How does one obtain a 6 figure income?

Invest a billion dollars in Treasury bonds.

Steal, kill, rob, inherit.

Put aside your desire to have fun and sacrifice your youth to study your ass off. Go to a professional school.

Marry it.

Work out and master your gag reflex, darlin.

just ignore the period.

They call it hookin’ honey!

You better work, bitch.

Sell your soul to the corporate devil.

Become an insufferable architect.

First, education. Second, hard work. Third, prioritize money over all else

I spent thirteen years in higher education for mine.

It starts with good life choices in school and then on the job. Of course, don’t screw yourself from the start by choosing any profession that doesn’t have the possibility of a six figure income for those with ambition who work smartly.

Go to work in the Trump Administration and fuck something up.

I outworked everyone when I got hired to a corporation. You can’t just work 8-5 and expect to get the promotion. But you can start at the bottom and work your way to the middle if you can land the initial hire. Probably helped that I am white, tall and handsome. So some of that got projected on me. Not that I complained or am going to apologize for it.

Be a sociopath

Marry rich.

I had a series of corporate jobs over my working life (I'm retired now) and gradually clawed my way north of $125K in annual compensation. It took a lot of hard work, playing office politics properly, and bringing unique skills to the job (I managed multi-million dollar software development contracts).

Start with an eight-figure income and make some bad choices.

[quote] Probably helped that I am white, tall and handsome

It continues to baffle me why DLers insist on telling anonymous strangers who will never know if they are R218 on one thread and R432 on another that they are very good looking, have great skin, look much younger than they are, have great eyes.

WTF

Step one: Find a job that pays at least $100,000 per year.

I go out in public with a sign that says “will suck dick for six figures“

Become a pulmonologist. Intubate 27 deathly ill COVID-19 patients a day, with one paper mask to protect you from whatever they're breathing on you.

Six figures in student loans.

[quote]Become an insufferable architect.

They're insufferable enough at the $50K a year they average in the US.

Work 3 jobs.

I'm an escort. I make 5 figures a year and file my taxes in Canada, where it's legal to rent my talent out by the hour.

Jealous, bitches?

Become a hedge fund manager. Even better, start your own hedge fund.

Slackers don’t want to hear the obvious way to succeed: 1) Locate your bootstraps; 2) pull yourself up by them.

There are always exceptions, but work ethic usually has a lot to do with it, as does being in the right profession. I've seen some pretty dumb people climb the corporate ladder. Dumb, but dedicated and worked all the time. It's amazing how many idiots rise to the top on work ethic alone. If you're smart with a good work ethic, you're a unicorn. Most people are pretty lazy.

Being in the right profession is important, too. A hard working, intelligent public school teacher is not likely to get to six figures unless she or he goes into administration.

Selling your soul to my Master and Lord Satan Heil Satan

Marry well.

Changing your college major from "women's studies" to "business administration" might help.

If you know how to sell realestate, you might do all right? Or weed.

Combo of hard work and pure luck

R27 I am envious

Be attractive. There is a premium paid to pretty people.

What r13 said.

If you want to make money, plan for making money. Study the right thing in school, go into the right field. You look at the fields and jobs that pay well and that is the route you take.

Go to a good law school. Work very hard and try to get a summer associate position at a Wall Street firm.

Stay for a few years, maybe 5-6. Work hard but don’t kill your self, you don’t want to be a partner. Be nice to everyone and especially to the clients. Then try to go in-house, focusing on the companies you have been working with (but be mindful of any restrictions you agreed to in your terms of employment.

There you go. Six figures easily.

^^^Yourself

Be smart when deciding on your major. Don't look for something you think will be fun or interesting, Find something that pays really, really well and go for it

I hate to ruin your illusions, but I have known and worked with people at all levels of income.

In general, people who make more than six figures work less and less intensively than people who make less than six figures.

Of course, they all believe the opposite because the people who make less cover their asses.

