Are you rich? Have you landed your dream job? If so, how did you do it?

[subpar spatula]

I'm not obsessed with him, I'm just responding to you as you respond to each of my posts. Obviously he doesn't cash every check he gets and spend it that day. He has shorter term saving, obviously, as in he wants to take an expensive trip down the line so he gets the money together for it.

What's odd to me about your (obsessive?) defense of him is that he doesn't argue that these things I'm saying aren't the case, he argues that it's the right thing to do. Which is fine, of course, but it is just strange for me to be having to convince you that this is the case.

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You made the wrong assumption. That's all. Him saying state housing is obviously incorrect at this point since it doesn't actually exist in Canada. There's affordable housing. He is betting on there being big changes in the future. Do you think he 100% believes that and decided to never plan?

 

[foggy]

You made the wrong assumption. That's all. Him saying state housing is obviously incorrect at this point since it doesn't actually exist in Canada. There's affordable housing. He is betting on there being big changes in the future. Do you think he 100% believes that and decided to never plan?

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LMAO what even is this Tabris speculation discussion?

 

[Calamari41]

You made the wrong assumption. That's all. Him saying state housing is obviously incorrect at this point since it doesn't actually exist in Canada. There's affordable housing. He is betting on there being big changes in the future. Do you think he 100% believes that and decided to never plan?

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Honestly, this is dumb. I'm just telling you the discussions I've had with him in the past. I get that you don't believe me, and that's fine. You can take it up with him at this point.

Tabris is my buddy who I've been bantzing with for over 5 years in the NHL community, I was just giving him a hard time in here.

 

[Baji Boxer]

I took the biggest risk of my life and abandoned a safe and steady job at a great company shortly after turning 24 to start a business with a couple of friends who like myself, had limited, or no real world business experience. We did research, got loans, made some partnerships, and struggled fucking hard for a couple of years while we established ourselves.

I turn 29 next month and have gone from trying to maintain at least a couple of thousand in my bank account after bills monthly, to being on track to making my first personal million in about a year or so. It's still super unreal to me and something I never thought I'd be able to (or even try to) accomplish. I'm pretty sure I've aged a bit quicker and shaved a few years off of my life in the process but I'd do it again if I had to.

I won't pretend like I have any sage advice to give. I always heard stories of successes like mine and brushed them off as anomalies. I'm just really glad I decided to try.

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That's really cool. I'm already in a job that takes years off my life while making peanuts. I was going to take your route but very soon after agreeing to go into business with my friend, his behaviour started throwing up some huge red flags. Will go back to working on my own skills in my off time while I come up with a new plan for my future.

 

[Mortemis]

I hope that one day I'll be able to post "I'm not rich" and then explain how I'm rich like some of y'all.

That's my goal.

 

[Servbot24]

If I ever have 100k I'll officially say I'm rich. For now I just have 10k, lol.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

At what point can you call yourself rich?

 

[DJwest]

I'm in sales / consulting. While not my dream job (that would be a chief urban planner for a large metropolitan city), it pays considerably more then that and the most important thing is my hard work and skill directly equates to money earned due to uncapped commissions. While most other jobs your hard work and skill hopefully gets you recognition for a promotion but that's dependent on someone's perception of your hard work and skill.

I'm here :)

This is full bathroom 1 out of 2.

Oh yeah for sure, there's a lot of people on this forum above my wealth. They just don't know how to spend money like me :) You and your family will be living super comfortably in your 70s while I'll be in state housing but I will have had the memories of some incredible experiences.

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YOLO huh? I respect that. Do you plan to have children? It'd be nice to leave them a comfortable nest egg

I grew up poor as church mice, so while I am by no means rich, I would certainly appear that way to childhood me. I have my dream job. I have my dream car (which to be fair was a very realistic dream car to have) and my house has at least two rooms we hardly use. In fact, housing has been one area where I was tremendously lucky. Bought and sold at all the right times to get a bigger, better place through luck rather than judgment.

