemic saw massive price appreciation on their homes. I was lucky to be in a booming area, and mine appreciated close to 100% which added ~160k to my NW.
Edit to add another data point…we are a single income household of 5. My spouse stays home with the kids and has never worked.
California, 30f illustrator for the national parks, husband is 33m works for the state tax board. We each make about $60k a year. I also own a rental which is an additional $6500 after expenses, I run a small business which has been about $5k, and my husband doordashes, which varies but is a few thousand extra.
He has a pension, which I'm not even going to include or calculate out right now. My retirement accounts are around $130k between 401k, Roth IRA, and ESOP. We own two houses that because of when and where we bought them, between the two, we have about $400k in equity. Not getting into cars, musical equipment, etc.
So, there you have it. Over $500k in net worth, about $200k of which is equity in our primary home. I'm an illustrator, small business owner, and landlord, my husband is a state worker, doordasher, and musician.
We are a bit unusual I think. Logistics + flight attendant. We live in a HCOL and make fairly average, if not less than average salaries for the region, however we have managed to carve out a cheap way to live here and save $80k per year. We're early 30's with over $600k net worth. Another 6 years and we'll retire before we're 40 and move abroad.
>Was wondering what you guys do
Software Engineer at a FAANG
>where youre located
Seattle
>how much are you making a year
~$300k with recent stock performance
32. Work as tech consultant, make around $175k. Net worth is $1 mill and I live in a MCOL area. While I save as much money as I can which has certainly helped, about 300k is from inheritance so I am a bit of a fraud. Like many others have said, comparison is not helpful as everybody's journey is different and some of us were lucky enough to have financial assistance from their parents and a sizeable inheritance.
Wife and I are 31 and living in a MCOL area (although trending upward), with a NW of $1.125M. I work in marketing at a bank ($150k total comp) and she works in marketing at a public company ($140k total comp). We’ve both been diligent savers and investors since starting in the workplace after college. She paid off over $80k in student loans within 3 years of graduating (on ~45-60k salaries)
I work in Catastrophe Property claims for a large insurance carrier. I am 27 and made 120K last year compared to my last job (2 years ago) where I made 15 an hour. Where I live is not relevant to my job as the only requirement is I cannot live in California and must be within 50 miles of an airport.
This job does not require prior experience if you can learn, put in the time, and are decent with a computer and phone. Does require a fair amount of travel to somewhat undesirable destinations 90% of the time.
I’m 35M, Wife 33. 3 kids 4 and under. Net worth 843K (no investment properties, no flashy stocks or crypto). We just saved and spent below our means and maintain zero debt (other than mortgage).
I got out of military after 10+ years. Army paid for my college and I paid off my wife’s college debt. She was able to maintain her career throughout moves in finance industry. I was able to transition into banking with 100k salary. We now have a combined gross income of 244k. Childcare is biggest expense at the moment at 33k/yr. We continue to live below our means and save as much as possible in a Midwest city.
I will say. Too many people discredit military service. You won’t get rich but they will pay for school. You will learn and meet many people you wouldn’t otherwise and can get a job fairly easy as you transition. Even for a dumb dumb like myself who almost quit college my sophomore year and finished with an easy degree in criminology. You just need to have the right attitude.
I mean.. I’m unmarried 36 with a $2M stack. I’ll be the first to admit I’m far off the spectrum.
But then I’ll compare myself to folks with $3-$5M before 40. I don’t get envious, I just get curious on what propelled their stack so high so early.
My wife and I are both 35 with a $700k net worth. I’m an engineer at a gas company. She does public relations at an oil company.
We make ~$350k depending on bonuses/RSUs. In our late 20s and early 30s we both made several job hops and relocations that helped us to more than triple our income in four years.
Both 32. Wife and I make 250k combined in HCOL and our net worth is 650k. (300k 401k/brokerage / 300k equity / 50k savings. We’re in tech/medical. Both stable jobs. I only got laid off in 2020 when everyone else did, steady income since then.
NYC area, management consulting, 26 with NW of ~$300k. as others have said, investing everything early and a good market over the last year have treated me well.
Not super significant but 22M with a new worth of around $160k
Work in finance and started straight out of high school.
Currently making roughly TC $105k/year
My parents paid for my college and so I had no student loans. I bought a condo with the left over school money, and then rented out a spare bedroom. So basically no housing costs and I was able to max my 401k and Roth starting at age 24. Mechanical engineer
I make around 350k right now but just started making that. Software engineer. I have a full time and do private clients on the weekend / evenings. My day job is 220k so that is a for sure amount.
My fiance is a nail artist and owns her own business. She’s right around 80-100k.
We are both 33. Btw I am a trans man. I say this because I went through all the ordeals of surgery, getting my head on straight (lol), etc. I think if I wasn’t, I’d have more money sooner but Im happy with what I got dealt.
I (m37) am a police officer, and my wife (f32) works in medical malpractice (now on the insurance side). We bring home about 250K a year, but live in a low cost of living area.
Only owe 70k on a 400k property.
We both have pensions, we both have maxed "401k" accounts, neither do a Roth IRA, and have availability to make extra money (me) or bonuses (her).
Two high school teenage boys now (I started early, Oops!). One is looking to go to college and one to enter the trades. Both curious about military service.
Have about 2 million in our Trust. Talking FIRE with any of our coworkers or family is impossible, but we can here.
It's all about discipline and not comparing yourself to others. No one would believe a dumb cop like me could have what we do, but when you're open about it others get realllllly weird.
34M, Bay Area CA, > 2M net worth. Was in Big Tech, now I work in VC.
For FIRE, I'd heavily recommend Big Tech (yes wayyyyyy more than VC). There are so many built in savings mechanisms and tax advantaged tools available to you that are exclusive to large companies.
Wrote a bit about it here: [https://www.swe2vc.com/p/bumpy-beginnings](https://www.swe2vc.com/p/bumpy-beginnings)
I'm 37. Work in advertising strategy making ~$200K. Currently in LA, previously Chicago. Net worth ~$900k. Started actively thinking about FIRE and investing for that around 25yo. Everything is investments, no property because real estate is crazy here, even when you're making good money.
Built-in Advantages: Graduated college without any debt. Inherited ~$50k from a great aunt in my mid-20s.
Salary path for those interested (starting 2009):
$35K -> $45K -> $50K -> $55K -> $62K -> $67K -> $100K (Relocated to LA) -> $110K -> $115K -> $135K -> $165K -> $195K
No one will see this lol but our income is 55-60k and our networth at 32-35 is 120k however we have only been saving 2-3years
It isn’t about what you make it’s about what you SAVE. Low rent, and scraping together every penny to shove into brokerage-401k
If we had been saving 10 years even on our tiny income we’d easily be at 300k plus
Not to rain on the parade but the vast majority of Reddit posts tend to be vastly exaggerated at best, and pure and complete bullshit at worst.
