What's a good salary at age 24?

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Safeway

Lifer
Jun 22, 2004
12,081
9
81
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $80,000
Pathologist Assistant: $90,000
Pharmacy: $100,000
Law: $125,000
 

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2000
8,760
12
81
Originally posted by: MAME
I'd like to know where I stand in the grand scheme of things. I want to make sure I'm on track for a successful career, or if I need to mix things up to get ahead.

This is in Southern California.

Take any experience/skills out of the equation. I just want to know what the average range of salaries are for people my age with careers.

At 24, are you respected? Do you think you have upward mobility in your company? Do you have a mentor that might be looking out for you? Early on, those have been the important things for me. I bitch about money, but I don't leave because I know I can go far with my current company. I'm not horribly underpaid or anything, though, so it depends (tm).

PM me. Tell me where you are, what you do, and the work situation. If you want, tell me what you make, or paint a general picture if that's disclosing too much. I'll help out as much as I can.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: Safeway
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $80,000
Pathologist Assistant: $90,000
Pharmacy: $100,000
Law: $125,000

Agreed. Graduating from college with a decent degree in a good field should yield good results in the short term. Nursing is a prime example and there is serious dough to be made...supply/demand...live it, love it, earn it.

However you can't underestimate the power of soft skills.

One should not judge how much they make at age 24, but the potential at age 30, 35, 40.
 

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
9,458
987
126
Originally posted by: Safeway
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $80,000
Pathologist Assistant: $90,000
Pharmacy: $100,000
Law: $125,000

Most nurses dont crack anywhere near $80k unless they are working a lot of overtime.

Saying you can have a PharmD by 24 is stretching. Most are not 24 when they get out of school.

As for lawyers, you're only making $125k if you go to a large firm and you're working endless hours. First year associates at large firms have to have atleast 2300 billable hours thier first few years, and that typically equates to 80+ hours a week. Not to mention to get there you have to go to a presitgious law firm, or graduate in the top 10% of your class at a respected regional law school. If you dont go to a top 20 law school or dont graduate in the top 10% of your class, you wont be making $125k out of law school.
 

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2000
8,760
12
81
All of you are looking at money without regard to career path. It may surprise you, but a dead end job with a high salary may just force you to move elsewhere for less money but more upside (or to continue taking the shit). They call 'em golden handcuffs for a reason.

At 24, being happy, having a career path, and a mentor who will help are tops (as long as salary is in the ballpark and pays the bills).
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: Wreckem
Originally posted by: Safeway
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $80,000
Pathologist Assistant: $90,000
Pharmacy: $100,000
Law: $125,000

Most nurses dont crack anywhere near $80k unless they are working a lot of overtime.

Saying you can have a PharmD by 24 is stretching. Most are not 24 when they get out of school.

As for lawyers, you're only making $125k if you go to a large firm and you're working endless hours. First year associates at large firms have to have atleast 2300 billable hours there first few years, and that typically equates to 80+ hours a week. Not to mention to get there you have to go to a presitgious law firm, or graduate in the top 10% of your class at a respected regional law school. If you dont go to a top 20 law school or dont graduate in the top 10% of your class, you wont be making $125k out of law school.

Headcheck, as I love to date nurses and pharm reps and see their checks (but that was a few years ago)

They do make 80K plus. This is in KY. Go to salary.com to get the real deal.
 

Wreckem

Diamond Member
Sep 23, 2006
9,458
987
126
Originally posted by: spidey07
Originally posted by: Wreckem
Originally posted by: Safeway
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $80,000
Pathologist Assistant: $90,000
Pharmacy: $100,000
Law: $125,000

Most nurses dont crack anywhere near $80k unless they are working a lot of overtime.

Saying you can have a PharmD by 24 is stretching. Most are not 24 when they get out of school.

As for lawyers, you're only making $125k if you go to a large firm and you're working endless hours. First year associates at large firms have to have atleast 2300 billable hours there first few years, and that typically equates to 80+ hours a week. Not to mention to get there you have to go to a presitgious law firm, or graduate in the top 10% of your class at a respected regional law school. If you dont go to a top 20 law school or dont graduate in the top 10% of your class, you wont be making $125k out of law school.

Headcheck, as I love to date nurses and pharm reps and see their checks (but that was a few years ago)

They do make 80K plus. This is in KY. Go to salary.com to get the real deal.

Most nurses do not make $80k out of school working 36(a full time position) hours a week. Those making $80k are working overtime... And most of those pulling that much overtime have crappy lives. More so if they work nights. Ive know plenty of nurses in TX, the only ones that make $80k/year work a shit load of hours.

Pharm reps aren't Pharmacists. Pharm reps are salesmen. They guy above was talking about Pharmicists who do make really good money, but most arent 24 when they get done with school.
 

ATLien247

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2000
4,597
0
0
I was making ~$43K/year at age 23. That was right around Utah's median annual household income at the time, so I felt pretty well off.
 

