High wage earners

**Goldy** · 05-17-2016, 11:02 AM

I think the biggest factor is your significant other. We make good money but nothing obscene except that we both work and are of similar mindsets so our money tends to go further than others. We both also have a very nice 401k match and profit sharing of 12%. We both make about 100k after bonuses but we only take home 39k each due to maxing out the retirement and company stock. We also started saving early, for me it was at the age of 16 when I had my first paper route.

**disneysteve** · 05-17-2016, 11:23 AM

I'm not one of the people you're talking about but I'd say another key is not allowing your lifestyle to inflate to match your income. If you were perfectly happy when you earned 75K, upping the income to 100K or 150K or 200K allows you to sock away a lot more money as long as you don't upgrade everything in your life to suck up the extra income.

I drove a Camry when I was a med student. I've now been in practice for 23 years and I still drive a Camry. I went into practice in 1993 and we bought our "first" home in 1994. We still live in the same house. We shop in the same stores, buy the same brands, vacation in the same places, etc. as when we earned half as much. Sure we've upgraded some stuff. We have cable TV now which we didn't use to have. We eat out at some nicer restaurants. But overall, our lifestyle isn't a whole lot different than it was 20 years ago.

**Singuy** · 05-17-2016, 11:39 AM

Originally posted by Jbone View Post

I have been doing some reading and there seems to be several high wage earners on here that are saving over triple my gross income per month. Congrats to you! If you dont mind sharing.. What do you contribute to your success? Also what is your profession? And how long were you at your current career before you started earning over 6 figures?

My wife and I are of immigrant decent who grew up in lower to middle class families.

I honestly didn't do anything special. Graduated with a 3.4 unweighted GPA, ACT score of 28, went to a state university and just followed the master plan set by my dad. Got an AA degree in 2 years, then a Pharm.D degree in 4 years and graduated making low 6 figures since 24. I wasn't motivated to do anything else beside video gaming and I still play so everything felt like my life was on rails.

Wife didn't have much guidance but knew she wanted to do something in the health field after not knowing what to do with her life at 24 with a masters in nutrition..she got into optometry school and started making low 6 figures at 29yo.

Saw an opportunity for the wife to start her own business and now she doubled her income..but most people in her field are expected to make this type of income eventually.

We live way below our means which helped my wife with eliminating her 180k worth of student loans in 2.5 years..and my mortgage in 7.

Nothing special, pretty anti-climatic if you ask me.

My advice to you..whatever you want to do..do it now and do it FAST! 20s-30s is the most important time to set a solid foundation for yourself. We are in our early 30s..and find friends who are similar aged having a really hard time trying to find their calling at this age. One of my wife's optician is 36 with 3 kids, thinking about going back to school for PA. I calculated the break even point for her and it's 12.5 years before PA makes sense(from a money standpoint only..which is something she really care about because she's living paycheck to paycheck). She has to get a bachelors all over again because she never got one from 6 years of college in her 20s..and now it's just a pain if she racks up 120k worth of student loans with 3 kids and a husband who makes 40k/year.

**Nutria** · 05-17-2016, 12:26 PM

Originally posted by Singuy View Post

thinking about going back to school for PA.

Physician's assistant? At her age, with an existing job and expenses? Or did you forget a crucial word in One of my wife's optician is?

**Singuy** · 05-17-2016, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by Nutria View Post

Physician's assistant? At her age, with an existing job and expenses? Or did you forget a crucial word in One of my wife's optician is?

Sorry I am not understanding what the question is.

She's an optician making 53k/year, 3 kids, husband makes 40k/year
Her cousin is a pediatrician who wants her to become a Physician Assistant so they can work together. Unfortunately, PA schools now requires a bachelors in which the optician doesn't have one..so we are thinking about 5 years of total accelerated schooling..meaning 5 years of opportunity cost lost plus 120k worth of student loans hence the 12.5 years to break even. This is under the assumption that she doesn't drag her student loans out to 30 years but pays it off ASAP.

**sv2007** · 05-17-2016, 12:45 PM

Originally posted by Jbone View Post

I have been doing some reading and there seems to be several high wage earners on here that are saving over triple my gross income per month. Congrats to you! If you dont mind sharing.. What do you contribute to your success? Also what is your profession? And how long were you at your current career before you started earning over 6 figures?

To answer your question:
1. Our success is not based as much on our job income as our investments.
2. I worked as a software engineer mostly and wife is a CPA
3. After 4 years. However, new college grads are making $120k in 2013/4.

Coming back to #1, based on my experience, even if both of us work forever, we will not be able to be at where we are now just from job income.

You need to put your $ to work for you. This is also why I'm so impressed with some of the books (they describe our situation with uncanny accuracy) and recommend them to you.

We are not lucky people and none of our big-risk-big-reward ventures ever played out. I turned down job offers that would later be worth millions. We even lost a 7-figure sum once due to tax considerations. However, we learned our lessons. I'd tell them to you, but I (frankly) don't think you'll follow them unless experienced yourself.

**sv2007** · 05-17-2016, 12:52 PM

New college grad salary is more or less public (all NCGs get same pay within company), $120k is exactly what my former company paid to NCG software engineers with MS degree in 2014 graduating year. This is also same as most other top-tier bay area companies.

High wage earners