When I was a kid we had a single black and white TV, no car, no dad, two sisters and our electricity was on a coin-operated meter, so the lights would go out and stay out till you came up with a fifty pence piece. I had no idea what color the Daley's were, so I would ask friends at school.

We went hungry a few times too - that was worse than having the power go out. My mom worked three jobs to keep us afloat.

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Not rich but doing fairly good nowadays. In 5-6 years time I went from dead broke, pay check to pay check living,and shitty paying job to excellent job,excellent woman in my life,new house,brand new car this year and $$$ in the bank. Still live paycheck to paycheck tho :)

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I love hearing stories like these. Congrats on turning your lives around

No and no.

Im broke, uneducated, and absolutely miserable like 90% of the time

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No to both. I make about $45k/year. Honestly, I'd be very happy if I made just $80,000. I just don't have the energy or drive to go to school for 2-4 years to get a degree. Kinda makes me depressed knowing I'm getting older and my chances of making more are slipping away, but I just don't have the energy at the end of the day doing factory work.

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In as much as it appears obvious (I don't know your peculiar challenges), furthering your education is key

I grew up with bankrupt parents who made awful decisions (no savings). I worked hard to go to college, had a lot of financial support because state schools are amazing and went on to graduate school (best way to move up in society IMO). I worked harder than ever in grad school so I could rise above the competition (still necessary if you want your dream job after you get into a good school). I worked/studied 16 hours a day even when no one was asking me to so I could publish more and get skills for the job market. I always rejected going to social outings with my colleagues at night, and even ate lunch at my desk in 5 minutes every day instead of going out.

Now I finally have an offer for that dream job and it pays. I've been just above the poverty line for so many years I almost cried when I saw the offer letter.

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Congrats man, and amazing job!

I wouldn't consider myself "rich", though I guess living comfortably enough is a really great thing that I should not take for granted.

I have my dream job. I write music for music libraries and that music gets used in TV shows, ads, occasionally movie trailers, and just about any other kind of media. I got here through a combination of luck and hard work. The luck was that a music coordinator from a successful music library found my youtube channel at a time when they happened to be looking for a new composer. The hard work was me saying "yes, sure I'll write 5 tracks a week" while still having a full time job. I spent a year writing 5 tracks per week and working full time before getting my first royalty check (which was $225 for one quarter/3 months) and dropping to a part time job. Then the money grew as I kept writing, and after 2 years of writing music while working only part time, I was able to take music full time.

Some pros and cons of this work:

Pros

• Very few deadlines. No working myself to death if I don't want to.
• Royalty income is mostly passive once you have a lot of music published.
• I get to stay home with my daughter, allowing my wife to still have a career without us paying for day care.

Cons

• Royalties take forever to build up and are always behind by about a year. So I made virtually no money the first 2 years.
• I never know how much I'm getting paid until the quarterly deposit goes into my bank account. I get really anxious the few days leading up to a payment.
• I VERY rarely get paid anything up front per track. It's all based on if the music gets used. Some of it never does.
• Composer/producer job market is ridiculously oversaturated thanks to technology making it fairly accessible for people who do want to make music.

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I don;t know how you managed to do it when for 2 years you didnt get any benefit from your work. Perseverance! Congrats

Between college and work experience it's taken me about 16 years to get the job I always wanted. I start on September 3rd and I can't wait.

I'm def not rich though, and I am terrible with money.

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Congrats on getting the job! You need to get better at managing your money though

 

[subpar spatula]

At what point can you call yourself rich?

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I believe you call yourself rich when you never have to work again, never have to stress about bills, and can go anywhere you want on an unlimited budget (not so extreme you'd buy a yacht or jet or spend $10k an hour). I could stop playing poker and live a life of OK luxury, but I'd never do that.