Be an Orthopedic Surgeon in Elderly - heavy Enclaves like Florida or Arizona. You will literally be buying your new boat every few Hip Replacement or so.

Thanks R25. I've known 3 architects in my life (including a LT relationship with one of them): none of them were making very much money, and given their levels of higher education, the work they were doing didn't sound very intellectually or creatively stimulating.

Is it some movie/TV cliche that architects are well paid and/or rich?

[quote] Put aside your desire to have fun and sacrifice your youth to study your ass off. Go to a professional school. Et. Al.

[quote] First, education. Second, hard work. Third, prioritize money over all else

I enjoy the humor, but more seriously: OP, Enjoy simple living, especially when you’re young. I never wanted or expected a fancy car or home, or so forth. You need to get an education or experience in a field that pays well. If Chemical Engineering isn’t your thing, consider carpentry. Consider a field that can’t be overtaken by an H1B Visa person. Or outsourced to Bangalore. Hair styling perhaps? Then consider opening your own store.

Good luck!

I also agree about Following The Money when choosing a field. In the 90s when I was "finding myself professionally" I met many money movers/finance guys who were not all especially bright and/or hard-working. That once and for all killed the cherished "do what you love" myth for me. These were guys my age (gay and straight) whose annual bonuses outweighed my annual salary.

So I found out soon enough: moving money wasn't my thing. But I could learn sales--most people with half a brain can. So I worked very hard at it. I doubled, then tripled my income over the next decade. No regrets 2-3 decades later.

There are no sure things in life, but don't say NO when someone's waving a dollar bill at you, either.

Get an education, and not something stupid like liberal arts..

Anyone who can create a solid value proposition can make money. Find something to do that rises above what other people in the same field are doing, either by exploiting a niche or putting a creative spin on it.

IT is it.

Become a pharmacist. It's not that bad. And you make a great salary. It's only about 6 years of school

I'm pretty close to six figures (low 90's) and I am in my mid 40's.. I work in the IT part of an insurance company.

I will say I do NOT have a degree in IT (or a degree at all - I'm a dropout). Claim processing systems are highly specialized, and being a "regular" programmer doesn't really help. My manager, who was hired in the same training class as me, has an MBA. I have a pretty good idea what he makes, and while more, I don't know that the cost of the MBA really paid for itself. Several other people who I started with are in the same position, and we all make about the same, and he was the only one with an MBA.

I will say, that at least at my company, there is an unofficial "limit" if you don't have an MBA. There are exceptions, but if you don't have one, you will never be a director or above.

He also has. a lot more drive. I would never, EVER, want to be a manager. I'm just too blunt and don't really have the people skills (and no desire to learn/refine them).

It is really a combination or R9, R18, and R35.

Pharmacy school costs north of $100,000 as they are almost always private schools R50. They do make good money, but consider that you are dealing with the public 24/7. You want to deal with someone who can't get their oxycontin? A lot of healthcare positions can pay over $100,000 and don't have as much patient contact (something in nuclear medicine).

Money isn't everything.

Pass.

Invest 10k bitcoin. Wait till next December. You are welcome

[quote]Pharmacy school costs north of $100,000 as they are almost always private schools [R50]. They do make good money, but consider that you are dealing with the public 24/7.

Wrong. there are plenty of state schools, over 60 of them. And hospital pharmacists as well as home health and numerous other kinds of pharmacists don't deal with the public. They even have nuclear pharmacists

Thanks r54 for providing a long to a public pharmacy school that costs less than $100k all in. I appreciate your informative response.

Graduates with Pharm D degrees also work in some positions within the (enormous) pharmaceutical industry, outside of pharma retail (drugstores, dispensaries, etc.) These are corporate positions in Research & Development, Sales & Marketing, Training, etc. They're challenging and competitive but can be very lucrative.

Anyone around the NY/NJ/PA area should explore this.

[quote]Thanks [R25]. I've known 3 architects in my life (including a LT relationship with one of them): none of them were making very much money, and given their levels of higher education, the work they were doing didn't sound very intellectually or creatively stimulating. Is it some movie/TV cliche that architects are well paid and/or rich?

