Reddit user Iliketrainsz1 asked the AskReddit Community, “For the ones who make over $150k a year, what do you do to get that?” Ahh, inflation has hit everything — even Reddit. I remember when that question circulated with $100k as the standard, not $150k. Luckily, many folks were still able to fill the thread with useful, interesting answers. Here’s what people shared:
1.“I do transport for a mortuary in the San Francisco Bay Area (picking up dead bodies). My base pay is about $80k, but I get plenty of extra hours and overtime because I’m pretty much the only one who volunteers to do the SoCal and out-of-state trips (we will only go as far as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and the border towns of Mexico). With all the overtime, I easily make $150k+.”
2.“Slot game mathematician. You know how they say the games are rigged? I’m the guy who rigs them from math scratch work to the code that runs it.”
3.“I’m chiming in because I think most people would be surprised to learn this. I work an entry-level job at a luxury designer boutique. Not all boutiques pay generously, but you learn which ones are at the top in the retail community. It comes with a lot of emotional stress (almost never from clients), so I don’t think I’ll last much longer in this industry. But, it is difficult to leave when you have a skill set that is so specific that you couldn’t possibly leave for a similar-paying industry.”
4.“Believe it or not, I’m a freelance musician. More specifically, I am a composer, conductor, and pianist. I have a graduate degree in music, but I’m not employed full-time by anyone other than myself. I work in multiple genres but specialize in writing for musical theatre and orchestras. My wife is also an in-demand freelance musician. Together, we gross about $300k/year. We’re certainly not famous, but we’ve worked with many famous people over the years. But those aren’t the high-paying gigs.”
5.“Ship captain, $250k-ish for about 180 days of work.”
“You have two paths in the US, a four-year school where you leave with a mid-level Mate license (which usually includes lower-level captain licenses) and start a cushy $80—$100k+ job that’s basically just doing what the captain tells you to do. Or, you can work your way up from an entry-level Stewards license, which will require about five or more years of actual documented days on the water working, multiple classes and training, etc. I have an Able seaman license (basically a deckhand) from working on tugboats in Alaska and cleared $80k a year. It’s shift work, though. Some jobs are seasonal. I worked seven or eight months straight in AK and lived on the boats. Or you can do 30, 60, or 90-day hitches; it varies.”
6.“Lawyer here, making $520—$550K ($390K base salary and $130—$160K in bonuses). My pay is very standard for a lawyer at a large corporate firm, as ‘BigLaw’ lawyers are paid in lockstep for the first seven to eight years. I have five years of experience, and essentially, every other sixth-year lawyer at a large firm in a major US city makes the same amount I do. It takes way longer than I’d like, but it’s exciting and pays well.”
7.“I sell websites to small businesses. I have a whole agency with SEO guys, developers, and designers. I sell $150/month subscriptions for a website and unlimited edits. I have about 85 clients in various packages; the rest are lump sum jobs for $3,500 minimum. I’m currently on track to make $180k this year. There is no WordPress, either. All custom-coded. It’s a nice living.”
8.“Airline Pilot. I make $230k (year two at a major airline). Senior pilots are making $400k—$600k. A rare few senior guys who work a lot make upwards of a million a year. Great benefits. If I lose my medical or become disabled, I get half of my basic annual pay until age 65 to sit at home and do nothing. I get $800k in life insurance. Great healthcare and travel benefits. It takes about three or four years, plus maybe $100k—$150k in training costs, to get to something like a regional airline. Then, you do another one to two years there and get to a major. However, that plan or trajectory can completely change as the economics of air travel change. It wasn’t nice after 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, or COVID. Now, there are hiring stoppages because of issues with Boeing and Airbus aircraft and engine supply.”
9.“I made about $450,000 last year. I am a nuclear consultant (PhD) who provides safety and security advice to countries (usually governments and international organizations) on their nuclear programs and/or radiological issues/problems. Also, I do real estate on the side.”
10.“I’m a food scientist at a consumer packaged goods facility. I make the recipes for food products on the grocery store shelves and ensure they’re safe. I travel to a lot of manufacturers to make sure things run smoothly. I broke $100k at 25 years old. I live in a high-cost area, so keep that in mind. It’s common for directors/managers to make $120k—$160k, depending on their experience. I also think it’s a great career path. I only have a Bachelor’s degree and never had to worry about grad school or anything like that unless I wanted to. It has similar coursework to most STEM majors in undergrad but throws in some additional culinary classes, which I loved.”