 

[spootime]

Not rich for sure -- actually the opposite, I'm 80k in debt. I'm a month or two from starting a pretty lucrative career though so I'm not to worried. It's not a dream job (that would probably be designing video games) but I think it will provide me with the quality of life that I want.

 

[aznpxdd]

We live comfortable, and my job is easy enough (for now) for the amount of $ I make, but its certainly no dream job.

 

[Anarion07]

Not just yet. Still doing my PhD before I can start as a patent attorney for biotech, but I already got my foot in there.
So just another 5 years to go I guess yay!

 

[balohna]

I'm not rich, but I work as a level designer.

Went to school for game design -> no jobs -> QA for many years, much regret but realize video games is where I want to be regardless -> get my hands on the engine at a QA job and keep trying to make levels, getting feedback from designers -> Jr level design position opens up, I get it.

Pay sucked at first, shipped a game and made some moves and now I'm pretty happy with my wage. Still seeking a permanent position but my job is fun.

I'm jealous of all the kids that just do the first and last steps, but I value all the years of work I put in and think QA in particular made me a better designer.

When I hit $20/hr I finally felt like I had a real job. I made 13/hr for like 5 years straight. Pay is higher now but not "rich" at all.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

I'm never going to own a waterfront mansion, I'd be considered rich compared to the general population (bit shy of six figures, but should hit it within a promotion or two).

Regardless of pay, I'm super happy about my work. I work in public policy, meaning my colleagues and I turn political promises into workable government policy.

The job is really great because it's challenging and ever evolving, requiring us to tackle all sorts of complex and novel problems on a strategic or systemic level. It's also much more meaningful compared to my previous work since it allows me to make real, meaningful differences to people's lives.

Like right now I'm in a reform unit working on a whole of system redesign in the out of home care space. In English, that means the government has acknowledged that the current foster care system is broken and has tasked us to entirely redesign the system from the ground up. It is massive in scale and complexity, but god damn it feels good to know your hard work will hopefully help improve the lives of vulnerable children and their families

 

[dude]

Not rich, sort of got my dream job - I'm a game designer, working on casual mobile games though.
I kind of skipped the whole college thing, though I did some courses in animation and illustration. I started out in the industry as an Art Assistant, which is a fancy way of saying I cut and organized art assets. From there, I made a small leap to Technical Artist (in Unity.) When the company I was working for was looking for a new game designer, I talked with the studio manager and applied anonymously, and got the job.

I love my job, but after doing it for two years I am looking at other opportunities, and trying to figure out if I want to try working outside the mobile industry. Obviously working on higher-end games would be super cool, but it's not an easy jump to make and the mobile industry is so big you have a ton of opportunities everywhere.

 

[uncleniccius]

If you are making $250, you are making 80 times the median global income. That is rich in my books.

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Don't agree with this - also talking about income in these ways is stupid as on that kind of salary in New York you're not doing *that* well whereas in most parts of the country you are. Context is very important.

 

[Septic]

I hope that one day I'll be able to post "I'm not rich" and then explain how I'm rich like some of y'all.

That's my goal.

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LMAO!

 

[Markitron]

Congrats on getting the job! You need to get better at managing your money though

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Easier said than done unfortunately :(

 

[H.Protagonist]

I feel rich as sin and I have(ish, since I'm kind of on baby leave still) my dream job. I have savings, a swanky coffee machine, two children, the AFL channel, and good wine any time I want it. I do video game localization and a publisher bought my first book and is also paying me to write the sequel right now. Hoping to write for a game next.

EDIT to add: I landed my gigs by reading a ton, traveling, and taking risks. I also had really good luck/timing.