Very few architects achieve the levels of success we see in pop culture. It's like anything else, I suppose. I went to architecture school but never took the NCARBs or became licensed. Instead, I found niche design jobs in parallel fields that pay better and offer far more interesting work.

I know a guy who was an architect from a small town and makes a killing. He moved to a bigger market but he teamed up with another winner and they are doing really well.

Also friends with a guy who started mowing laws as a teen and now owns a huge, multimillion dollar landscaping company.

Actually I know a few self made guys come to think of it, one from shrewd real estate moves, another made a good lot from doing hair.

There is money to be made but don’t trust the corporate devil to keep its side of the bargain. You have to look out for number one if you go the corporate route.

It's an enormous risk, but it is true that most first-time millionaires (at least in the 20th century) were successful entrepreneurs: small-business owners, start-ups, etc. Not those working for large corporate entities.

2 thousand a week. A good stripper could make that.

If you don't have the education - Go into sales or recruiting. I was making well over 100k as a recruiter in my 20's. Agency, not corporate, corporate doesn't pay nearly as much.

My recipe was:

quite good looks

upper 10% IQ (no need to be a genius)

extremely wide reading

get the most pretentious & prestigious diplomas possible

when young - be the one at work who says yes and then produces

remember to say please and thank you and to be nice to people. this is especially important from age 15-35. Exceptions are if you are in finance or are aiming for 7 figure income, in which case it pays off or is quite essential to be a sociopath

Hold a prayer circle.

I.T./I.S. can pay well into six figures.

Have a seven figure income, get divorced and voila!

I managed to do it, but it was a complete accident. I only have an Associate of the Arts (I know!), cannot "network" or kiss ass (or any other body part of anyone other than my husband), and definitely do not dress the part. But I worked hard, cared about the quality of my work, and was willing to take on jobs that other people couldn't be bothered with. But if I were just starting out (instead of getting ready to retire), I know that everything I did to get where I'm at would instead only result in my being an overworked person making $10 an hour.

I work part-time and I made six figures last year:

$8, 225.43

Education (probably at least a Masters), learn everything you can at every job you take, be a decent human being, and be in the right place at the right time.

Step 1 - be hot. Step 2 - be a whore.

[quote] In general, people who make more than six figures work less and less intensively than people who make less than six figures.

In general, working harder is a straw man. Most successful people wouldn’t claim they are literally working harder. They would say they work harder at doing the right things and making the right decisions. If you show up for work every day with no plan for advancement and work until exhaustion, you are not going to get ahead.

Go to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Even the lowliest peon there makes 100K annually.

Or go to work in the health insurance industry. Denying people access to health care while robbing them blind with ever increasing premiums seems to be quite lucrative.

Major in math. It doesn't have to be at an Ivy League school. But you have to actually do your homework and learn the material.

The teachers in my (NE suburban) district make 100K+ w/ benefits. There aren't enough math teachers.

Again, what [R13] said. I worked crazy hard initially and sacrificed a lot while a lot of my friends chose career paths that didn’t pay well. Once I got my foot in the door in my chosen career, the job offer kept coming my way with significant increases in pay and benefits with each change. I was finally lucky to be able to choose the type of organization (and corporate values) that were important to me. The job and time commitment for the work became easier and the bonuses keep going up.

One blowjob at a time.

I read that There’s a shortage of mathematic experts familiar with AI programming and they can command $400K salary

STEM, people.

