So you’re tired of living paycheck to paycheck…
Let’s hush the noise and talk for a moment.
You’ve been told, I’m sure, that “money isn’t everything.” In fact, it may just be “the root of all evil.” Who told you this? The media, of course, and people who listen to it. Perhaps some of the folks who repeat these mantras ad nauseam are well-intentioned, and are trying to encourage you not to be greedy.
Except that there’s a problem with this blanket perception of wealth in a society that operates on fiat currency: it makes people think that being wealthy is a bad thing. I know, you say you would love to win the lottery, right? If some unfathomable, unattainable pipe dream were to occur, you’d be happy that it happened.
But you wouldn’t strive for wealth, would you? Would you charge someone $100/hour for your time? Do you ask your boss for a raise every six months? Do you get a new job every 2-3 years, since you’re more valuable to the market than to your current employer?
Most folks, if they’re honest, would say no to most or all of those last few questions. This has resulted in a society where we don’t talk about money because we’re all bad at managing it and don’t know why. I swear, some people would rather talk about their sex lives than their finances! I mean sure, you can penny-pinch and spend less at Starbucks and pay down your debts and whatever the latest craze is, but at the end of the day (and I want to be clear about this),
You will not become wealthy working at a grocery store
Period. The math does not add up. So the job matters. The quality of life matters—if your commute or coworkers or boss or workplace exhausts you, it’s much harder to stay on top of the job and everything else going on at home.
Is the job full-time or part-time? That matters tremendously, too. The graph above’s source discusses how hourly pay, in inflation-adjusted dollars for nonsupervisory roles, has nearly caught up to its peak in 1972. But hourly pay doesn’t account for how many hours per week an employee works. In 1972, that number was right around 40—full-time employment was the rule, not the exception. Nowadays, the source suggests, we’re sitting around 33.7 hours per week, likely because companies aren’t legally required to provide healthcare for part-time workers. This makes the graph look quite a bit different:
And if the quality of life and number of hours matter, you can bet the actual hourly pay matters. You can claim money doesn’t matter to you until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t help you when your rent, your student loan bill, and your car payment come due.
So here are a few career path suggestions I’ve tracked down that can pay you a good, solid salary. If you’re already in a high-paying job, that’s fantastic! Let me know in the comments (especially if I didn’t mention your field). But I frequently get questions from peers about what job they should look for, and I wanted to compile a few answers that won’t make them miserable every time they get a bill.
To be clear, as much as I espouse getting a high-income job, I agree that there are more factors than the paycheck to what kind of job you should get. You may not live in an area where some of these options are even available, and you certainly shouldn’t get into an industry you’re sure you’ll hate. But I wound encourage you to pick a job that pays well and you like over a job you love that doesn’t pay anything. Do that thing you love in your free time until it starts paying the bills.
Six-Figure Jobs, Organized by What You Want to Do
Help People or Animals With Physical Problems
Doctors generally don’t decide to be doctors solely for the well-renowned pay (though that pay makes this industry one of the few that is still worth the price of higher-education tuition). Doctors often choose their career path to help people, or animals, with health-related problems. In my research, I found that jobs related to fixing and checking up on physical conditions tend to pay better than those related to mental and emotional conditions. Here are a few examples:
Surgeon.
Physician (even Physician Assistants, who don’t need nearly as much schooling to get started, can pull six-figure salaries)
Veterinarian
Nurse
Optometrist
Dentist
Pharmacist
Anesthesiologist
Obstetrician
Help People Through Mental and Emotional Problems
While the very highest-paid doctors (typically surgeons) make the most bank, if you would rather help people through stressful situations, relationship issues, and challenging mental disorders like depression or bipolar disorder, there are a couple jobs that can net a six-figure salary while you’re at it.
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Help People With Financial Concerns, Economic Research
Unsurprisingly, many jobs helping people with their finances, or researching larger economic trends, can net six-figure salaries. If you prefer to work with just a few large accounts rather than many consumer accounts, many of these jobs are also options for business-to-business (B2B) companies.
This is also the first time I’ve touched on the possibility of researching for a living, in the case of the Economist position below. Did you sort of like doing research assignments in school, to the bafflement of most of your peers? You will likely find that working in an educational environment will be a great fit for you.
Financial Analyst or Advisor
Economist
Actuary (I didn’t know what this was before writing this—actuaries determine the financial risk of a specific outcome. For example, you may determine the statistical probability of a customer at a car insurance company crashing their car. Actuaries tend to have impressively-high job satisfaction.)
Loan Officer
Help People With Legal Concerns
To no one’s surprise, working with the law frequently leads to a six-figure salary. Like being a doctor, you know you’re in for a lot of schooling if you pick this career, but there’s a great path to student loan forgiveness if you’re willing to start your career in public service.
Beyond the numbers and the stereotypes though, lawyers often say the same thing as doctors about why they chose their profession: they felt that the knowledge they would acquire in their complex field of choice was a tool they could use to help people through difficult situations. In case you’re curious, Intellectual Property Law and Medical Law tend to pay the most.
