What are some jobs that pay 200K+?

Graduate School Business School - MBA
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<p>Of course there are no right or wrong answers. It’s all opinion and, as with anything, it’s all relative. </p>

<p>But the reason there is so much credit card debt, defaults on mortgages and reliance on government assistance is poor management of money. People leverage their money utilizing the wrong kinds of debt and indulge in things they can’t afford because they have a false notion of how much money they really have and how far money can really go.</p>

<p>Get $15,000 in credit card debt, a few kids, a mortgage, various kinds of insurance, a few cars and you’ll quickly realize how fast $200,000 can be chewed through. God forbid you want to send them to private school to give them a chance at a better future, get ready for some more fees.</p>

<p>As a young person, when you have no expenses and your income is so low it’s barely taxed, it’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking an amount like $200,000 is a lot of money when you don’t realize the expenses of your higher income and desired lifestyle. And relative to the household income of many, as you pointed out, it isn’t. But when you start getting into debt (especially when you have credit card debt at 10%+ that continue to compound) it’s not all gravy.</p>

<p>…And then on top of trying to pay down your debt with the extra money you have you want to try and provide for your family with being able to alleviate them of the need to get student loads to go to college and put enough away so you can have a comfortable retirement in a few decades without relying on the government for money that may or may not be there.</p>

<p>So, relative to the lifestyles of the average American in particular, no, $200,000 isn’t an outrageous amount of money to say the least. Especially when you get into larger centers. </p>

<p>I’m moving to NYC for the summer months and a sublet in Manhattan in a good neighborhood that’s not a shoe box will be a good 5k a month or so. There are a few good spots in neighborhoods less desirable, for me personally, that are 3k. </p>

<p>The real world is an expensive place. Especially when you have ambition, especially when you’re job requires you to present yourself a certain way and especially when you’re trying to start any type of business and you aren’t talking straight salary. </p>

<p>Again it’s all relative, and there’s no right or wrong. But your derogatory remarks aren’t going to get you far, financially or otherwise. They come across as jealous and insecure.</p>

<p>Remember OP allegedly was coming out of Stanford looking for a big business job. Stanford grad coming out of 7± years, paid for with student loads who gets a job at Goldman NYC for 200k a year and now should move to Manhattan, get a few good suits, be able to feed himself, have some for going out and possibly put some away for a home, some for retirement, etc. Realize how much that lifestyle costs? And living right in NYC your taxes will be, what, 35%±?</p>

<p>And that’s the lifestyle a lot of NYU Stern, Harvard, etc. business or law grads have to come to grips with. They don’t necessarily assume a lifestyle, their job does. So even though that 200k in Montana may get them everything they want and more they aren’t going to get that job there. That’s the catch and that’s why I never react wildly at Harvard grads going into $100,000-200,000 jobs… because the environment and culture that job is possibly submersed in will cost a lot of money to be part of.</p>

<p>…The job will determine where they live, how much they’ll need to spend to look presentable, dinners with co-workers, etc. </p>

<p>That’s the absolute beauty of the free market. Amazing really.</p>

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<p>Are you kidding me? Have another beer, my friend. The guy said that 200k is not a lot of money. That’s a pretty general statement don’t you think? Why would you use any other sample than the entire population when talking about a statement like that. Hmm 200k isn’t a lot of money eh? Let’s test that statement against the incomes of the top earning 1% of Americans. Ah no. Don’t talk so stupid. If you want to say 200k/year isn’t a lot of money for the top .1% of Americans or CEO’s of fortune 500 companies or for someone who wants two Ferrari’s and a 10mil beach house then you can use the appropriate comparisons. But anyway, I’m going to get out of this thread before I get into a flame war with a bunch of elitist idiots that think the only “real people” are the ones earning massive salaries.</p>

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<p>^ Exactly, it’s all relative to what you’re comparing the income to. Comparing it to the a salary, a few years out, of a graduate from a prestigious business school $200,000 isn’t an excessive amount of money at all.</p>

<p>That’s what the OP was asking about, that’s what I replied to, right?</p>

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<p>But those elitist idiots are the people who influence what you see on TV, what you buy, where you shop, where you learn, your perception on nearly every topic and, in large part, your entire life.</p>