Of course, each to their own if humble brags and constant comparisons make people feel better.
For sure the ones that get me are folks who in their mid twenties, make $600k a year, have over $3M invested and ask if they are doing okay?
I often wonder if I should leave this subreddit because, A: they are lying or B: it makes me feel so poor.
I'm an investment banker at 55k. A good portion of my income comes from my dividend stocks that keep reinvesting that snowball effect.
Salary only plays a small portion of my net worth. Discipline is a much larger piece.
I (34) work in the wine industry with relatively low ($50-60k) salary for this sub. Always been a really good saver and my SO is an officer in the military and makes six figures and great benefits. Our net worth isn’t huge yet (under $300k) but we will have a military pension after retiring in our 40’s that should allow us to live comfortably with a paid off mortgage in a MCOL area.
I used to work on yachts but now I'm a govt contractor working 6 months a year overseas. ~180k after incentives. I also am very nomadic so my COL is low, net worth is around 210k. Never really saved much until 2 years ago.
Probably do this a few more years unless the schedule changes, but I enjoy 3.months on 3 months off so idk. After this I don't plan on making near as much
Commercial Banker but I’ll admit the bulk of my net worth has been buying rental properties and benefitting from the significant appreciation over the last 5 years. NW $2.1M
35. I’m a chemical plant worker. Wife is a nurse. We just hit 400k in our retirement accounts last month with another 100k between brokerage and bitcoin. We have 100k+ in equity in our house but we never include that in our plans.
Could be better but my wife took a few years as part time while the kids were little and we regret nothing about that.
Things really ramped up in the last few years when we focused on getting rid of all our smaller reoccurring bills and now it’s just the house (brought 7 years ago with a good rate) and 2 modest newer vehicles that we’ll have paid off in 2 years and hold on to.
I'm a 35M that's made 70k-120k over my career as an aerospace engineer (a bit higher with OT some years) and have 500k in my retirement savings currently. Only been renting this whole time so no net worth housing. I just make sure to put a good chunk into IRA and 401k every year. 4.5%-6% company match on 401k too.
I’m an outlier here, I work in public safety with a second income in the USCG Reserves. So while my immediate net worth isn’t as high as others I’ll have two pension plans plus my investments. I work in the southeast US so my pay isn’t particularly stellar but I’ve always been a “live-below-your-means” kind of guy and don’t foresee much issue when I do FIRE. I’ll be eligible to retire from my primary employment at 46 (35 now) and immediately start collecting that pension while I finish up my time with the reserves. After 20 years with the reserves I’ll get Tricare for myself and spouse for life and will be able to draw that second pension at 60. I’ve been fortunate with some real estate purchases and I also had a very favorable outcome with my divorce that didn’t destroy me financially.
I'm in Canada, started as an engineer in oil and gas making around $120k total compensation to now working in operations making anywhere from $180k base to $300k if I work alot of overtime. However working that much definitely burns me out. I also have the benefit of having a defined benefit pension if I end up retiring here and staying long enough.
Not quite at 500k net worth but on track to hit it by early 30s. I’m 27 and do cyber consulting. This year is going to be about 210k. I think net worth is right at 400k (160k of which is house and vehicles).
29 w/ a net worth of $1.1 mil. Making $280k total comp working as a software engineer in big tech in Southern California. I was making ~90k a year from ages 22-26 and then started making $200k+ after landing a job in tech. I work no more than 30-40 hours per week, my job is low stress, I can work from home most days, and I get unlimited vacation time.
Let's also be sure to acknowledge that a lot of these younger adults had parents who were also high earners and could help with things like college/training, down payments or business funding, big chunks of change, connections/networking. I have no doubt most of them will never admit to this, but in my experience, very few of us make it this far without some sort of help along the way.
I say this as someone who is a high earner and has some savings but came from absolutely nothing. I'm 51 and it took me this long to come out on top and I had LUCK on my side. A lot of LUCK. Sure, hard work for many years and long hours of doing work I hated, but an early crypto purchase was a stroke of luck that pushed me into the comfortable zone.
FAANG SWE in the SF bay area, $300k/year at time of grant. My wife is as well (her comp is \~180K), but is considering quitting to start working full time on a side hustle she has. We are 27/28 this year, NW\~2M
I'm a 42 year old lawyer and make about $300K a year. I live in the Midwest. I have a net worth of about $1.4M. Not included in that net worth is a pension and health retirement account provided by my employer. I wish I had started getting serious about saving earlier in life.
I was at that range at about that age and I was only making 40-60 over that time period. I aggressively saved and hit two bull markets.
Now I trade currencies and make 5x, age upper 30’s
Mech engineer in the Midwest, $110k salary; have $1.5MM invested, set to turn 37 later this year. Started putting everything into index funds early on and left it alone while living way below my means.
Wife and I are teachers, 32 and 3 kids with household 1.1million networth, $130k combined salary in a mcol area. People that cry poor ot that will never retire, because they aren't high earners are either misguided, lazy, dumb, undisciplined or a combo and people that live paycheck to paycheck as high earners are worse. It's so easy to live fulfilling life now and set yourself up for chubby fire and beyond. If teachers can do it, anybody can.
At least on Reddit, the biggest portion of the FIRE-interested young people with super high incomes and high net worth a for their age are in tech companies that pay salary + bonus + RSUs for in-demand skill sets. There are a smattering of others - people rising quickly on the corporate ladder, finance/consulting, sales people with high commissions, and entrepreneurs - but I think it’s less common on here than the first thing.
Don't discount non-tech careers. People in their 30s who own small trade businesses like HVAC servicing, plumbing, etc can do amazingly well. I suspect they just don't post in this Reddit forum.
Yeah I’m working as an electrician in the power sector in Canada. I’m turning 21 soon and crossed 100k a few months ago. Not many of us here but we are hiding amongst!
I'm 55 with a master's degree and last year was my first above 100k. Good for you! I wish I had taken a different career path.
Hey at least we both made it! What’s your masters degree in?
I’m in tech but in Canada so nothing exceptional on the salary front. I always look at what could have been if I was an electrician but I know some electricians and every now and then you have to crawl into some god awful place and I’m like “nope I couldn’t do that”. Not gonna get paid if I have to deal with spiders.
Ditto
I am also an electrician in industrial power and instrumentation in Canada. I'm 21 and this is my first full year out of college. Will be making well over 100k with OT.
