So I’m 20 and I’ve started looking at the salaries of jobs/careers, and this is the impression I’ve gotten. Like that you could spend years cramming a ton of knowledge about a very niche field, and still only get 2-3x what a run-of-the-mill job makes. Is this true? If yes then I guess this route to wealth would only make sense (due to the diminishing returns) if the topic truly spoke to you, right? Are there alternative career paths to good pay than being really good at something really specific?
The problem is you’re comparing labor to labor. Try owning property, that graph has exponential growth with no cieling, you know, like cancer.
It might be accurate for one person in a hundred.
Play around with this for a bit: https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4
Consider spending 30k yearly when you’re earning 50k. You can retire in about 20 years if you keep to that. You really gotta keep to it though, spending 40k means you’d have to work almost 40 years instead.
Now compare that to spending 30k when making 100k. Now you can retire in 9 years. Even if you have to spend literally twice as much time+effort doing so, you end up with more of your life leftover.
This is not to say that you should take a job you hate, but rather to say that making more money does make your life better, but only up to a point. If you find a job that you genuinely enjoy, great do that. If you’re picking between different things you dislike, translate it back into years instead of trying to understand it in made up funny money numbers. And when you get there, stop.
LABEL YOUR FUCKING AXIS AAAAAAAAAA
I can clear that up for you. The X axis is vibes and the Y axis is vibe dependent vibes.
OP, I gave a funny sort of answer to the question itself, but it occurs to me that I should address your text separately. If you have options, you absolutely should pursue something you feel a bit of passion for, unless your passions are all hella impractical. The sweet spot is something that allows you to not worry about money, and that you don’t completely hate or even low-key enjoy. Hell jobs that earn a bit extra and being a starving artist that will break in any time now, I swear both get shit reviews (unless done on cocaine).
At 20, something I didn’t realise is that you’re not supposed to “get rich”. I feel like culture sells the idea that we’re all supposed to be Steve Jobs or Elon Musk or something. That’s bullshit, even those guys aren’t what they claim to be, and the messaging about striving for it is basically propaganda to make people like them feel better. I don’t care how smart and amazing you are; real adult life, at it’s best, is about earning x dollars, and spending exactly x dollars on a mix of things today and on investments so you can retire down the road.
Also, you said big jobs “only” make 3x a normal job amount, but where I am in life just an extra 10% a month is basically the difference between two very different situations. 3x someone else’s salary would make the world your oyster. (Although, most people with money get caught in lifestyle creep and never consider what they actually want)
Another thing my teachers explained to me, but not very well, is that it’s hard to know what you enjoy doing up front. Expect to change courses, not because it’s helpful (it’s rarely so), but because you basically have to as you gradually get the hang of things.
Are there alternative career paths to good pay than being really good at something really specific?
Hazardous jobs, shift work, really unpleasant (even evil) jobs. Education still blows them out of the water, though. IIRC most degree holders eventually earn more than an underwater welder or ice road trucker. Other than that, there is no free lunch. The only way to make money for nothing involves having a much larger sum of money to put in up front.
Hard agree on the salary difference bit. I changed carriers a year ago and my salary is about ~1.3 of an average national wage, and I don’t know what am I supposed to do with all this money.
This is a great post. I’m mid-30s and toying with a career change. If life’s good to you, you at least can exhale and review options, but no, generally studying (or practicing, whatever) is not going to be that kind of a wage multiplier, unless you are cherry picking (and/or discounting some serious debt). It can help make your job suck less though. I think probably just as lucrative is always being ready to change employers for a raise. But, I don’t have experience with that so I may be talking out my ass there.
The amount of money you save (and invest) isn’t accurately depicted with this though. Living expenses don’t necessarily grow with take home, if you keep lifestyle creep to a minimum.
So what this means is that if you make $100k and save $10k/year, if you start making $200k you can save the same $10k/year, plus the entire additional $100k after taxes (let’s just say that’s $50k+). So you doubled your salary but your savings went up 6x+.
After many careers and much money earned and spent, I now try to go by „ikigai“. Its a japanese theory and teaches you to be aware of what it is that you want, what makes you money, what the world needs and what you‘re good at, basically. This is how I went from a very well paid but soul sucking job to a lesser paid but much more fulfilling work.
For me it was building computers and the stuff around it. Its fun and it makes decent money if done right.
Good luck!
Salary really depends on value provided or enabled. That’s why more knowledge stops mattering at a certain point, someone with a month of experience driving a forklift is less valuable than someone with 3 years, but 6 years of experience isn’t significantly different.
