<p>So yeah, no matter what I say, they still think $60K is a bad salary. They say things like: </p>
<p>How are you going to buy a house?
How are you going to support a family?
You’d only be making 3k / month (assuming from tax deductions and all)!</p>
<p>For the first two, they’re obviously overlooking the fact that when those things happen, I’d most likely HAVE A SPOUSE.</p>
<p>For the third, I’m not so sure, but I know for a fact that $24k doesn’t just magically disappear from a $60k yearly salary ($3k x 12 = $36k actual salary), despite tax deductions. Am I correct?</p>
<p>QwertyKeys: The future ibankers at Ross also pull 80-100 hour workweeks. Their hourly wage is like 20 dollars/hour after you figure it all out. That’s…not that amazing for the kind of abuse that they’ll take.</p>
<p>Have you considered computer or electrical engineering? It’s around 60k starting salary (MS), but if they want you to go to grad school, you have the potential to make quite a bit more. </p>
<p>I’m definitely not doing what I am in college (chemical engineering) for the money. I found out in high school that I really love chemistry, math, and physics. That combines all three…whereas if I stuck to my first love (chemistry) and did that as a major, the starting salary is 15-20k less. You need to tell your parents that it is your life and you will be the one doing all the studying and papers. You need to enjoy what you do…the money will get old quickly. 60k is enough to support yourself and live a comfortable life, and 120k (assuming your spouse makes comparable to what you do) is enough to support a family and live a comfortable life.</p>
<p>You’d be suprised how much of $60,000 can “magically disappear”. If all of that was taxable, you be paying $11,181 of it just as Federal income tax. Then there’s state and county taxes, property taxes if you own land, maybe even city taxes, depending on where you live. So yes, if you’re making $60,000 dollars you’re really taking home closer to 36k than 60k.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you had a large family, gave heavily to charity, or otherwise took large deductions, about none of that would be taxed. But those things are expensive themselves… So you can’t win :P.</p>
<p>“QwertyKeys: The future ibankers at Ross also pull 80-100 hour workweeks. Their hourly wage is like 20 dollars/hour after you figure it all out. That’s…not that amazing for the kind of abuse that they’ll take.”</p>
<p>More like $25/hr but yeah, I guess your point remains. Though if they can make it through a few years and are good, that amount skyrockets (apparently).</p>
<p>I was just trying to say though that 60K/year isn’t the max.</p>
<p>Well, then that would support my parents’ argument and go against what everybody else is saying in this thread: that 60k won’t actually be all that great after all?</p>
<p>This is more my parents worrying that I won’t make enough to support myself than a lust for money, mind you.</p>
<p>^^ The question is not whether $60k is great. The question is whether you can do better without totally screwing up your life with a career you hate. I am inclined to answer NO. CS/IT careers offer fairly dependably high salaries and have ample scalable opportunities.</p>
<p>Some finance positions will pay more, but you have to work like a dog to get that much money. Medicine will likewise start out higher, but only after a significant time earning next to nothing. And if you dislike both of these fields, they don’t have much to offer.</p>
<p>$3k a month should be plenty to live on for a single person, unless you’re in NYC or something. And if the latter is the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could earn more to make up for the CoL.</p>
<p>So are you saying I unknowingly chose to major in a field thats almost the next best thing to the “Asian’s blind pursuit of money” fields? Wow. Now if there’s only a way to express that to my parents without them not hearing any of it and insisting on aforementioned fields.</p>
<p>Why has no one mentioned that the starting salary for a doctor is only around 50k per year (as an intern or resident).</p>
<p>Neither those types of jobs nor the type of job you’re interested in will pay 60k to a veteran employee, so I don’t really see the point of fixating on that number.</p>
<p>Because of the deep worry of my parents on my not being able to make enough to support myself, I’ve done some research on the salaries of people who majored in CS/IT straight out of college. </p>
<p>An early school I’ve looked at was Wentworth. Their starting salary is $55k according to their 2009 release. </p>
<p>For CMU, MINIMUM salaries (not necessarily starting) varies from $48k to $60k. Mean salaries give a better look as to what people generally earn: $83k. So you can safely assume starting salaries can be anywhere from $50k-$70k.</p>