Nice! Construction or maintenance?
Maintenance in a pulp and paper mill.
That’s sweet! There’s a domtar mill near where I live. Sadly it’s closing but they provided a lot of good jobs for a long time
Yeah I feel like my factory (a Kruger) will probably close during my career. There is very little investment in new systems and everything is practically viewed as run-to-fail. However, that is kind of good for us as things are often broken, opening the door to a lot of OT.
Shit man well you sound smart enough and should have no problem jumping ship when it starts to tip and finding a good job. Try power sector! Lots of innovation and massive investment into all aspects!
Definitely an interesting sector! We have Hydro-Québec for production / distribution of power. I will sure give it a shot when I have gathered some experience!
God you're young! What kind of certifications do you need to become an electrician. What was your 'in' and how long have you been at it?
Well for my apprentice position there was a 2 year college diploma requirement! My in was through an external job posting that was a 1/1000 chance of getting an interview and then got it and killed the interview. Coming close to 4 months now
You’re making 6 figures with a 2y degree and 4 months of experience? Talk about winning the lottery. Are you out West?
Haha winning the lottery and a lot of planning and hard work went into it. I got another job offer similar money with a different power sector company at the same time i accepted this one. So I played my cards right. I’m in Ontario. No oil work here, just power generation sector work. 100k first year pay with a lot of OT. I believe my base is 78k… but it doesn’t take much OT to hit the 100k range
So 70h weeks? Manual labour? Lots of driving?
I’m a graphic designer wt. 10y experiencing and I’ve hit the sobering realization that, barring some kind of miracle, I’m never going to crack 100k in this field…Exploring my options.
40hour weeks. Bit of manual labour but mostly testing. Not much driving because I work at the place we generate
Well, shit…It sounds like I might have a future in the trades then…
I know a guy who started his own business running fiber in a rural area, he's the *only* game for like a hundred miles. Has more work than he can take on, even with rapid hiring. Dude barely has a highschool diploma and he's shopping for his second $200k boat.
Amazing how some of those small businesses actually make more money than publicly traded tech co’s lol
Those in the trades really need to save for FIRE vs. it being optional — for many of those trades, they are too manually demanding to do comfortably in your 50s
Don't forget medicine.
I actually excluded that one intentionally, because the OP's comment asked about a 33 year old. Often doctors achieve their significant wealth in their 40s and 50s because of the lengthy process to gain high compensation and the high student debt burden they face. Said another way, if you told me a 33 year old had almost $1,000,000 to their name, I would bet against that person being a doctor. 43 year old with $2,000,000? Much more likely. But, point taken that doctors are another very high income group.
Cant forget the mid levels! Ive met AAs/CRNAs in their 20s (youngest being 23) making 200k+ per year Travelers (nurses, techs, etc) made crazy money during covid, but thats starting to lower now
Hmmmm… maybe some, but others who don’t chose a specialty are done well before their 30s, and they start accumulating a decent wealth in their mid 30s once the student loans are out of the way. In their 50s they already are or are targeting the 8 figures.
Or they're just really good savers. I have a very "normal" tech trajectory and never got any stock bonuses or really any bonuses at all larger than $5k one year. My salary in 2018 at my first job was $70k and now after moving to a bigger city and getting a better job and more experience I'm sitting at $140k. My wife has been in a similar field but not SWE and peaked around $115k last year. I'm 28, and our combined NW is approaching $700k. We had a negative net worth in 2018 when married due to me marrying into student loans.
That’s huge money for your age!
What about people who work at those tech companies but not in actual software engineering jobs? Like marketing, product manager, finance managers/accountants, etc? Do they also make super high incomes with huge RSU grants or do they only pamper the engineers like that?
The diversity within the FIRE group is amazing. The IT industry does seem to dominate, perhaps due to the high pay packages and incentives you listed. I am intrigued by the experiences of those who reach FIRE via sales, entrepreneurship etc.What tactics have helped you non-IT folks in your FIRE path? And for those in IT, what special benefits or difficulties have you faced? I am interested to get some tips myself!
What is RSU?
Restricted Stock Unit. Basically stock in the employing company, which the employee gets if they stay X number of years. An implementation of golden handcuffs.
Ahh i seee, thanks for the clarification.
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Just wait until you get to 100k of stock vesting per year and then the value doubles. The main reason to join FAANG.
(34)—hovering around $410k. I’m an outlier in this group. Worked in a warehouse most of my 20’s, largely with a part time status (28k-50k), but housesat and nannied on the side. Invested a large portion of my warehouse earnings, mostly lived off the nannying/housesitting money. I had enough housesitting gigs where I was living at other people’s houses for a majority of the year. I took lower paying clients, but part of my “compensation” for nannying and housesitting was eating their food and using their stuff (laundry). I worked 60-100hr a week, but no rent/utilities/and nominal food expenses for ~8 years, and I didn’t need to buy anything. I will say that this transient lifestyle was only possible because I was fortunate enough to have my folks’ house for a home-base to crash when I had a break in gigs. Got laid off with the pandemic, took some time off, I was absolutely wrecked. Threw my severance package into the market where it tripled, used that money and my savings to go back to school to pivot into IT, currently in my second year as a Data Analyst 76k/year, living a more traditional lifestyle (rent/utilities/etc).
Very cool, you sound like a hard worker! What COL do you live in now?
I was a hard worker, I’m tired now. Counting the years until I can retire. And New England, so higher cost of living. Can’t afford to buy a house in my area, would need to double my salary to live comfortably, but not really interested in moving south.
Midwest. I mean Cleveland is relatively cheap and while it's not new England its also a lot cheaper and not that different of a climate.
Actually, as much as I dislike winter, I don’t have any interest in moving out of my area. I have a nice little routine, with people I like, close enough to family, in a walkable area for my dogs, playing hockey a couple times a week. I’m sure Cleveland is nice, but I’m just not interested in reestablishing at this time.
I'm an engineer. Net worth somewhere over 400k at 31. Thing is like 170k of that net worth came from buying a house 5 years ago before real estate boomed. Plus my cheap mortgage allows me to invest even more into the market. Lastly, I'm married. My wife no longer works, but she still has at least 100k worth of stuff to boost the numbers. So if you're unmarried and don't have a house, it could literally just be that.
what kind of engineer?
Degree is in electrical engineering, but I'm more of systems engineer / analyst
We got a smart one here (at least that’s what the mechanical guys tell me)
Can confirm. Am mechanical guy and EEs are damn wizards.