[quote]STEM is an acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Discussion of STEM-related programs has become a presidential priority because too few college students are pursuing degrees in these field

No one with any aptitude for any of these should be studying the humanities in college. That's a dead end and complete waste of time and energy. Of course, if you cannot handle STEM, have at it, but you will not have the same opportunities. This will not change anytime soon.

you have to risk being an absolute despicable coworker who stabs colleagues in the back all the time. you never pass up the opportunity to make others look bad. you also have sex with disgusting colleagues in order to gain advancement. you are shameless and unscrupulous. you are not fun to work with. you betray people by seeking opportunities to do so. and if you are a woman, you "cry" at work to weasel your way out of being blamed for own rotten behavior and lack of talent. your work always sucks and is mediocre. you take credit for others' efforts. you lie. and you're the first person who issues criticism at group meetings. when you do go out to dinner with friends, you are always the last one to submit payment -- to see how little you can pay. you gloat over people beneath you. never in the direction "up" the chain. however, you are very smart when it comes to not attaching your name in emails. and you constantly look at the distribution of people copied on emails. you are always concerned about "appearances." you play people all the time. you're ruthless. you enjoy observing the techniques deployed by 45. you brush off criticism -- even when it sticks. you never apologize. you always attack.

Well the issue with STEM is that first world workers are competing with equally qualified and brilliant second and third world workers who do it for less, and also compete for the jobs actually in first world countries at first world salaries.

Perform a job for which there is a lot of demand and low supply of workers (i.e. surgeons)

[quote]How does one obtain a 6 figure income?

If you have to ask, you will most likely never obtain one through most traditional means that would be shared here because you most likely lack:

- the intelligence and/or education. Many of the jobs require attainment of a certain level of education. Of course, intelligence and education are not the same thing, but getting into the handful of decent schools, getting decent grades, and graduating are simplified significantly if you are smart.

- the motivation. Your question demonstrates that you would rather sit back and have people hand you answers than do some research and thinking on your own. Your question was not, "What do I need to do to become an investment banker, commodities trader, management consultant at McKinsey" or some such. It wanted someone to hand you the answer. Jobs like M&A at an investment bank or management consulting at BCG, even the kinder, gentler BCG that pretends to give people work/life balance, require 60hrs per week, plus travel and often more.

- connections. Not all jobs require connections. However, you didn't say "so-and-so suggested I might be suited for x career that makes six figures." Breaking into many of these jobs is often much easier if you know someone.

Of course, one doesn't need to possess all of these (and others). But, one cannot have bereft of all of them.

I dropped out of college and got into advertising as a copywriter. Made my focus primarily digital and just rode that wave over the past 18 years. I've been making anywhere between 150 and 200k since 2009 and invested as much as I could. This last crash has thrown me for a loop though. I'm going to continue freelancing for now with an eye towards a career change - probably social work. Yeah, it pays shit --but there are always jobs, especially in city government which also has amazing benefits.

I think there is sometimes a trade-off between meaningful work and money. The people I know who make a lot of money do not seem motivated by anything else. They do not wake up eager to go to work and do not seem to get much satisfaction.

Of course, a lot of these are STEM people who I think come in with a sense of inferiority or a chip on their shoulders to begin with. Not able to achieve (and in some cases not able to even pursue) their real ambitions, they settle for a decent paycheck. It is a hard life.

I would consider a sales career. There is no limit to what you can make. You would need to research what type you enter into. I have had a 40+ year career as an independent contractor insurance agent for a multiline insurance company. I am my own boss, made a ton of money over the years. I have been fortunate to keep my staff people (one for 32 years, one for 20 years and one recently retired after 17 years) which make a huge difference in your ability to keep policyholders as they love my staff. One of the reasons insurance is so good once you build your book is reoccurring revenue. Just my two cents

Go to North Dakota or Texas and work in the oilfield or pipeline. Six grand a month, easy.

[quote] Of course, a lot of these are STEM people who I think come in with a sense of inferiority or a chip on their shoulders to begin with. Not able to achieve (and in some cases not able to even pursue) their real ambitions, they settle for a decent paycheck. It is a hard life.

Why would they have a sense of inferiority? They are the smartest, hardest working people at school and have some of the most prestigious jobs. What would be their real ambitions? If they succeeded in STEM, the certainly could’ve succeeded in anything else they would have tried.