There’s also benefits to being closer to money to show value. This is why sales jobs tend to pay better, as showing direct responsibility for 1 million in sales vs keeping the machines running that made the product.
I actually just got told something similar. In a resume was listed, “over 10 years of leadership/management experience” and the recruiter reviewed it and said, “i don’t care. I can find 20 other people within two minutes who have 10+ years of experience. Tell me what the skills are.”
Tenure in a position means very little. Every year is a diminished return of value.
not really true depends on the field
What are your x and y axes here?
X is years of experience , y is a combined axis, technical knowledge for the green line and salary for the red line
Y is wage, X is experience. Green is just Y=x
So then what does the green line represent?
my understanding is the that green line represents the linear relation of salary to knowledge which OP would consider fair and just. therefore the part where red line is above the green one means people who earn below average are overpaid for their knowledge and professional contribution. and similarly, the part where the red line is below the green one means people who earn above average are underpaid
Y=x
Generally speaking, wealth is not built by working. It’s built by investing. It’s possible to have a relatively small salary and get relatively wealthy if you consistently live below your means and invest the surplus. Power of compounding.
Your graph is missing the more important factor: demand.
I’m guessing you weren’t born into money, which is what most ultra wealthy people do. So failing that, you need to cultivate a skillset which includes doing something that other people want and are willing to pay for. And yes, that often means learning specialized, or dangerous skills. Take something like a high voltage electrician, they can make good moeny but they need a specific skillset, certifications, and fucking up can mean dying very quickly. Construction divers or underwater welders can earn good money as well. Though again, specific skillsets, certifications, and risks. On the less risky side, programmers can make good money, though that usually does require a lot of learning. IT and cybersecurity also fit this bill, though they do tend to follow your graph.In short, businesses pay for people because they have a need for something to get done. No need, no money. You can be the most knowledgeable person in the world about flaking stone tools, and you are going to be struggling. Another route to income is starting your own business, but this has similar pitfalls. Start a business which people aren’t interested in and you’re going to flounder. Also, running a business does take it’s own skillset, beyond the skillset involved in whatever the business’s focus area is. Though, done right, you can focus on running the business and hire people to do the other stuff.
You are falling into a trap a lot of young, smart people do. You are assuming that knowledge and intelligence is what you need to succeed. It’s not your fault, you’ve been fed that line for the last 12-ish years of your life by schools and society. It’s bullshit. They do help, but knowing the right people, luck and the ability to socialize are more important. In short, go to business school and go into management. If that doesn’t appeal to you (and that is perfectly valid) then you need to find and learn skills that businesses are willing to pay for. At the moment, that probably means a trade, like electrician or welder; or, a technical role such as engineering, IT or programming. If your interest is in the Humanities, sorry you’re probably fucked.
Networking in university got me my first jobs and they were very good starting jobs.
I don’t mean you have to go out and be fake, but get involved in a bunch of stuff, and make sure to check if your department has any corporate relationships you can use.
Meeting people pays the best dividends in life.
Who you know, and the opportunities they afford is a game changer for career trajectory.
The big reason to pay money or get into a good school isnt that the education is of that much higher quality, its about who your friends are, and more importantly what their parents or parents friends do. You have a friend all through school and one day you are like ‘i wanted to get an internship somewhere but im not sure how to go about it’ and then your friend is like ‘oh my mum/dads friend is a senior manager/team leader at XY good company, im sure they can find you a placement.’But saying this, it is “who you know not what you know” until your in the job and its a matter of time until it becomes “what you know and who you know won’t save you”, except the rare circumstances where your working for dad in the whitehouse or something.
I would certainly recommend picking a field of study and work for more reasons than just the money. As a counter point to your plot, I have seen small career moves result in huge pay increases.
I would have agreed with this chart a decade ago but not now. I recently quit being an systems engineer to being a high voltage electrician. My job stress and required knowledge went down considerably, my pay went up 2x. I would love to recommend school but cannot as I feel like it was a waste for my career path.
This is somewhat off topic, but it is actually related to knowledge, income, and returns.
I’m telling you from experience, make enough money to live comfortably and stop when you get there. If at all possible, don’t have a long commute. Don’t have a prestige job. Don’t have a position that requires OT or sprints. I deescalated my role to something more banal and my happiness went way up.
You’re likely not in a position to do that at 20, but when you get somewhat into a career and life sucks and you hate your work and you want to die, start looking for something that pays less but also doesn’t suck the life out of you.