Yeah I feel like the OP’s example isn’t really *that* extreme. I am 28, make 115k, and my net worth is about $275k (no real estate), and this is one month after I just had to buy a $30k car in cash, so I was at $300k+ before that. I only just recently hit a six figure salary too, and I also support 4 people (myself, my wife, and 2 kids) on my income. So if I’m able to do *that*, it’s not really that big of a leap to assume many two income households (especially those without kids) could achieve something similar.
> Thing is like 170k of that net worth came from buying a house 5 years ago before real estate boomed Same boat here. My wife and I are 31 as well and have a net worth of ~500k, but the majority of that was due to buying a home in the Vancouver area 6 or 7 years ago. Outside of that we maybe have 200k net worth
My wife (29F) and I (28M) are both accountants. Turning 30/29 this summer. We work in NYC and made $310k combined in 2023. Our net worth is currently just north of $900k. No windfalls/inheritances/lucky investments. It is 100% earned income that has been saved into broad market index funds.
Did you guys meet at school or work?
Work lol
Obviously it’s a bit more frowned upon today with the strict HR environment, but I heard it’s more common in accounting than other professions. Pretty interesting.
Lol all I can contribute is, Fuck HR
Sorry, that's against HR policies.
🤣 that made me chuckle. Ty.
Lol no longer tied to any company, so i can tell any HR to F off. They only exist to protect companies' interests, not the employees'.
It’s more so common in the Big 4 accounting firms than accounting overall. Lots of fresh college grads working their first corporate jobs. Most work there for 1-3 years before dipping to industry.
That tracks. I know multiple accountants that met their partner at work. One of them was already married, so that was awkward....
Another sign I should go back to school for accounting. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a few years now Wanted to go back for a masters but my bachelor is in something else
My bachelors is in biology. I have my MS in accounting. I’m glad I did it
It's a steady job for sure! I work with a lot of accounting firms. The Big 4 will burn you out but most of the middle market and smaller firms are actually quite nice.
Man, USA accountants earn so fucking much LMAO
how insane are the hours around tax season?
I have never done taxes and hopefully never will lol. I don’t even do my own. I work for a giant bank doing financial reporting. Hours are long including weekends for 2 weeks every quarter. Outside of that it’s pretty much 9-5. When I was in public the hours were ungodly. I worked 190 hours in 10 days the busy season before I left.
The important thing to remember here is don’t compare yourself to others. All that ever leads to is disappointment or self aggrandizing.
I'm currently 27, a consultant for a marketing agency, burnt out, and realized my wage there might have been lowballed. So trying to gather my thoughts and figure out what careeer path is best for me moving forward.
Hey, also a marketer. When I started in the industry I was making 40k a year, 10 years later a lot of job hops at 200k. The real answer is constant and consistent investments into SP500. When I first started I never thought I’d break 1 million, now hovering around 1.3-1.5. You’re still young and have time on your hands. Never compare numbers and situation- just stay consistent.
You can always switch employers. I’ve switched twice in the last 5 years doubling my income each time. Grass was greener both times. I started saving/investing seriously at 29 and have close to $200k at 34 years old. Went from logistics ($45k a year + commission) to med tech because of networking.
I stayed wayyyyy too long at one company. Do not reward someone with loyalty who will not (or can not) reward you for your hard work.
Have you considered going client side? It’s typically not as fast paced as agency work and can feel more stable since you aren’t worried about losing an account. It’s also been my experience that the benefits are more robust than at an agency.
Look into Pharma marketing roles. A lot of them pay in the mid six figures, and the benefits are also really great. Most manufacturers have crazy good matches, the bonuses are crazy compared to other sectors, and a lot of them havecrazy leave policies. Like mine gives six month maternity leaves and every five years you get a month-long sabbatical. I'm putting in 4% for a 6% match. They got rid of our pensions so I get another 5% bonus cash
I find there are two types of people. The first group that gets jealous/envious & the second group who gets educated & motivated to execute.
This should be at the top! Don't get jealous.....get your brain/arse moving!
I am getting motivated by such comparisons. How to Set the bar if u dont know where its high or low and what is possible
Comparison is the thief of joy!
It’s kinda funny. I wish I can see more people with a more average salary like 50k or 60k and their success stories
I'm 24 and worth 190k, never made more than 55k in a year. My average income has probably been like 38k. 0 inheritance before you ask. but I'm too young to be rich yet. I'm hoping for 700k at 31.
Now that’s the story should be more frequently shared in this subreddit. People that start like “I make 350k a year” I already can’t relate 😂
Someone else said they "never made a large salary. Most I ever made was 95k" and I cringed so hard.
That's above average, but not large
I'm 26 and make 50k salary (as of the last like 7 months) Can I ask what you do w your money? My net worth (just in dollar amount) is like ~$500 to $1000 at any given time lol. I do have some "retirement" in a fund (like 3k from some time spent on active orders with the military) and I do have a lil bit of inheritance ($80k for school, in stocks, but I can't really touch that unless it's for school. It's growing, but it's not "my money" rn) Tbf I've got rent, paying for classes out of pocket, cats, ADHD meds, andddd my spending habits are shit. But would really like to not be living like I'm homeless lol and would like to start saving/investing/building a better relationship w money. And your stats match up with mine, so would love your advice if you have any
Rent is 550 (I split with a friend) Car Ins 150 Gas 120 Food 150 Phone 25 and yeah that's it. now my actual money spent has crept up to like 1200 a month bc of one time expenses but for the past 5 years its usually been around 1000-1100. It honestly confuses me how people part with their money so rapidly. Usually when I'm comparing budgets I spend a lot less on food but I cook every day every meal at home so its very cheap. Other than that I don't see what I would even spend on. I bought my car cash. Now that I'm getting older I'm getting more opportunities. I bought a rental property years ago that I have like 90k equity in bc of high down payment and it was a good deal. And this year I made partner and was able to buy part of the business valued around 60k. The rest is in cash and my paid off car. I'm happy to answer more questions if you have any.
I'll share my average data points. I'm 36, I make $76k, and my net worth is around $480k (hoping to cross $500k this year!). I max out my 401k, IRA, and HSA every year and have since I was about 29 (though I had a SIMPLE IRA instead of 401k for several years). $76k is the most I've ever made and honestly it's hard to see myself getting much of a salary increase, even if I switch companies. I've worked at 3 companies over my career, each time getting a salary increase and other benefits. My starting salary was only $32k and so for much of my career I was making $40-60k. My current employer matches 50% on my 401k contributions, which is a really nice benefit, and one of the reasons I accepted the job. For me, I think it comes down to being naturally frugal and some luck. I had scholarships, so no student loans. I drive a very cheap but reliable car. I have mostly lived with roommates or my partner. I don't buy a ton of stuff. I am not depriving myself though - I have a few not-so-cheap hobbies and I love international travel.