11.“I’m a franchisee of one very popular fast food joint. It was my first job, and I started at 17. I worked my way from fry cook to GM over the first five years, working 45 hours/week. I had the chance to partner with the owner and have loved it every step of the way. It’s truly not for everyone, but the financial stability is amazing. I earn $225k—$300k annually, putting in a good 50-55 hours/week. I only plan on going this pace for another five to seven years before I start to really mellow out. I started with just me and now have my wife and kids, so the perspective of how wild and unmaintainable this lifestyle is has set in pretty firmly. I am just blessed to have an amazing owner who truly shows passion in helping the business and all its parts grow the right way.”
12.“I went back to school at 27 for electrical engineering. After I graduated, I felt like I had the momentum to keep going, so I got my Master’s. I was able to land three different internships starting around my junior year, which helped me gain some experience in the field. I graduated at 34 and landed a job at Apple. Been here ever since.”
13.“I’m a cybersecurity engineer. I specialize in cloud security and security architecture. I was a web developer beforehand. I kind of failed upwards to a full-stack engineering position, then jumped over to security to be a DevOps engineer for a security engineering team that was starting a new practice within an established MSP. Since then, the role has expanded significantly, as has the scale of the systems I’ve built. I’m really proud of where I’m at and what’s to come in the future. I don’t have my Bachelor’s degree, but I did three years at an elite American university as a data science major before I got burnt out. So, I’m educated, just not credentialed. However, I will soon obtain my CISSP, the gold standard for cybersecurity leadership. I may pursue a Bachelor’s later on at a place like WGU. We’ll see.”
14.“Orthopedic surgeon. While training, I made big sacrifices socially/traveling/with my income during my 20s and early 30s. I’m 36, just starting my third year of practice, and make $840k straight salary. I probably work about 55 hours a week. It’s incredibly rewarding but also very stressful.”
15.“Real-time operations on the power grid (I’m a reliability coordinator). It’s a desk job. I will make $300-$400k this year. No degree at all.”
16.“I make TV. I’m an editor. I didn’t go to school for it, but it took a lot of working my way up, being broke, and learning when I was given the opportunity. It’s a very different business to grow in since COVID. Entertainment is a mess right now, but I usually make $150k—$190k.”
17.“I’m a senior project manager for an exhibit house. I specialize in permanent display installations, and traveling clown shows. My main focus is taking over projects that are falling behind and getting new projects started on the right track. I travel a fair amount and work long hours. My salary is $175k with a bonus structure that pushes me over $200k. I have 12 years of experience in this industry, all with the same company. I started here as a temp laborer making pallets. My five-year plan is to become a director and work to mitigate the need for my current position.”
18.“Commercial real estate. I worked 70-hour weeks for the first two years while bartending to pay the bills, built my network, closed a huge deal in year three, and took half the commission to purchase my first multifamily property. I leveraged that property to buy and rehab seven others over the next eight years. I now own 432 units and just started a property management company this year to run them.”
19.“I will be making almost right at $150k this year. I work in oil and gas in Colorado. My job is to make sure the oil and gas are coming out of the ground as efficiently and safely as possible while also making sure we are complying with state and federal regulations. I’m as close to the well as you can get (besides drilling it). My schedule is eight days on and six days off. During those eight days, I worked between 80 and 100 hours. Sometimes, I work on a few days off, which is all OT.”
20.“Anesthesiologist. I work part-time and split the job with another like-minded doctor. No holidays or weekends. I earn about $240k plus full-time benefits. I work about 100 hours a month. I could make a lot more taking calls or working more days, but I don’t live large, don’t need the money, and prefer the time off with family. I know many in my profession who make two or three times more than I do and are miserable. I never really bought into the flashy lifestyle; I save a ton, my only splurge is our mortgage (which is a steal compared to current housing prices), and my family is content.”
21.“I work in IT for the government. I started as tier-two help desk support with no degree like 20 years ago for a semiconductor company. I was laid off twice in seven years. Now, I do senior IT asset management stuff and some project management if necessary. $150k+, and I take no work home with me. I work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and then I’m done for the day. It’s not glamorous, but I like to share my story to give people without a degree hope. I’ve obviously been pretty lucky, but I don’t think you need to be stuck doing a $50k help desk job. Find a niche that you can fill or use whatever skills you already have to sell yourself.”