 

[Not]

It's all random, but it helps to have people with resources who are preinvested in your success

 

[Lurcharound]

Im not rich but my definition but I guess would be seen as such by others - I'd say I'm well off : that is to say I earn good 6 figures a year, I have around $1M in assets (property) and good pension assets
My job isn't my dream job but it's close enough : I enjoy it, it pays well and it affords me a very comfortable lifestyle

How did I do it? Well I had no real idea what I wanted to do when younger nor was I hugely motivated so I took the path of get a vocational skillset (in my case IT with a BSc in Computing) and from that found it relatively easy to get a middling job in a middling company to get started (I didn't aim for best companies with highest requirements deliberately) - thus I was able to do well and excel decently - from this I just worked through usual promotion chain while also considering what I really liked - as I hit my late twenties I was finally in position to push for specific roles that I wanted, got one, and from early thirties onwards really focused on increasing income and working through promotion into management role.

I was never interested in "get rich quick" nor being rich at the cost of working too hard or being a corporate bastard: thus I've aimed for solid mid management role with good money, decent hours with plenty of time for personal time and enough money to be comfortable (nice house, holidays, luxuries, etc) without being truly rich.

In short I'd say balance being happy vs having some X value of money (although money helps!)

 

[Benzychenz]

Not rich at all. Am in a basic job with no real ambitions to move into anything else.
But I've managed to save up some money and will look into a mortgage (should be able to afford it getting a 2 room place and renting a room to a friend). Not living in the city helps there.
I mean that's fine for me and I'm comfortable in my life so that's enough for now.

All the people in this thread making 6 figures saying they're not rich is sad. I guess possessions never make you happy because you always want more.

 

[Deleted member 17402]

Not rich. Don't have a dream job I strive for, that doesn't exist for me. I have a dream ideal income with a job I'm satisfied with. What others consider their dream job I might simply say I prefer to read or study on my own time.

 

[Servbot24]

I believe you call yourself rich when you never have to work again, never have to stress about bills, and can go anywhere you want on an unlimited budget

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That sounds several notches above rich to me. Unlimited luxury? Lol

 

[Broken Hope]

Rich is relative.

The wifey & I easily pull over $100k/yr, but we also have 2 young kids. I earn the most as a licensed PE in the healthcare field. We don't live paycheck to paycheck, but we're also not taking vacations whenever we want. Have to save. We only eat out about 3-4;x a week, but my wife loves to cook.

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You say you only eat out 3-4x a week like that is infrequent, seriously? I probably eat out like 3-4x a year.

 

[Bishop89]

I do video game localization

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how do you even get into a position like this.
That sounds like a pretty cool job.

 

[Air]

Not rich, but singlemaking $60+k a year working a job in the field that I majored in. I count my blessings, but I'm hoping to expand my income within the next couple of years

 

[MTR]

Some great stories of success and hustling in here. Reading through the replies really shows the importance of being aware of lifestyle creep. Crazy that people earning 3-5 times more than others and feel financially more restricted.

 

[DryCreek]

.

 

[H.Protagonist]

You say you only eat out 3-4x a week like that is infrequent, seriously? I probably eat out like 3-4x a year.

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Yeah... 3-4x a week sounds outrageous to me. It's not like we couldn't eat out more, but 1-2x a month is even kind of unusual for us. LosDaddie, since your wife loves to cook, you guys could save a ton more. Is there some reason you eat out so much?

how do you even get into a position like this.
That sounds like a pretty cool job.

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You could say it was a fortuitous combo of hobby, experience, and good luck. I studied International Relations at school, so it's not like I was even an English major, but I did the JET Programme (teaching exchange in Japan) for three years, then worked in comic books for a bit, then made the jump to video games by randomly answering a Craigslist ad for the position and surviving the interview process. So, read a lot, had Japanese experience, and peripheral editing experience, plus I'm a writer. The Craigslist ad was a total fluke, though. I've never seen a headhunter so happy. Dude sent me cookies and flowers when they hired me. Haha.

 

[Xando]

You say you only eat out 3-4x a week like that is infrequent, seriously? I probably eat out like 3-4x a year.

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3-4x a week isn't that much. I eat out 2-3x a week, sometimes 5x a week when i'm traveling.

There's always a friend or business partner to eat out with.