<p>Fight the power.</p>

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<p>I am not saying I am earning large salary. I am still in college, lol.
@ladeornmc explained everything pretty well.
The tax system is ridiculous to say the least. Thats why that 200k is not as amazing as it looks.</p>

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<p>Okay no. Review what I said. I didn’t call rich people elitist idiots.</p>

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<p>It was a joke. ;)</p>

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<p>@ladeornmc Informative post. A lot of those things I would never consider to be a factor though. I will never have credit card debt, that is fact. I will not have to put my kids through private school “to give them a chance at a better future”, I don’t know how true that is in the US, luckily I plan to live in Canada. Turns out not everyone lives in NYC. And you can’t really factor in bad money management. That’s like saying you can’t expect a large pizza to feed two people because you could drop it on the floor rendering it useless. If you have 15k in credit card debt and a 10k/month cocaine and hooker habit well yeah 200k/year isn’t going to be that much, but that’s your fault.</p>

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<p>Fair enough. I just kind of flamed out at what I believed to be a ridiculous comment. I’ll admit maybe I didn’t take the context of the thread into account. I’ve had experience making quite a bit of money and I’ve seen how far that money can go and how fortunate I am to have it so I just don’t think anyone should ever say “200k isn’t a lot of money”. Yes it is. A comment like that isn’t going to get you very far, socially or otherwise.</p>

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<p>^ I live in Canada. Sending your kids to private school does give them an advantage in getting into Canadian schools and ESPECIALLY when going to any US universities. </p>

<p>Anyone who makes over a hundred thousand is pretty much pushed into the same tax bracket. It’s 47% (varying slightly from province to province) PLUS 13% on all goods you buy throughout the year. Plus property tax. </p>

<p>I didn’t pull 15k in credit card debt out of nowhere. That’s what the average American has and the average Canadian has just slightly under that.</p>

<p>Luckily Canada does have good tax breaks for business owners, I ended up paying more in the 30% tax range which is still a ridiculous amount of money for the waste in government but acceptable. The cost of living in NYC is no different, if not better, that major business centres in Canada like Toronto and Vancouver which, again, is where your big business jobs are primarily located. </p>

<p>Canada is an extremely expensive place to live and when you’re not self-employed and thus have limited tax breaks your take home pay, after taxes, is well under 50% of what you made. If OP got a job (salaried employee) at a Canadian bank making 200k in Toronto he wouldn’t have an excessive amount of money at the end of the day at all. </p>

<p>As for your last sentence, a comment like that has no bearing on my success socially or otherwise. I didn’t make a derogatory statement towards you, you made one towards me. Saying 200k isn’t a lot relative to a graduate of a prestigious business school after 2-3 years in the workforce isn’t excessive by any stretch of the imagination.</p>

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<p>$200,000 is a very good salary regardless of education or background.</p>

<p>Coming out of Stanford’s MBA program, earning between $125,000-200,000 would be the expectation depending on years of experience and the positions you are applying for.</p>

<p>Using NYC as a level of SOL and COL is an outlier. NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world–of course 200k would be spent there much easier than somewhere like Memphis, Atlanta, Louisville, Phoenix, Houston, etc. I think the poster who used that as an example is just using an extrema to try to prove his/her point. </p>

<p>The point remains that 200k is a great living for anyone, but someone from Stanford may EXPECT 200k+ earning potential, while the remainder of America would love to even have the possible opportunity at that earning potential. It is a difference in mindset.</p>

<p>If 200k is not a good enough salary to ‘live on’ then you should really reconsider your lifestyle.</p>

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<p>Ok. You guys clearly misunderstand how taxation and the government works. I would rather have a salary of $199,999 than $200,000. Do you want to know? Well, due to a rather greedy and angry American population that blames everything on the wealthy and the government’s policies, once someone reaches $200k, their taxes multiply. $200k before taxes is a lot, and most wealthy people do not realize how much it truly is; however, due to the insane amount of taxes they like putting on the top 3%, one might as well be making a salary in the middle $100ks.</p>

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<p>Do you want to know why* excuse me
Also goose has a point. I currently live right outside of NYC, where salaries as high as $400k are even rather common to stop; however, I have also lived in Georgia, where $150k might be considered to be a rather godly salary to some. The cost of living in each place makes up for the difference in salary for the most part, though.</p>