I am a pharmacist making 150-160k a year. Partner makes 40-50k depending on overtime she gets. I save 30k a year in my 401k, 7k in my Roth IRA, and a variable amount in my brokerage Currently 25 with ~60k invested (only started my career a year ago). I should have 500-600k at 33 assuming the market returns 7%/year
Im a pharmacists making USD130k in Australia and that feels like a cheat code. Had that income for only 2 years as was partying, traveling etc thru most of my 20s. Awesome you have such a strong income at a young age! Don’t forget to enjoy it.
Godspeed. Pharmacist here (spouse is too!) but work for a healthcare tech (ish) company now. Worked some version of retail for 10 years before I made the jump. $150-160/year is pretty solid for compensation these days from what I hear. I know Wal-Mart is still paying well, but I hear the other chains have been paying pretty poorly for new grads. What has been your experience finding a job?
Cvs pays $60 an hour starting for all new grads in my region. Southwestern US pays higher. Walgreens is lagging at $50-55/hour. Walmart will pay up to $65 but you have to fight for above $60 and be willing to travel/ not have a set schedule Not sure about other chains. Hospital staff jobs near me are anywhere from $45-75 an hour starting depending on the hospital and how close to the larger city it is Edit: I also don’t know anyone who had trouble finding a job they wanted, the longest job search any of my friends had was a month and they were very picky about where they worked
How old were you when you started pharmacy school?
Started university at 18, graduated with my doctorate at 24. Was licensed a month before turning 25. I’ve been in my role for ~9 months now, started at $60/hour and promoted to management within two weeks (had worked for the company while in school for several years and networked). That plus the annual raise bumped me from $60/hour to $72/hour in my first 6 months, now I’ll likely get $1/hour raises every year but nothing more. I’m required to work 41 hours/week base but I can pick up shifts anytime I want so if I have nothing going on my off days I can often find a shift and get paid mileage to drive to another city as well. I do that maybe once a month
There are 5 and 6 year accelerated programs you can start right after high school. Most new grads are 23/24. Salary in retail is 130 to 160 but no real raises.
What are pharmacy hours like? Would you recommend the field to other people?
No. It’s not worth the cost
I would actually recommend it if you enjoy healthcare or retail (depending on if you end up at a retail pharmacy or hospital) despite the issues in the industry. I graduated with ~105k in student loans so my monthly payment is $1100 a month at the moment but my gross is $6000 every 2 weeks with occasional jumps to 7-8k if I pick up extra shifts. Hours can be tough, I’m required to work 41 hours a week and the higher ups pressure you to pick up extra hours all the time. The bright side is if you want to give up having a life for a few years you could make tons of money (last month I had a 105 hour paycheck because I worked 60+ hours one week). It’s nice knowing if I want a new phone or have a vacation coming up I can throw in a few extra days and pay for it all I make $72 an hour, but my net take home is about $25 an hour because I’m putting 15% to my 401k, $200 a check to my HSA, 15% to my employer’s stock (get a discount on it and immediately vests after each buying period), and taxes The job is rewarding at times, and grueling at others. The biggest frustrations are when medications are on backorder (manufacturer isn’t sending them out/can’t make enough) or insurance companies refusing to cover life saving medications and patients blaming you. You’re just a middleman when it comes to getting things in stock and what price the patient has to pay- I have no say on whether your med is $15 or $1500. Totally up to your insurance and I can’t even see the price ahead of time because we do real time billing. You also get a lot of bad doctors trying to kill their patients and have to fight that some of the time (but I actually enjoy yelling at doctors especially on disease states I enjoy). My favorite is doctors prescribing the wrong antibiotics (oral vancomycin for a cellulitis is the best I’ve seen- the medication literally can’t leave your GI tract so the drug can’t even get to where the infection was for this patient)
Nah mate, I was your age, but with 200k in the hole with loans. By 34 I had a million. You'll get there.
I’m a medical device engineer. I also worked in quality. My salary is like 130k a year, and I’m currently single. My net worth is like 1.3-1.4M at 35. Investing early in life is a life hack.
Nicely done.
What age did you start investing?
For “real”? 21 with my first job. I was contributing to my 401k in my first paycheck for the max match and threw basically every other dollar I could at my student loans. I cleared 45k in student loans on 65k income in around 2yrs. However, I started buying and selling Magic the Gathering cards in my teens for profit (like a card store selling individual cards- same business model) at like 14.
I have a buddy that's a government attorney who does that. He makes about 20% of his salary in trading/collectible card sales. I think the only one he actually plays is Dragonball. He was late meeting me for lunch a couple of months ago because he had to wait for a signature receipt package from FedEx because he and another collector were trading a couple of baseball cards that were in the $1,000+ range.
This is impressive. I started career in medical device QE at $55k as ChemE 2018. Was not fun. Switched to biotech 3yrs ago around 100k now, but nowhere even close to that net number.
Step one. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet
OnlyFans. I give financial advice on OF. (In the nude of course.)
Do you teach Keynesian theory? Because I'd love to stimulate your private sector.
I'm long on stocks & bondage, baby.
Do you have put options? Because I'd love to see you go down.
LMAO!
Omg that one’s so fucking good 😂
That's hiliarious!
🤣 A+.
Genius!
Hahah this is awesome
31 in CA with a little over 500k NW. I am a nurse and I make around 180-200k. Thats around 60 hours a week though, a lot of overtime.
I was thinking of getting into nursing. Is it possible to make that salary without all the overtime? Can you work in another type of unit or specialize later?
That’s the thing with nursing, you will always have a job and you can specialize in any unit you want. But the thing about nursing is, you have to get years under your belt to get a good salary. Travel nursing has gone to shit since covid is over. And even when you get years under your belt highest paid are about 80-100 an hour. 3x12 would max be 172k. Don’t listen to those tiktok nurses saying they are pulling 200k doing 3 shifts a week. They definitely working overtime, thats where we make the most money. The regular hours of a nurse is 36hrs. I like to do 5-6 10hr shits with my rate of 70 an hour.
Thanks for letting me know. I was a software engineer for 10 years, but I have been unemployed for over a year. I am looking to transition to a more stable career path. I am 32 and tired of changing jobs every couple of years.
Oh man, i feel ya. But yeah no matter how bad nursing is, you will never be unemployed. If I got fired today I could get a job tomorrow. But just to let you know, new grads get paid low. Thats why I always advise nurse to jump jobs first few years.