TraumaRN

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2005
6,893
63
91
I'll end the nurse debate right now and say that at 22, fresh out of nursing school, in the state of michigan, with minimal overtime I'll make about 54K based off my salary.

Now with 12+ hours of overtime a week I could easily push past 60-65K a year and have absolutely no life except being at the hospital.

Thats all based on my salary right now. If my salary was maxed out I could make about 70K a year without any overtime. And at that point 80K is within reach.

Again this is in Michigan. And I know some nurses that I work with that make 80K even 100K a year....however they work 60 or more hours a week every week. Which in my mind defeats the purpose of having that much money.

I'm happy with my 54-60K at the moment :p

Actually I just did some number crunching....if I worked 60 hours a week for 52 weeks I'd make around 81K at my current nurses wages
 

OpenThirdEye

Golden Member
Oct 3, 2004
1,154
1
0
I'm 27 w/ a college degree...CCNP...CISSP...CEH...a few SANS "certifications"...

Pulling in roughly $87k/year...but with all my debt that i'm trying to recover from college and being jobless for a while after graduation...it feels like A LOT less. :(
 

Wapp

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2003
1,648
0
0
Originally posted by: OpenThirdEye
I'm 27 w/ a college degree...CCNP...CISSP...CEH...a few SANS "certifications"...

Pulling in roughly $87k/year...but with all my debt that i'm trying to recover from college and being jobless for a while after graduation...it feels like A LOT less. :(

Location?
 

Legendary

Diamond Member
Jan 22, 2002
7,020
1
0
I'm 22 and make 54/year in SoCal. Beginning of next year I'll be getting a 4k bonus every month for 6 months though.
 

KarmaPolice

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
3,066
0
0
Ummm there is no good salary or bad salary. It all depends on what you want to do and how you want to live. Want a lot of money but no life? then you should be making over 90K by then. If you are a teacher and thats your goal then maybe 35-40k is a good number.

 

Mxylplyx

Diamond Member
Mar 21, 2007
4,197
101
106
I was pulling $70K at 24 as a software engineer with 4 yrs experience and a degree. No, you shouldnt feel bad if your not making close to that. I know my experience isnt typical.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,853
1,048
126
at 24 you're just a couple years out of school for the common person... starting salary of something like $40-$50k and you're doing alright. Like others have said though, it depends if you like the job... some people get $60-$70k starting at big corporations looking at code all day everyday and despise their job / get burned out real quickly. Not worth it - especially with hours you're more than likely to deliver. Do something you love to do, with regular/normal hours, and even if you're making a mediocre salary - it's a good living.
 

Mxylplyx

Diamond Member
Mar 21, 2007
4,197
101
106
Originally posted by: rsd
Originally posted by: Idontcare
By 24 you should be happy with $60k w/college degree behind you OR be in grad school to set yourself up for making $100k by 28.

Anything less probably means squandered opportunity or squandered time not making opportunity earlier in one's life...

May seem like a lot of $$$ until you throw wife + kids into the equation around the same time.

I don't know if I know anyone who is doing 100k at 28, and most of my friends went to some of the top undergrad/grad schools in the country and are overall successful.

Ultimately though anything people post here has to be taken with a grain of salt.

You can do something where you make 100k working 80hours a week or make 80k working 40 hours a week. Up to you what you prefer. If you solely base your personal satisfaction over your career upon how much $$ you make, you won't really ever be happy.

Should pull about $110K this year, working 2 jobs and 70hrs a week. I honestly cant wait until my contract on the 2nd job is done with so I can drop back down to 40.

btw, just turned 27.

 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,853
1,048
126
Originally posted by: Idontcare
By 24 you should be happy with $60k w/college degree behind you OR be in grad school to set yourself up for making $100k by 28.

Anything less probably means squandered opportunity or squandered time not making opportunity earlier in one's life...

May seem like a lot of $$$ until you throw wife + kids into the equation around the same time.

Did you forget about dual income ?
 

Winchester

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,965
0
0
Originally posted by: Safeway
You can graduate from Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, Pathologist Assistant, ... when you are 24 years old.

Nursing: $50-80,000* (
Pathologist Assistant: $50-90,000*
Pharmacy: $90-100,000*(huge demand and pharm school is very hard to get in to)
Law: $30-75,000*(most lawyers starting out dont make squat. Small firm (5-6) ~$48k starting)


FIXED


*depends on location and overtime.

 

A5

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2000
4,902
5
81
My bro is pulling $75K/yr with a BS in CompSci in the Bay Area (anywhere from $50-$64K in Albany, apparently...these COL calcs suck)
 

BlancoNino

Diamond Member
Oct 31, 2005
5,695
0
0
I highly doubt the average salary for age 24 is anywhere near even $30,000 a year....lots of people still in college or still figuring out what they want to do.