 

[H.Protagonist]

3-4x a week isn't that much. I eat out 2-3x a week, sometimes 5x a week when i'm traveling.

There's always a friend or business partner to eat out with.

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3-4 is a ton. There are 7 days in the week. Eating out for half of those isn't "that much," it's a bloody lot. When you're traveling for work it's different, but if you're home I think that's crazy.

 

[tokkun]

At what point can you call yourself rich?

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It's all relative, but I think that at minimum you must be capable of retiring and living an average middle class lifestyle. If you are still forced to work to put food on the table, you're not rich.

This is why wealth is the true measure of whether someone is rich and salary isn't. If you are making $250K, but you've only been making that salary for a year and haven't saved much, you're not rich yet. You may be "future rich", provided you don't get fired, have a debilitating accident, undergo some major financial hardship, etc. but you're not rich yet.

 

[Xando]

3-4 is a ton. There are 7 days in the week. Eating out for half of those isn't "that much," it's a bloody lot. When you're traveling for work it's different, but if you're home I think that's crazy.

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I mean it's not like we eat 20€ Steak every night. If i or my GF has to cook every day after work and we have to buy all the groceries it comes out at about the same money spent and we have saved time for more fun things.

 

[Rotkehle]

I mean it's not like we eat 20€ Steak every night. If i or my GF has to cook every day after work and we have to buy all the groceries it comes out at about the same money spent and we have saved time for more fun things.

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Includes eating out stuff like Döner?

 

[Xando]

Includes eating out stuff like Döner?

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Definitely :)

 

[LosDaddie]

You say you only eat out 3-4x a week like that is infrequent, seriously? I probably eat out like 3-4x a year.

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Yeah... 3-4x a week sounds outrageous to me. It's not like we couldn't eat out more, but 1-2x a month is even kind of unusual for us. LosDaddie, since your wife loves to cook, you guys could save a ton more. Is there some reason you eat out so much?

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Define "Eating Out" for yourself.

What do you do for lunch during the workweek? Do you eat out or bring your own lunches? Do you ever get fast food, subs and/or pizza?

In my estimate, I included getting food from Chick-fil-A (which my kids LOVE) and another quick meal like pizza or some Jersey Mike's sometime during the week. But sure, depending on our plans, we probably average 1 or 2 meals at a sit down/get served restaurant a week.

We have 2 grade school kids. Life is busy. Always something going on.

As for lunch during the week, I always either make mine or eat leftovers (I like to read comics during my much hour). I don't know or ask what my wife does for lunch (life is easier that way). Eating at home can also be not-so-cheap depending on what you eat. We frequent a local meat market for steak, chicken and shrimp to grill/cook.

 

[Rotkehle]

Definitely :)

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Ok, I'm totally with you regarding this number.


I'm making around 40K a year and my wife is around 20K in her 20h/week job. We have around 50k in savings and a loving family. Beside my Neurodermatitis and her bad eyes, we are healthy and expecting our first baby. So I wouldn't call us rich, but we are safe and don't have to fear job loss or crazy medical bills.

 

[captive]

i dont know that i ever had a dream job as a kid or anything like that.

Right now it would be landscape and wildlife photographer. My wife and I did build our dream house.

Am i rich? Relative to the rest of the world yes, since i'm american and my wife and i make more than 6 figures.
Relative to america i'm not rich, rich to me is having so much money you don't actually have to work unless you want to.

 

[Jeronimo]

Not rich by American standards, but doing well enough not to be able to complain to the average person. Dual incomes, health insurance, recently bought a house, own a car. Calling my job a dream job is a stretch, but I get paid well and work for a respected and influential agency.

How? We worked hard in college, got advanced degrees, student loans, and just now feel like we're catching up. Career growth was slow after school during the recession, we married "late", and haven't started a family yet, though we want to. We're happy though, and while making enough to not struggle helps, we were still happy (and also anxious about the future) back in college with less.