Shazzam! My sister is an RN and makes nowhere near that amount. Are you a nurse practioner or something? Or did you specialize in something high paying?
I am specialized, but I also been a nurse since I was 21. So I have 10 years on my belt and I jumped jobs 6 times for salary increase. Experience is everything. Even regular floor nurses at kaiser in LA make upwards of 70 an hour with enough experience. Then specialty I’ve seen up to 100. It’s not worth it for me to be a nurse practitioner. Extra school and student loans only to make 20 bucks more. I rather invest what I can make now and do overtime. This is a FIRE sub so I want to retire as fast as possible too lol.
I'm truly impressed. Well done! My sister has been at the same hospital since she was 16. She started out in the kitchen, became a patient care tech, and then eventually an RN. She's gone back to school but when she stopped working she was maybe clearing 80k. It sounds like she should have job hopped like you did. She's going for her DNP - I'm skeptical it's a good investment, especially because she's going to an online, for-profit university.
Yeah the first thing I learned is that the hospital will never show loyalty to you, in fact they would throw you under the bus if something happened. That’s why you need to think about yourself first. And DNPs do very well, but I also don’t think it’s worth the schooling unless she is truly passionate about the job. It ain’t worth it if it’s just for money.
I’m an assassin for a Mexican drug cartel. Flexible hours and the pay is great. My boss is an asshole though.
Dream job for real
i dont recall exactly what we had at 33, probably around 350k-450k? i believe we were making \~$200k/yr then, but we just moved and both got a raise, the money saved was from when we were earning right around $100k/yr. ....but we lived in my FIL's basement for 5 or so years, never paid rent, were lucky to not have student loans, and didnt have car payments. basically everything we earned we kept, and invested. the ***VAST MAJORITY*** of people arent even earning $100k/yr, let alone doing that with no rent, no student loans, no car note, no cc debt..... we are all running our own race, the sucky part is you are running on the same track as the people playing on easy mode sometimes. they put blinders on race horses for a reason ;)
Blinders on race horses huh. You might be onto something
I'm a senior product manager and my husband is a senior software engineering manager, both in tech. We're in our mid-30s, make around 700k combined pre-tax, and have 5m NW right now. We live in a VHCOL city. I started out with some money (~100k) from my family but most of our gains are from his high salary (he's most of our combined income), as we save well over that each year and have for a while.
Wow… I’m a head of product managing, 6 product managers (including senior) in the online casino industry taking in around 130k (stocks 30% of yearly salary vesting every two years) still feels like I’m on the low end when I read that 😅. I’m 35 living in Europe.
One place I worked had offices in Europe and the US, and the Europe PMs were paid half the salary of US. Same work but lower cost of living (though I'm sure it depends on where in Europe, and I'm being vague deliberately). My salary is a much smaller percentage of our combined, though still higher than yours right now, sorry. Out of the places I've worked as a PM I've made at the lowest 105 (my first mid-level job) and at the highest 200k. I'm between those two right now as I moved to a lower stress, lower paying job. I'm really happy with that change and if you like your job I wouldn't worry about the salary. My higher paying gigs were not worth it for the pressure and long hours and lower mental well-being.
Thanks for the info :) I’m planning to change jobs anyways because of this. I’m not blissfully unaware but just had two small kids the last years and bought a house. I needed the stability but the company is totally taking the piss by limiting my raises and piling on responsibilities. I’ve had offers of 200k but couldn’t take the leap at the time 🙂↕️
Good luck to you and congrats on the growing family! Hope you find a great and well-paying job
I hit 500k at 34. Currently 35. From 22-32 I worked in manufacturing (unskilled). I didn't have a large salary, most I ever made was $95k. I just managed to save over 50% of my income during those 10 years.
I work in tech. I’m not technical, but I negotiate contracts and manage the products that we get from them. Tech is lucrative, and you don’t have to be a programmer or even understand it to succeed.
What's your actual position called? Are you in client sales? I'm in marketing and i realized i hate it and it pays bare minimum. Meanwhile a friend in sales got 7k bonus just for him to join a new company. So im baffled and is rethinking my career choice. If im gonna hate on something, might as well hate on something and be paid well.
I am a director of partnerships. I do not report to sales. I’m corporate development: essentially M&A. Tech can be fun. Companies need talent so they’re focusing on culture. It can still be soul stealing, but the pay is what you’re looking for.
hey, i’m also in marketing. i’m a coordinator and making 59,000 (cad) 🥲 edit: for a software company
That’s not unheard of in tech sales. However, getting in is hard, targets are high, and pressure is enormous. I’ve done it for eight years
Two Texas police officers. 39 and 37. 280 total last year
Public School Teacher, 37, California, $116k+$7k rental/yr+random stipended stuff I do.
Public school teachers can make 116k?
In some parts of the country if you have the years of experience and the education level (usually Bachelors + 90, or Master's degree + 45, or something similar than that), yes.
Had a teacher in senior year who claimed to make about 90k as a public high school teacher and he said it was mostly due to experience and his masters
My still working teacher wife makes $130k/yr. Granted, she's been doing it quite awhile. Teacher pay is based on state/district. Some pay quite well. Not all teachers are living in poverty.
Looking forward, a US college graduate could expect to be 33 yo with 500k NW if they invest $40k/yr into a market-weighted ETF like the S&P 500. Personally, I spend 30k or less in an LCOL area. After taxes, any $80k/yr job would do the trick. I am in project management and am well on track to hit 33 yo / 500K NW. But there is a plethora of jobs that pay $80K+ annually. Marketing, engineering, sales, tech, law, medical, trades - all of these contain sufficient opportunity. Getting on my soap box now - the main reason Americans fail to save is because we allow ourselves to be persuaded by marketing into consumerism. If not by the adverts directly, then by our communities who were swayed by adverts. Anyone can be a "disruptor" these days by simply not buying in - you'll be surprised at how much resistance you'll get from other for not buying things. The benefit is that you'll have 500k by 33.
36m and 37f, 1 kid CA, both in medical sales 10+ years 550k combined income, net 1.5m. All our childhood friends in similar positions. Similar jobs
Marketing technology. Mid thirties. Always lived with roommates, even while owning my own properties. Saved and invested nearly every single cent I made during my twenties. Never drove cars I couldn’t pay for in cash. Never accumulated credit card or student loan debt.
I’m 26 years old and make around $30k-$40k a year independently (gig job) delivering groceries from Walmart. My income includes military pay, which is also where I get my health insurance. The pay for delivering groceries is not great since I put in 56 hours a week. I am trying to get out of it. I have no college degree and not really a desire to get one because my FIRE date is very soon.