Lawyer
Judicial Law Clerk
Judge
Magistrate
Arbitrator, Mediator, or Conciliator (often negotiate between two entities, such as for divorce settlements)
Solve Complex Logical Problems
While lawyers could likely fit under this category as well, from what I can tell, solving logical problems is not usually what makes people want to pursue a career in the law. That’s often what people who work with computer systems like to do. With software in particular (my job), you may be fixing styling and formatting, which is a bit more visually-focused, but you will often find that developing software requires managing large amounts of data. Computers are how modern people store data of all kinds—everything from their contact list, items they are selling online, their grocery list, and their credit card information are all stored on computers.
If you like the idea of working on these sorts of problems (in a high-paying industry, no less), a job in computer hardware or software may be the thing for you.
Software Developer/Engineer (the line between those two titles is pretty vague)
Computer/Information Research Scientist
Hardware Engineer
Database Administrator
Traveling and Helping People With It
Admittedly, none of these options mean “go on vacation all year long,” but jobs in the air and at sea can command high salaries, even into the six-figure range. Better yet, as I learned from a friend of mine, there are certifications to becoming an Air Traffic Controller or Aircraft Pilot, but no expensive, time-consuming college degree is necessary.
Air Traffic Controller
Aircraft Pilot, Flight Engineer
Captain or Pilot of a Water Vessel
Transportation Inspector
Build cool things
Again, this field has some overlap with the Hardware and Software Engineers above. But if you like the idea of building things, whether they be electrical systems, buildings, or space ships, many engineering jobs pay handsomely.
Electrical Engineer
Mining and Geological Engineers
Chemical Engineers
Nuclear Engineers
Sales Engineers (usually, this means explaining a technical product in the context of a sale, like selling a new internal computer system to a business)
Aerospace Engineers
Architectural and Engineering Managers
Petroleum Engineers
Solve Complex Mathematical or Scientific Problems
Like the Economist and Computer Research Scientist positions listed above, these jobs tend to be research-heavy and are probably a good pick if you don’t want to be dealing with consumers too much (introverts unite?). They require college degrees, but are another field that’s in enough demand that the pay will be worth the effort.
Mathematician
Astronomer
Physicist
Natural Sciences Manager
Teach People
The going logic is that teachers aren’t paid very well. This is generally true in public school, but college professors and the administrators managing public school teachers can command some respectable salaries. Here are a few fields I found that often pay six figures, but there are likely many more.
Engineering or Architecture Professor
Health Professor
Home Economics Professor
Art, Drama, or Music Professor
Education Administrator
Entertain People
The arts and entertainment industries vary wildly in terms of pay. For every successful writer or video editor, there are often twenty or thirty starving artists (or more). That being said, self-expression is a highly rewarding thing to be paid for, and it’s often achievable if you’re talented (be honest) and a committed self-starter.
Other jobs on this list are not about being creative, but about facilitating people having fun, and getting paid well to do it. Who doesn’t like making people smile?
Gaming Manager (managing a casino)
Makeup Artist
Art Director
Broadcast News Analyst
Writer/Author (this can pay six figures, but is challenging to get into—successful writers typically write lots of things on lots of platforms to get exposure, so this means writing books, writing articles, writing blogs, etc).
Film and Video Editor
Multimedia Artist/Animator
Sell Things
Like to sell things to people? You probably know whether this is the case or not already. Usually, when you’re talking to a good salesperson, it doesn’t feel like they’re selling you anything. It’s more about building a relationship and setting up a sale of a thing that helps someone in some way. Here are a few types of salespeople who can take home six-figure salaries.
Insurance Sales Agent
Pharmaceutical Sales Agent
Real Estate Agent
Securities, Commodities, or Financial Services Sales Agent
Work With Your Hands
Like working with your hands and want to skip the lengthy college degree? Many trades like plumbing and welding pay surprisingly well because they’re in such high demand, and you can even get paid to learn on the job.
Elevator Installers and Repairer
Plumber
Welder
Construction/Architectural Manager
Manage People and Businesses
Managers of all sorts are paid six figures, and many businesses need operational employees of some kind (like HR people and Technical Writers) to keep things running smoothly. If you like managing people, you might be surprised how easy it is to get a management position at some companies—lots of people don’t want to manage others, leaving the job unfilled.
Purchasing Manager
Advertising and Promotions Manager
Training and Development Manager
Human Resource Manager
Industrial Production Manager
General and Operations Manager
Public Relations and Fundraising Manager
Compensation and Benefits Manager
Marketing and Sales Manager
Chief Executive
Technical Writer
Financial Manager
Computer and Information Systems Manager
Well, there’s the list! I’m going to do a deeper dive into these positions in future, and also work on a list of jobs that don’t pay six figures, but that pay respectably with no college degree necessary.
Sources for the jobs: 24/7 Wall Street, The Balance Careers, Forbes, more Forbes, my life
Post number 54.