finding a niche is the key to success
Absolutely. That's why I chose a very specific career path. When I was in college I was looking at various jobs that people with various business bachelor's majors get - like whether its accounting, finance, pr, marketing, hr, etc. I saw that jobs like PR, HR, communications, marketing, etc. tend to be pretty low paid, as little as 30k a year, more commonly low 40's, maybe up to 50k if your lucky. The finance and accounting majors were a bit higher with high 40's, low 50's, even some up to 60 if they got into a good company and live in a city with a high cost of living hence generally higher salaries. The management, economics, international biz lied somewhere in the middle with most making 40-50k upon graduation. I chose to do b2b sales (and further found my niche in tech sales and sales consulting for firms selling b2b products) because it offered me the same salary of 40-50k BUT I would get commission on top of that making it far exceed any other job I could potentially obtain with just a bachelor's. The people who tend to get the really high salaries right out of college often chose a science like engineering, chemistry, biology, physics, etc and can easily find a job making $50k to even as high as $70-$80k right out of school esp for chem majors which are in huge demand.
The thing is though while the money for those blue collar type jobs can be excellent if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, they are nonetheless hard and dirty jobs. I've been helping out with my dad's company ever since I was a preteen. All the time you have to watch out so you don't get a nail through your foot, fall off a roof (which one of my dads subcontractors just did like a month or two ago and broke a bunch of ribs), cut your finger with a saw when cutting really small pieces of wood or tile, not to mention the chemicals, lead, asbestos, and all sorts of other stuff. Almost every single product used for construction from like spray foam to regular pink insulation to
There's a few ways I think the average person can become financially successful. The first is as we discussed - find your niche, start a small business, work 50-60 hour weeks, make it successful, etc. The second is to invest your money. Even if you're a mid/high level corporate worker making say $120, $140k a year 40% is taken out. Hence, leaving you with say $60k cash out of a $100k salary, $72k cash out of $120k salary (48k taken out in taxes), etc. That's really not all that much money - if you're single its not bad and you can afford certain luxuries - but its certainly not 'phuck you money' as I like to call it. Meaning 'phuck you boss' 'phuck you car payment' 'phuck you kids' college tuition' - you don't have to worry about any of those because you have more than enough to cover them all. BUT, if you invest a good portion of that $50 $60 $70k salary - say $10-$15-$20k a year, every year - you can certainly pile up your money till you have enough to have 'phuck you' money. It doesn't even have to be all that much but putting money aside regularly - its more about investing it wise. I bought $10k worth of bitcoin a few months back like around July. It was $2,300 when I bought meaning I had like 4 bitcoins. I sold them on Monday for $5,200 a piece making almost $12k return within 3 months. I basically more than doubled my money. Of course most trades aren't that spectacular you can still make significant money investing in real estate, stocks, commodities, etc IF you know what you're doing. Also, the tax for capital gains for long term investments is FAR FAR LOWER than income taxes for a high salary.
The third way, which I think is the hardest, is to get an education all the way to graduate level, make tons of contacts, perform wonderfully at a company, gradually climb the ladder, and IF you're really good you may become a vice president, c level exec, director, etc making $200, $300k or more. Generally, the CEO positions making millions of dollars a year are going to be extremely difficult for even an excellent, very highly educated employee. However, reaching a position of say Vice President, the position of the boss I reported to my last job, is entirely realistic. He earns like $250-$300k. Nonetheless, that still isn't really 'phuck you money' since it wouldn't be enough to retire, pay off the mortgage, and live off of. Nonetheless, it definitely gives you more capital to invest with or start a small business with.
