<p>On the topic of where one lives having a great deal to do with how far your dollar goes in housing, some people conclude that one is off better living where housing is less expensive, but I suspect the opposite is more likely - if you live in NYC, the salary is higher to allow for 30% (or whatever) of your salary to be able to cover your housing, and this gives you a remaining 70% which is ALSO higher (though some will be lost to taxes, naturally), even though not <em>everything</em> costs more while living in that expensive city (vacations will be the same coming from anywhere, cars are about the same or you can go somewhere else to buy the car and drive it to NYC, etc.). We live in a fairly high cost real estate area (not Silicon Valley or NYC, but also not Detroit, MI or Springfield, OH) and my feeling is that we live far better than we would if we lived in Detroit as while the housing is cheaper, the salary paid would be, too.</p>
<p>That said, the ideal for <em>making money</em> might be to work from a home office in a low priced area for a company (or companies) in NYC and the like, who are used to paying high amounts. I'd say it's the best of both worlds only I think there is a good reason many of the less expensive areas are less expensive - they are often lacking in things top quality symphony orchestras, museums, musicals, restaurants, etc. (though some lower cost areas do seem to be picking up in various areas, I doubt they will ever come close to matching what say NYC and DC have; I even found Miami a cultural wasteland compared after having lived in DC, and Miami isn't anywhere near as bad as many small cities in the world). So for me, it's not all about making money - it's mostly about quality of life (as well as quantity of life, as I suspect this differs quite a bit by city...anyone seen any research on average lifespan by city like there are charts showing it by country?).</p>
<p>In my case, it would highly depend on what I was doing for the amount of money. Getting paid e.g $10 an hour to surf the net for example, is better than earning the same amount cleaning public toilets without gloves. :D</p>
<p>^Haha, harsh words. Remember that we are on a forum of overachievers...if CC was actually representative of the general population, you'd be 100% correct, but here? I'm not so sure. I highly doubt everyone here will make $100k per year, but we probably have more future high earners than you'd expect.</p>
<p>That being said, unless I suddenly say "The hell with teaching chemistry, I'm going to study actuarial science!" while I'm at UConn, I expect to make quite a bit less than y'all.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what Engineers make over time, but the university I will be attending come fall had figures for average starting salary based on major and Electrical Engineering was either $52k or $57k... I forget which... but either way, I would be delighted to meet that - I mean, that's a sickly awesome starting salary. :D</p>
<p>I live in Long Island and my dad who is a small bussiness owner (he is a pharmacist) and spread 3 of his stores around Queens/Astoria in NYC makes $250,000. He makes money obviously from the medicine and from rent which people pay to live on top of the store which have apartments. My goal is to become either a doctor or a pharmacist but I am leaning towards pharmacy and making the 6 figures right out of college. My parents have vowed to moved back to Bangladesh once I get a professional degree (I wanted to go to NYU Tisch for film but they said they wont pay for college if I don't go get a professional degree) and I will be taking over the very tiny company as owner. I guess luck plays a huge role for have a 6-figure starting salary.</p>
<p>I knew a guy with just a high school diploma who made over $1,000 a day as a real estate appraiser when the housing market was crazy.</p>
<p>He put most college grads to shame. </p>
<p>This just goes to show you that it doesn't matter what degrees and diplomas you have under your belt. </p>
<p>The obvious thing to do in any field would be business if you're aiming for ridiculous amounts of money. Investment bankers are waisting years of their lives (which I don't think some people understand very well) inside an office and aren't even the cream of the crop when it comes to money making. </p>
<p>So a strong business sense and experience in whatever field you want to start a business in is all you need.</p>
<p>You guys are SO hysterical. You will not land a job that pays you $150K after you graduate. You will be schlepping for $30,000 a year. LOL, grow up guys!</p>
<p>"A forum of “over achievers”? What planet are you on? The tweeker on the corner street could register on this thing, LOL! You are all just pretentious little delusional children, aren’t you?</p>