Poll: What's your annual household income from your day job only?

[aussierogue]

JIT - I think you are right.

Depends on your apetitie for risk and your goals.

If your goals are to have a house paid off and no debt then 1.5 mill in the kitty at 40-45 is not bad thing.

Having said that there are some that would have turned this into millions!

Never too late to pump it up though.

BTW I bought my 3rd investment property last month. Settlement was yesterday......

 

[our obsession]

Around same income as Kathrynd....which is more than some, (as in globally, not just somersoft), less than some...but what I do with it counts (to me).

 

[bdc]

except you get a paper at the end that is recognized throughout the world.

Not exactly, my sister has her honors in a science degree from an Australian university, was doing her phd, got married and moved to the US, her degree was not recognized, she got an extremely low wage paying job at the university (any shift manager at mcdonalds earnt more than her).

Anyway, she got to study at the uni she worked at for free, so she now has her masters in a similar degree, so will hopefully be earning some good money over the next few years, but she isn't in it for the big money anyway, you don't become a scientist to chase $$. ; D

 

[bdc]

Make $30K from my paid employment.
Not much, but a lot better than minimum wage.

Are you working full time? You are in Canada yes? so about 1.5x min wage?

I'm about the same, around 51k with bonuses, going for a career change atm, probably take a small pay cut as it will be through a temp agency, but a lot more free time for myself and much faster pay rises (esp if get employed by the company instead of the temp agency).

Assuming I get the job, I will go back to uni as I will have free time ; D, looking at engineering or accounting, leaning towards the former, terrible that I'm still not sure of exactly what career path I want at 26yo.

 

[Indifference]

Assuming I get the job, I will go back to uni as I will have free time ; D, looking at engineering or accounting, leaning towards the former, terrible that I'm still not sure of exactly what career path I want at 26yo.

Not terrible at all. I started my engineering degree when I was 29 yo. Now just about to tackle my masters well into my 30's. I am still not sure 'exactly what career path I want' at 36 yo.

On the income front, engineering is not the highest paying profession, by any means. I only do it because I enjoy problem solving.... difficult problem solving.

 

[bdc]

On the income front, engineering is not the highest paying profession, by any means. I only do it because I enjoy problem solving.... difficult problem solving.

Well, with quite a bit of experience it can be extremely lucrative in the mining sector? What type of engineering do you do?
My brother is an environmental engineer, I think I would find civil engineering the most rewarding.

 

[HiEquity]

I think BayView would say that if you're on 50k pa and achieved this kind of net worth then THAT would be impressive.

Oh I dunno - I kinda think having a $400k salary is impressive enough by itself... isn't that around what the Prime Minister gets?

 

[Oscar]

Oh I dunno - I kinda think having a $400k salary is impressive enough by itself... isn't that around what the Prime Minister gets?

tax is the great equalizer

 

[aussierogue]

Tax ? - id prefer to take home 250k than 50k!

 

[sash]

Well said Alex.

I have a degree (Bachelors and Masters)....it does give you the potential to earn a comfortable/very good income and maybe even more if you progress to executive levels......but sometimes also limits your thinking. It also does not give you personal freedom and will be dictated to by others.

Having said that if you can develop entrepreneurial skills as well a solid degree education you will be much better off ( most of the wealthiest people on a planet have degrees or tried university).

Having said that having a degree does not mean you will become weathly. Plenty of my classmates topped their courses in High School and University but are far from wealthy.

I believe in life to be truly successful you need to have a pretty good Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EI), and Financial Intelligence (FI). Most degreed successful people have the former two but often lack the later.

I have seen accountants who can manage companies well and steer them from disaster but their personal finances are verging on disaster...

My two cents worth....

A degree has a relationship with earnings, yes. But earnings is not a good indicator or wealth. Just because you have a high salary doesn't mean you're necessarily wealthy, and vice versa. Nor is a degree any indication of investing knowledge. They certainly don't teach it at uni. Combining a degree (which generally leads to higher earnings) and investing knowledge is great, but having a degree doesn't mean you have investing knowledge.

I'm a huge reader, so I personally couldn't live without books. However, just because you read doesn't mean you'll be successful, and vice versa.

Nor do I mock education. I've used it to great advantage. However, I recognise the degree for what it is: an indication to an employer that you will be a more valuable employee than someone who hasn't got the piece of paper. What does that tell us about the person's investing knowledge or how they will use the earnings? Not a lot.