 

[tabris]

You have the opportunity to create an ironclad intergenerational wealth system for your children and their children that can carry on forever as long as they learn basic financial responsibility and literacy.

It's sad to me that you approach your opportunity here like a spoiled baby boomer with the whole "the last check I write before I die is gonna bounce" attitude.

Now comes the part where you show a picture of a $15 dessert and act like nobody else has experienced such a thing.

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Here's a 3 star Michelin dessert picture (I snuck in a couple 2 star dessert there that look awesome):

That's over $10000 worth of dessert if you consider cost of tasting menus and wine pairings for 2 people.

You made the wrong assumption. That's all. Him saying state housing is obviously incorrect at this point since it doesn't actually exist in Canada. There's affordable housing. He is betting on there being big changes in the future. Do you think he 100% believes that and decided to never plan?

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I do hope Canada will move to universal basic income and state-funded housing for elderly ASAP.

In the meantime, while I don't save, I have an investment property pending a local area plan to be finalized for significant return on investment by selling to a developer so they can develop a bunch of townhouses on it. But to balance to what Calamari was saying, there's a good chance when I sell it I may spend most of it all on doing something really awesome - but I'll keep enough for a new down payment. I just keep cycling through investment properties.

The other future planning is the startup business me and a business partner have been working on over the last couple of years. That's a long play potential exit. I have put some money in that by hiring a developer a couple of times to complete things we couldn't, as we didn't want to give away equity.

With all that said, the rest goes to spending on awesome experiences (and rent)!

 

[KillLaCam]

You say you only eat out 3-4x a week like that is infrequent, seriously? I probably eat out like 3-4x a year.

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Yeah, I even ate out 4 times a week when I was in college lol, at decent restaurants. It was actually cheaper than having a meal plan for me.

Here's a 3 star Michelin dessert picture (I snuck in a couple 2 star dessert there that look awesome):

That's over $10000 worth of dessert if you consider cost of tasting menus and wine pairings for 2 people.

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What's the thing on the 2nd row, right column?

 

[Cipher Peon]

Landed a dream job in my dream industry and working hard to be very comfortable!

I just kicked off my career after the awkward post grad phase and I'm feeling like a million dollars every day :)

 

[Bishop89]

Landed a dream job in my dream industry and working hard to be very comfortable!

I just kicked off my career after the awkward post grad phase and I'm feeling like a million dollars every day :)

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out of curiosity what field if you dont mind me asking.

 

[tabris]

What's the thing on the 2nd row, right column?

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That was from 3-star Michelin restaurant, Benu, in San Francisco, as part of their tasting menu. I don't remember everything that was in it, but I remember ice cream being inside of it, and it tasting amazing.

 

[Cipher Peon]

out of curiosity what field if you dont mind me asking.

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Game Design :)

 

[Bishop89]

Game Design :)

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everyone's getting into it except me >.<
lol :P

 

[Deleted member 9838]

Anyone ever feel like they don't enjoy any kind of work and just all around depressed about this domain of life?

 

[Khamsinvera]

Working at the intersection of Finance, Media and Analytics and it's as close to my dream job as I've ever been ... and now transitioning into Machine Learning in the same field - I'm about to hit my perfect dream job.

Rich? Not sure about that, but I'm in the top 10% of my demographic

 

[aerie]

No, and far from it currently. I've had periods in my life where I've made very good income, but losing my business a few years back and trying too risky of a strategy to keep it afloat in the final years meant losing a lot of my savings. In my defence I had other people on the payroll, and wanted to make sure everyone was treated fairly and made it out OK when things went downhill. So unfortunately, I lost what could've been a dream job, and one that I had helped created, but we were open for nearly 10 years and though there were ups and downs I reflect on it very fondly.

I'm currently in the process of going back to college, though a drastic shift in fields, and when all is said and done should be living comfortably again in a few years, and will be able to build back up - hopefully. Still, not quite where I thought I'd be at this age.