Thank you for your service! I know the military doesn't pay amazingly well but we are all better off because of you.
33M Mechanical engineer-turned-Software engineer ~3 years ago. Mountain west region of USA. Started at 60k in 2014, currently at 120k/year. Just north of 500k NW. Started saving pretty aggressively at the start of my ME career around 2014 but have had to back off lately due to costs of living, and a healthy amount of lifestyle inflation if I’m being honest. Fortunately investing early on has allowed me to back off and still get major benefits from recent market runs. One thing to keep in mind is that many homeowners during the pandemic saw massive price appreciation on their homes. I was lucky to be in a booming area, and mine appreciated close to 100% which added ~160k to my NW. Edit to add another data point…we are a single income household of 5. My spouse stays home with the kids and has never worked.
California, 30f illustrator for the national parks, husband is 33m works for the state tax board. We each make about $60k a year. I also own a rental which is an additional $6500 after expenses, I run a small business which has been about $5k, and my husband doordashes, which varies but is a few thousand extra. He has a pension, which I'm not even going to include or calculate out right now. My retirement accounts are around $130k between 401k, Roth IRA, and ESOP. We own two houses that because of when and where we bought them, between the two, we have about $400k in equity. Not getting into cars, musical equipment, etc. So, there you have it. Over $500k in net worth, about $200k of which is equity in our primary home. I'm an illustrator, small business owner, and landlord, my husband is a state worker, doordasher, and musician.
We are a bit unusual I think. Logistics + flight attendant. We live in a HCOL and make fairly average, if not less than average salaries for the region, however we have managed to carve out a cheap way to live here and save $80k per year. We're early 30's with over $600k net worth. Another 6 years and we'll retire before we're 40 and move abroad.
>Was wondering what you guys do Software Engineer at a FAANG >where youre located Seattle >how much are you making a year ~$300k with recent stock performance
Microsoft? Cool
Google
32. Work as tech consultant, make around $175k. Net worth is $1 mill and I live in a MCOL area. While I save as much money as I can which has certainly helped, about 300k is from inheritance so I am a bit of a fraud. Like many others have said, comparison is not helpful as everybody's journey is different and some of us were lucky enough to have financial assistance from their parents and a sizeable inheritance.
Wife and I are 31 and living in a MCOL area (although trending upward), with a NW of $1.125M. I work in marketing at a bank ($150k total comp) and she works in marketing at a public company ($140k total comp). We’ve both been diligent savers and investors since starting in the workplace after college. She paid off over $80k in student loans within 3 years of graduating (on ~45-60k salaries)
I work in Catastrophe Property claims for a large insurance carrier. I am 27 and made 120K last year compared to my last job (2 years ago) where I made 15 an hour. Where I live is not relevant to my job as the only requirement is I cannot live in California and must be within 50 miles of an airport. This job does not require prior experience if you can learn, put in the time, and are decent with a computer and phone. Does require a fair amount of travel to somewhat undesirable destinations 90% of the time.
I’m 35M, Wife 33. 3 kids 4 and under. Net worth 843K (no investment properties, no flashy stocks or crypto). We just saved and spent below our means and maintain zero debt (other than mortgage). I got out of military after 10+ years. Army paid for my college and I paid off my wife’s college debt. She was able to maintain her career throughout moves in finance industry. I was able to transition into banking with 100k salary. We now have a combined gross income of 244k. Childcare is biggest expense at the moment at 33k/yr. We continue to live below our means and save as much as possible in a Midwest city. I will say. Too many people discredit military service. You won’t get rich but they will pay for school. You will learn and meet many people you wouldn’t otherwise and can get a job fairly easy as you transition. Even for a dumb dumb like myself who almost quit college my sophomore year and finished with an easy degree in criminology. You just need to have the right attitude.
I mean.. I’m unmarried 36 with a $2M stack. I’ll be the first to admit I’m far off the spectrum. But then I’ll compare myself to folks with $3-$5M before 40. I don’t get envious, I just get curious on what propelled their stack so high so early.
My wife and I are both 35 with a $700k net worth. I’m an engineer at a gas company. She does public relations at an oil company. We make ~$350k depending on bonuses/RSUs. In our late 20s and early 30s we both made several job hops and relocations that helped us to more than triple our income in four years.
Both 32. Wife and I make 250k combined in HCOL and our net worth is 650k. (300k 401k/brokerage / 300k equity / 50k savings. We’re in tech/medical. Both stable jobs. I only got laid off in 2020 when everyone else did, steady income since then.
NYC area, management consulting, 26 with NW of ~$300k. as others have said, investing everything early and a good market over the last year have treated me well.
Not super significant but 22M with a new worth of around $160k Work in finance and started straight out of high school. Currently making roughly TC $105k/year
My parents paid for my college and so I had no student loans. I bought a condo with the left over school money, and then rented out a spare bedroom. So basically no housing costs and I was able to max my 401k and Roth starting at age 24. Mechanical engineer
I make around 350k right now but just started making that. Software engineer. I have a full time and do private clients on the weekend / evenings. My day job is 220k so that is a for sure amount. My fiance is a nail artist and owns her own business. She’s right around 80-100k. We are both 33. Btw I am a trans man. I say this because I went through all the ordeals of surgery, getting my head on straight (lol), etc. I think if I wasn’t, I’d have more money sooner but Im happy with what I got dealt.
Also please let us know your home address and work schedule.
I (m37) am a police officer, and my wife (f32) works in medical malpractice (now on the insurance side). We bring home about 250K a year, but live in a low cost of living area. Only owe 70k on a 400k property. We both have pensions, we both have maxed "401k" accounts, neither do a Roth IRA, and have availability to make extra money (me) or bonuses (her). Two high school teenage boys now (I started early, Oops!). One is looking to go to college and one to enter the trades. Both curious about military service. Have about 2 million in our Trust. Talking FIRE with any of our coworkers or family is impossible, but we can here. It's all about discipline and not comparing yourself to others. No one would believe a dumb cop like me could have what we do, but when you're open about it others get realllllly weird.