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<p>Spot* excuse me</p>

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<p>Not only are the cost of living in areas different, you also have to take into account the work vs reward ratio.</p>

<p>I live in the Baltimore area in a 2BR 2BA + balcony 1200 sq. ft. luxury condo on a penthouse floor with 12 ft. high ceilings for $1600/month as the ONLY occupant. Try finding this in Manhattan because it’ll easily cost you over $10,000/month. </p>

<p>I work for a defense contractor in the area as a software engineer. My total comp between my civilian compensation and my military compensation as a reservist is somewhere between 100-200k per year after 2-4 years of experience.</p>

<p>Also, I only have a BS Computer Science. I graduated mid-pack in my major at a state school. This didn’t require too much effort; definitely much less effort and debt than the typical high earning pedigreed NYC financier. In fact, I actually have zero educational debt because state law was that National Guardsman attend state schools tuition-free.</p>

<p>In terms of benefits (which are in addition to my salary):

  • 27 paid vacation days
  • 10 paid military leave days
  • 10k/year tuition reimbursement for grad school (which doesn’t include my Post 911 GI Bill which is good for up to 30k/year for 4 years)
  • differential pay during mobilization/deployment (which means I will usually earn 40% more than my normal salary if I am mobilized/deployed with no expenses and almost no federal income tax)
  • I’m 1/3 of the way to a full military retirement as a commissioned officer
  • 100% reimbursement for any language or certifications relevant to career field</p>

<p>It’s all about bang for the buck. It’s about work-life balance and standard of living. People would have you believe that going to a top school and living in an expensive city is a measure of success. It’s not. There were plenty of more ambitious and perhaps more talented individuals from my high school that chose that route.</p>

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<p>this guy is obviously trolling. there’s nothing to see here</p>

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<p>President of the United States.</p>

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<p>To add a real life answer to the question of how much money 200k per year is… </p>

<p>I live in NY, am in my 20s, am not married and have no kids, and make well north of 200k all in, I can tell you a few things from my experience:

  1. In my first job out of UG made I a little under 50k a year and thought it would be all the money in the world (I had never had a real job before)
  2. 6 months later I was totally broke and had all my credit cards maxed out, it was horrible (btw I was making more than the average american family at the time, and I wasn’t doing anything unusual spending wise, I was just trying to keep up with my peers)
  3. At that time I figured if I could just make 70 or 80k a year I would be very comfortable
  4. By the time I was a year out of school I was making 80-90k and while I wasn’t completely broke any more, I still felt like I had very little extra money
  5. I went to a top grad school after a couple of years at that income level and then doubled my pay to a little under 200k a year all in, I figured I had made it at that point…
  6. After getting a cool apartment, upgrading my lifestyle, and buying some nice stuff I found myself pretty much broke again :slight_smile:
  7. I got promoted last year and am now making a base salary a little under 200k and all in comp closer to 300k, and… I DO NOT FEEL RICH AT ALL, I have a reasonably comfortable life in arguably the best city in the world, have a nice but unremarkable apartment, and have enough money to do what I want for the most part, but at the end of the day I have very little left over and I find myself again waiting for the next promotion so I can finally not worry about money and ‘feel wealthy’, e.g., buy a nice home, be able easily to afford kids, support my wife, etc.</p>

<p>The unfortunate reality I’m starting to accept is that I will probably never feel ‘rich’ unless I start a company, get lucky and have some sort of major windfall (unlikely since it’s a risky path to take and probably not better in expected value terms)</p>

<p>More likely, pursuing my current path at what is considered an very desirable employer, and expected future income (hitting 7 figures in the next 4-5 years if all goes well), I will probably just achieve new levels of what feels like relative poverty to me</p>

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<p>Chances are that if you’re making $200+k per year and you don’t feel rich or aren’t able to save quite a bit, you’re not living in the best city in the entire world.</p>

<p>The best cities in the world allow those with high incomes translate that into high net worth. Otherwise, you’re just paying rent and making someone else rich.</p>

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<p>@storch I would advise you to watch some Suzy Orman.</p>