Reading is ONE way of gaining knowledge. It's not the only way.
Alex

 

[kathryn d]

Are you working full time? You are in Canada yes? so about 1.5x min wage?

I'm about the same, around 51k with bonuses, going for a career change atm, probably take a small pay cut as it will be through a temp agency, but a lot more free time for myself and much faster pay rises (esp if get employed by the company instead of the temp agency).

Assuming I get the job, I will go back to uni as I will have free time ; D, looking at engineering or accounting, leaning towards the former, terrible that I'm still not sure of exactly what career path I want at 26yo.

Yes I work full time...40 hrs a week.
Make $14.46 an hour.Minimum is about $9.50 now, I think
I take home 22K a year after deductions.

 

[Indifference]

Well, with quite a bit of experience it can be extremely lucrative in the mining sector? What type of engineering do you do?
My brother is an environmental engineer, I think I would find civil engineering the most rewarding.

I guess at present it would fall into the engineering management / systems engineering bucket.... my pay is better than average, but definitely nothing to boast about.

By 'not the highest paying profession' I am referring to ROI in an academic sense. For instance, a 4yr with honours BE student will likely earn less than a 3 yr Project Management qualified person and probably continue to do so throughout their respective careers. The $ are generally in management and executive jobs, not technical specialist roles.

 

[Andy Pandy]

Sometimes having a big job can be a disadvantage....

Whilst the salary can be OK its fair to say you only get the big salary because you are delivering value far and away above what you are being paid.

If you are earning $400k you are probably costing your organisation $650k after you get allocated office space, IT costs, taxes (eg Payroll), recruitment costs, some support staff etc.

In order to justify the $650k cost you will need to generate at least $1.00m (minimum) in value year in and year out. The minute you drop below the high value add you are a target.

Anyway, my point is, to deliver $1.00m plus in value every year you need to put in some hard yards..often many many hours. Depending what industry you are in this may involve all nighters, weekends etc. For example I ran into a friend of mine recently at the movies on a Sunday afternoon. It was his first day off in 13 weeks, that's right 7 days a week. As he worked in a global business on week days he was required to particpate in daily 12.00am conference calls....not much time or energy left for investing.

I think Michael W's story of taking a less demanding and probably lower paying job is probably a more profitable solution in the long run.

I work in an office and I sometimes wish I was a tradie earning half the money but having the freedom to spend some daylight hours scouring for the next deal.

In property investing time is probably more important than salary.

 

[AndrewT]

I earn hardly anything compared to the big earners, and I am working 7 days a week at the moment! Bloody apprenticeships...! I just did some calculations on what our household brings in (My partner and I) and post-tax we bring in around 74k which includes a car allowance from my partners job.

Then a calculation on excel of all our bills and expensive (on average), we should be able to save a maximum of $450 a week or $23,000 a year (car allowance deducted). Obviously, this is if we did nothing else with our money but pay bills and had 1 dinner out a week.

So not bad for low income earners. So it's not just how much you earn, it's how well you manage your finances. If we didn't have to pay out a small loan, then we'ld easily be saving $650 a week!

 

[dan c]

I agree, for the record i am quite smart and i don't see the relevance of proving this on a piece of paper. Thus why i didn't bother applying for anything to further my education.

(sorry to offend anyone that may believe school is "the" way to go)

But working is more than just for fast tracking investments, IMO it's reality, what do you learn about life with your head in books? You get no expeirence and many come out as naive teens when they're actually 20 something.

Sorry for taking this back to education, but I can't help myself.

Why do people feel the need to bag a university degree, just to make themselves feel better about their own choices? I'm sure there are people who have multiple degrees and do nothing with them, but for most people, university is a pathway into their career of choice, be it medicine, law, accounting or engineering.

As for 'working', most people I went to uni with worked part time during their degrees. Some worked FULL TIME while studying part time. It's not as though you have to choose one or the other.

The 'piece of paper'. Wow. The paper doesn't prove you are smart, it shows you have completed a course of study.

Of course, thinking of uni students as people studying to get a job in their chosen field doesn't fit in with your prejudices.

I knew everything at age 19 as well. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

 

[bene313]

Sorry for taking this back to education, but I can't help myself.