“I had a pretty solid background in customer service (big box middle management), so I used that to my advantage. I clarified that I might not be the most technical person in the bunch, but I definitely will have the best customer service/rapport. I have made a career as the bridge between IT and non-IT staff. Taking overcomplicated IT explanations and simplifying it the best I can. Anybody with problem-solving and comprehension skills can do what I do.”
22.“Retail pharmacist. You can come out making six figures after six to eight years of college. There’s not a lot of salary growth unless you get into management, but you can probably afford to pay off your student loans while living comfortably. It can be very rewarding for those who are personally invested in helping patients and/or achieving business goals, but there are just as many who clock in, clock out, and then live their lives.”
23.“I’m a respiratory therapist living in the Bay Area. It pays well here, but the cost of living is unbelievable. I made about $190k last year, but that was with a lot of overtime. Working 40 hours a week, I make about $160k. Other areas of the country don’t pay as well. I’m probably on the higher end of the pay scale. I also get excellent benefits and a pension.”
24.“I’m a CPA working as an accounting manager for a mid-sized apparel company. I just broke $150k this year. I negotiated a $30k raise since we are implementing a new ERP system, which will involve a lot of complexities. I’ve been at the same company since March 2016, after college. I started at $50k.”
25.“Lawyer (USA). Undistinguished academic record from an undistinguished law school. It took me a while to get my first legal job, which I still have. Started at $65k. I’m about to start my fourth year at $150k. Strictly WFH, no billable requirement, generally very easy and low-stress. Occasionally, I get to help people. I can’t complain! By the standards of the profession, I am not paid well. It’s a fine living by the profession’s standards in my geographic area. By my standards, I grew up pretty poor in a rural area. I am doing just dandy. The real question is: Do I try to job-hop to increase my salary (and possibly find more stimulating work, too), or do I just look in the mirror every morning and say, ‘Bro, we are SO lucky!’ and use my copious free time for other things?'”
26.“Oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I do extractions, implants, jaw corrective surgery, trauma, facial infections, etc. My favorite part, which makes me feel amazing about my work, is the heroic feeling of turning a nightmarish fear into something relatively painless and pleasant for my patients.”
27.“I’m in business-to-business technical sales. I sell industrial starch to paper mills and charcoal plants. My base salary is $135k/year, and over the past five years, my bonus has ranged from $40k—$70k based on company performance. We mostly hire engineers or people with technical backgrounds for our sales roles.”
28.“Financial advisor/financial planner. I’m at around $250k, work about two or three hours a day, and can take any time off. I have three to four two-week vacations yearly and two other trips paid for by the firm. In many advisors ‘ eyes, $250k in my industry means I’m just barely out of kindergarten.”
29.“I’m a sales trainer for a finance company. I had no degree and no prior experience. I have a background in the service industry and work about 45 hours a week. I started on the sales floor and worked my way into the trainer position. Honestly, being a decent communicator is rare and has value. Sales is an amazing launch pad if you want to get out of what feels like a dead-end job.”
30.“Security director. I make just a little over $150k a year. It’s remote work with an average of four or five days of business travel per month. I work 40 hours a week on average, but I do have some heavier weeks sometimes. I love what I do. It has good and bad days, like most jobs. Mostly, I attend Zoom meetings, review and create documents and presentations, advise clients, interview candidates, train teams, and occasionally dispense discipline. The best thing about my job is meeting different people, visiting different client offices nationwide, and helping others grow in their careers. The worst thing is occasionally having to be a punching bag for clients as they vent about their frustrations with my teams, company, etc. Also, I don’t like occasionally having to fire someone.”
31.And: “Software sales is the way to go! There are many work-from-home options, as most sales calls are handled via Zoom or Google Meet. I started in late 2018 in an entry position (business development rep), making about $55k—$65k. After one year, I was promoted to account executive. In my first year in that position, I made about $95k. Then $110k, then $130k, then last year, I made $160k. This year, I’m set to make $180k+. I am focused on small and medium-sized businesses. You can make a lot more as you increase customer size.”
Do you earn over $150k a year? What do you do, what area are you living in, and what steps did you take to get your job? Tell us in the comments or share your story anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
