[quote]CC wrote:
unearth wrote:
Greekboy80 wrote:
But honestly, does STARTING OUT at $75,000 for a household sound horrible to you?
Yes.
Dare I ask what you do for a living and where you live? Actually, I realize that might be getting a bit personal. Just answer me this: are you still in college?
If you’re not and you’re making considerably more than that, then congratulations (and I mean that seriously, no sarcasm here). You make more than probably 80-90% of the general population. If you are still in school and you’re still young, you may be very disappointed in life.
The remainder of this post is not directed at the poster that I quoted:
Some doctors, lawyers, and brokers don’t even get “rich” by some standards. Not a lot, but some. And some of the ones that do make a lot of money live in constant debt and stress (job-related stress, car payments, mortgage, sending kids to private school, etc.). To me, that’s not really “living”.
If having the biggest house on the street, the most expensive cars, membership to the most exclusive private social and country clubs is important to you, then yeah $70-80,000 for a family probably isn’t a lot of money. But like I already said, if you don’t need all that stuff and can live within your means, you can have a very nice life with that amount of money.
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CC - I agree with you 100%. I could not have said it any better…
Median household income in Fairfax County VA where I live is 100k/yr. We have some of the most expensive taxes, car insurance rates and real estate. The only area worse than the DC housing market is San Diego.
$45k a year here really is poverty. The other DC locals will attest to this, I promise.
I thought about this 7 years ago, and decided to go the kinesiology(phys ed.) and health minor route over the personal trainer. Ill also be going back for my masters in exercise science eventually.
Ill graduate this may of 2007 and hopefully will find a job within the next year starting around 40 grand(not bad for summers off, christmas vacation, mid winter break, thanksgiving break, and easter break)
WHy you ask? Guaranteed salary, health benefits and pension, plus I love working with kids. You get to do a variety of sports and fitness, which is optimal for anyones health.
In personal training, you have to sell to make your living, which can either be easy or rough. If you work out of a gym, you have to pay them a % of whatever you make per session with a client.
Honestly you could do both if you wanted to(it would be extremely hard if your training more than 2-3 clients a week), but it would make you a lot of money.
Do what you enjoy best, thats how I made my decision.
[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
Median household income in Fairfax County VA where I live is 100k/yr. We have some of the most expensive taxes, car insurance rates and real estate. The only area worse than the DC housing market is San Diego.
$45k a year here really is poverty. The other DC locals will attest to this, I promise.
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I disagree that 45K in the DC area (where I live as well) is poverty. In your post you mentioned that 100K is the median income per household. I do agree if that if you have a family and you are the sole supporter 45K, while doable, is tough. But for one person, either single or as part of a household income, that is basically half the median income so it is not bad.
Plus in DC, since there is so much disposable income, you should make 45K in your first year or two and then easily make more than that as time goes on. A trainer making $60/hr (easy to do at gyms like Fitness First or In home training) working only 25 sessions a week, 50 weeks a year makes 75K. I consider that to be certainly doable, not easy or guaranteed but doable.
[quote]CC wrote:
Dare I ask what you do for a living and where you live? Actually, I realize that might be getting a bit personal. Just answer me this: are you still in college?
[/quote]
My household income in considerably more than 75k per year. I graduated from the UW many many years ago. I work as a software developer for one of the counties largest communications corporations.
All that being said, I live a relatively simple life. I own a modest home in the suburbs minutes away from where I work. The problem is the area I live/work in is absurdly expensive. If my household income was only 75k per year, I’d be forced to move my family into a crappy apartment and drive a shitty used car.
[quote]unearth wrote:
CC wrote:
Dare I ask what you do for a living and where you live? Actually, I realize that might be getting a bit personal. Just answer me this: are you still in college?
My household income in considerably more than 75k per year. I graduated from the UW many many years ago. I work as a software developer for one of the counties largest communications corporations.
All that being said, I live a relatively simple life. I own a modest home in the suburbs minutes away from where I work. The problem is the area I live/work in is absurdly expensive. If my household income was only 75k per year, I’d be forced to move my family into a crappy apartment and drive a shitty used car.[/quote]
Just wondering, how do people with computer software engineering degrees fare in the states. Salary isn’t too bad, but I heard housing prices in the head office areas of california are ridiculous.
[quote]TKL.ca wrote:
Just wondering, how do people with computer software engineering degrees fare in the states. Salary isn’t too bad, but I heard housing prices in the head office areas of california are ridiculous.
[/quote]
[quote]unearth wrote:
TKL.ca wrote:
Just wondering, how do people with computer software engineering degrees fare in the states. Salary isn’t too bad, but I heard housing prices in the head office areas of california are ridiculous.
You heard correctly.[/quote]
Sucks. I’d like to go work down there, but I don’t want rent to eat up a lot of the money I make. Seattle is probably very expensive as well. Preferably I’d like to stay in Canada, but I think it might be a lot easier to get a job down there.
depends on where you live. you will probably make more teaching in schools in the northeast/east area. I know there are a few schools in pennsylvania where you start out around 70-75k. I am not too sure about the west coast…but i bet they make a lot as well. just depends on the school and the area you teach in. usually the richer area public schools will pay you more b/c they generate more with taxes. I would personally rather do both. There is nothing better than personally helping someone attain fitness goals.