Why do people feel the need to bag a university degree, just to make themselves feel better about their own choices? I'm sure there are people who have multiple degrees and do nothing with them, but for most people, university is a pathway into their career of choice, be it medicine, law, accounting or engineering.

As for 'working', most people I went to uni with worked part time during their degrees. Some worked FULL TIME while studying part time. It's not as though you have to choose one or the other.

The 'piece of paper'. Wow. The paper doesn't prove you are smart, it shows you have completed a course of study.

Of course, thinking of uni students as people studying to get a job in their chosen field doesn't fit in with your prejudices.

I knew everything at age 19 as well. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

I found that over the time spent at uni, I gradually figured out what I wanted to do career wise. Like many, I could not have made that choice at 17.

 

[human]

100% agreed . specially when one is incapable for sitting through a 3 or 4 year program and understand the concept of complex problem solving, deadlines, competition and a lot of knowledge.

Last time I looked around the entire world, I failed to see one single non architect designing a land mark, non-engineer and non project manager supervising construction of some of the largest buildings, non scientists adding to our understanding of the world, non medical researcher spending years of time in labs finding cure for diseases, non financial / uni background being ceo/coo/ cfo for some of the largest companies (dont go with exceptions for enterpreuneurs like Gates and Buffet - they are very few and far between . I am talking the norm here).

Weird generalisation but like you said , at 19 we 'know' everything and have opinions as facts about everything

Sorry for taking this back to education, but I can't help myself.

Why do people feel the need to bag a university degree, just to make themselves feel better about their own choices? I'm sure there are people who have multiple degrees and do nothing with them, but for most people, university is a pathway into their career of choice, be it medicine, law, accounting or engineering.

As for 'working', most people I went to uni with worked part time during their degrees. Some worked FULL TIME while studying part time. It's not as though you have to choose one or the other.

The 'piece of paper'. Wow. The paper doesn't prove you are smart, it shows you have completed a course of study.

Of course, thinking of uni students as people studying to get a job in their chosen field doesn't fit in with your prejudices.

I knew everything at age 19 as well. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

 

[Andy Pandy]

Sorry for taking this back to education, but I can't help myself.

Why do people feel the need to bag a university degree, just to make themselves feel better about their own choices? I'm sure there are people who have multiple degrees and do nothing with them, but for most people, university is a pathway into their career of choice, be it medicine, law, accounting or engineering.

As for 'working', most people I went to uni with worked part time during their degrees. Some worked FULL TIME while studying part time. It's not as though you have to choose one or the other.

The 'piece of paper'. Wow. The paper doesn't prove you are smart, it shows you have completed a course of study.

Of course, thinking of uni students as people studying to get a job in their chosen field doesn't fit in with your prejudices.

I knew everything at age 19 as well. Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

I don't know about anyone else but I learn't more hanging out at the uni bar than in any lecture hall.

University gives you time and space to grow into the person you want to become, helps you raise your standards, teaches you to think critically and delivers a set of skills.

For me personally I have a lot more confidence in the business world coming in with a big tool box of skills.

Andy P

 

[aussierogue]

I work 2 hours a day. The less i work the more I earn. The further up the tree the less actual work you do!

Buffet said - hard work never killed anyone - but stuffed if im gonna try and find out!

Im not trying to be be smart - my point is to be careful of assumptions - ie rich people work harder.

 

[wobbycarly]

I guess at present it would fall into the engineering management / systems engineering bucket.... my pay is better than average, but definitely nothing to boast about.

By 'not the highest paying profession' I am referring to ROI in an academic sense. For instance, a 4yr with honours BE student will likely earn less than a 3 yr Project Management qualified person and probably continue to do so throughout their respective careers. The $ are generally in management and executive jobs, not technical specialist roles.

D'oh!! That's me out of earning the "big bucks"!

If you are earning $400k you are probably costing your organisation $650k after you get allocated office space, IT costs, taxes (eg Payroll), recruitment costs, some support staff etc.

In order to justify the $650k cost you will need to generate at least $1.00m (minimum) in value year in and year out. The minute you drop below the high value add you are a target.

I had a boss tell me that he has to charge me out at 4x my wage (or pay me 1/4 my charge-out fee, depending on which side of the fence you are on.) And since "the market" will always put a cap on what will be paid for specialists, that cap will hence also apply to my wage.