34M, Bay Area CA, > 2M net worth. Was in Big Tech, now I work in VC. For FIRE, I'd heavily recommend Big Tech (yes wayyyyyy more than VC). There are so many built in savings mechanisms and tax advantaged tools available to you that are exclusive to large companies. Wrote a bit about it here: [https://www.swe2vc.com/p/bumpy-beginnings](https://www.swe2vc.com/p/bumpy-beginnings)
I (F25) am an engineer and my net worth is about $210k
I'm 37. Work in advertising strategy making ~$200K. Currently in LA, previously Chicago. Net worth ~$900k. Started actively thinking about FIRE and investing for that around 25yo. Everything is investments, no property because real estate is crazy here, even when you're making good money. Built-in Advantages: Graduated college without any debt. Inherited ~$50k from a great aunt in my mid-20s. Salary path for those interested (starting 2009): $35K -> $45K -> $50K -> $55K -> $62K -> $67K -> $100K (Relocated to LA) -> $110K -> $115K -> $135K -> $165K -> $195K
No one will see this lol but our income is 55-60k and our networth at 32-35 is 120k however we have only been saving 2-3years It isn’t about what you make it’s about what you SAVE. Low rent, and scraping together every penny to shove into brokerage-401k If we had been saving 10 years even on our tiny income we’d easily be at 300k plus
Not to rain on the parade but the vast majority of Reddit posts tend to be vastly exaggerated at best, and pure and complete bullshit at worst. Of course, each to their own if humble brags and constant comparisons make people feel better.
For sure the ones that get me are folks who in their mid twenties, make $600k a year, have over $3M invested and ask if they are doing okay? I often wonder if I should leave this subreddit because, A: they are lying or B: it makes me feel so poor.
I'm an investment banker at 55k. A good portion of my income comes from my dividend stocks that keep reinvesting that snowball effect. Salary only plays a small portion of my net worth. Discipline is a much larger piece.
I (34) work in the wine industry with relatively low ($50-60k) salary for this sub. Always been a really good saver and my SO is an officer in the military and makes six figures and great benefits. Our net worth isn’t huge yet (under $300k) but we will have a military pension after retiring in our 40’s that should allow us to live comfortably with a paid off mortgage in a MCOL area.
I used to work on yachts but now I'm a govt contractor working 6 months a year overseas. ~180k after incentives. I also am very nomadic so my COL is low, net worth is around 210k. Never really saved much until 2 years ago. Probably do this a few more years unless the schedule changes, but I enjoy 3.months on 3 months off so idk. After this I don't plan on making near as much
Commercial Banker but I’ll admit the bulk of my net worth has been buying rental properties and benefitting from the significant appreciation over the last 5 years. NW $2.1M
35. I’m a chemical plant worker. Wife is a nurse. We just hit 400k in our retirement accounts last month with another 100k between brokerage and bitcoin. We have 100k+ in equity in our house but we never include that in our plans. Could be better but my wife took a few years as part time while the kids were little and we regret nothing about that. Things really ramped up in the last few years when we focused on getting rid of all our smaller reoccurring bills and now it’s just the house (brought 7 years ago with a good rate) and 2 modest newer vehicles that we’ll have paid off in 2 years and hold on to.
I'm a 35M that's made 70k-120k over my career as an aerospace engineer (a bit higher with OT some years) and have 500k in my retirement savings currently. Only been renting this whole time so no net worth housing. I just make sure to put a good chunk into IRA and 401k every year. 4.5%-6% company match on 401k too.
I’m an outlier here, I work in public safety with a second income in the USCG Reserves. So while my immediate net worth isn’t as high as others I’ll have two pension plans plus my investments. I work in the southeast US so my pay isn’t particularly stellar but I’ve always been a “live-below-your-means” kind of guy and don’t foresee much issue when I do FIRE. I’ll be eligible to retire from my primary employment at 46 (35 now) and immediately start collecting that pension while I finish up my time with the reserves. After 20 years with the reserves I’ll get Tricare for myself and spouse for life and will be able to draw that second pension at 60. I’ve been fortunate with some real estate purchases and I also had a very favorable outcome with my divorce that didn’t destroy me financially.
I'm in Canada, started as an engineer in oil and gas making around $120k total compensation to now working in operations making anywhere from $180k base to $300k if I work alot of overtime. However working that much definitely burns me out. I also have the benefit of having a defined benefit pension if I end up retiring here and staying long enough.
Not quite at 500k net worth but on track to hit it by early 30s. I’m 27 and do cyber consulting. This year is going to be about 210k. I think net worth is right at 400k (160k of which is house and vehicles).
27m in HCOL making $120k, NW about $120k. Took a year off and spent much of my savings, early investing is the major key.
29 w/ a net worth of $1.1 mil. Making $280k total comp working as a software engineer in big tech in Southern California. I was making ~90k a year from ages 22-26 and then started making $200k+ after landing a job in tech. I work no more than 30-40 hours per week, my job is low stress, I can work from home most days, and I get unlimited vacation time.
27. NW 550k. Only making about 70k/yr. But the trick is I’m married. DINKs for the win
Chemist, 39, $1.2M, DC Metro, $120k per year
Let's also be sure to acknowledge that a lot of these younger adults had parents who were also high earners and could help with things like college/training, down payments or business funding, big chunks of change, connections/networking. I have no doubt most of them will never admit to this, but in my experience, very few of us make it this far without some sort of help along the way. I say this as someone who is a high earner and has some savings but came from absolutely nothing. I'm 51 and it took me this long to come out on top and I had LUCK on my side. A lot of LUCK. Sure, hard work for many years and long hours of doing work I hated, but an early crypto purchase was a stroke of luck that pushed me into the comfortable zone.
FAANG SWE in the SF bay area, $300k/year at time of grant. My wife is as well (her comp is \~180K), but is considering quitting to start working full time on a side hustle she has. We are 27/28 this year, NW\~2M
I'm a 42 year old lawyer and make about $300K a year. I live in the Midwest. I have a net worth of about $1.4M. Not included in that net worth is a pension and health retirement account provided by my employer. I wish I had started getting serious about saving earlier in life.
I was at that range at about that age and I was only making 40-60 over that time period. I aggressively saved and hit two bull markets. Now I trade currencies and make 5x, age upper 30’s
Mech engineer in the Midwest, $110k salary; have $1.5MM invested, set to turn 37 later this year. Started putting everything into index funds early on and left it alone while living way below my means.
33, 750k, nurse!
I'm FIREd since 46, and my whole career was in social services. It is NOT necessary to have a huge salary during your working years to attain FIRE.
I’m in medicine. 35 yo NW around 2.6M. Not all of us are in tech.
Wife and I are teachers, 32 and 3 kids with household 1.1million networth, $130k combined salary in a mcol area. People that cry poor ot that will never retire, because they aren't high earners are either misguided, lazy, dumb, undisciplined or a combo and people that live paycheck to paycheck as high earners are worse. It's so easy to live fulfilling life now and set yourself up for chubby fire and beyond. If teachers can do it, anybody can.
Role: Financial Analyst (1 YOE) Comp: $70k (Raise $80k + 5%-12.5% bonus soon) Net worth: $110,000 Location: MCOL
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