R84,

12 x $6000 = $72,000. Even in TX. Even in ND. You would still be a decimal point away from six figures.

R86 You’re right. But $6K is what you would make walking onto a job site with just a pair of boots. The operators and foreman and welders are the ones who can make six figures easily.

Become a plumber.

If you're my cousin, you become a semi-literate high school graduate who gets a job with a janitorial service. You then meet an overweight woman at a factory and upon hearing that her uncle is the president, begin dating her and eventually get her pregnant. You then marry the woman and now become part of their extended Italian family. Within a year of your son being born and naming him after your wife's grandfather, you get made vice president of acquisitions and spend the next two decades sitting behind a desk doing sweet fuck all and getting paid $250k a year plus bonuses.

R85 shows what I was talking about.

STEM is too vague. Good luck making 100k with a bachelors in biology or chemistry.

When people say STEM they really mean computer science, engineering and statistics. Those type of fields are the ticket to a nice paying career.

Agree with R82 - it requires a love of money above happiness for most people. At least in my field, finance, the only thing that people care about is money. Most of them have wanted to do this since high school and spent years focused on getting to Wall Street. It’s so much easier for them because they see making lots of money as the only goal in life - and it’s the essence of their self esteem and perceived importance.

I’ve always felt there is more to life and that I could die young - so it’s pure torture. I’m doing it to try to have some kind of retirement fund - then hope to quit by 50 and do something vaguely rewarding - or at least that I don’t dread every day of my life.

R77: [quote]you are shameless and unscrupulous. you are not fun to work with. you betray people by seeking opportunities to do so.

Wow, someone is feeling underappreciated.

Sell tons of workout gear to each person who signs up for aerobics class.

Regards STEM - back in the 1960's we were going the right way on math and engineering. Had to the space program needed both. We've got nothing big driving education anymore. It's funny I've studied a whole lot of math for my Information Science degree - also know who he progenitor of Information Science was - one Claude Shannon of Bell Labs. He's my hero btw, he came up with Information Theory and then rested on his laurels the rest of his career.

Education, theft, or suck a mean dick.

R95

Throw in some writing courses. I know you must have had a point in there somewhere.

Unless your Kung Fu puts you in the upper echelon, you need communication chops. On first read, you don't fall in the first category.

First you need to get a wheelchair and a red haired gypsy boyfriend. Next, you need to steal enough mail so that you can resell the contents to make enough money for your political campaign. Once you're in office, you will be making your six figures. You could also go to medical school but you'll have better luck in politics being a criminal and all.

Done.

Fuck right off, R97, you stupid cunt. No one cares what you “think.” Are you lost, hun? Do you not realize where you are? You’re actually critiquing someone’s writing here at the DL? Now THAT’S funny. I answered OP’s question, you obtuse twit. Reading comprehension is usually covered in the third grade, perhaps you should have tried a “second read,” dear. Now run along, take your Risperidone, and journal in your DBT notebook.

Parade magazine just had their annual "what people make" edition.

I was shocked to see a 19 year old made $120,000 by having a few vending machines in some prime places.

r77 types like he majored in liberal arts and earns $24,000 a year.

You forgot drug money, R2.

Liberal Arts majors eventually earn more than STEM majors.

Manifest it.

[quote] Thanks [R54] for providing a long to a public pharmacy school that costs less than $100k all in. I appreciate your informative response.

So what? It's a year's salary. It's worth it.

[quote] a 19 year old made $120,000 by having a few vending machines in some prime places.

...how?

R103, is that claim supportable by any real-world data?

It sounds like something I heard at my liberal arts college in the late 80s/early 90s, and certainly not true to my own experience.

r107, it depends on a lot of different factors. As far as academic programs, some specialties like engineering or advertising make a ton straight out of their undergraduate program because they've got fresh cutting edge training, but unless they go back for a graduate degree or go into management, their earning potential drops as new talent comes on the market. If you have a degree in studio art or English lit or history you aren't going to have a ready-made high-paying career to step right into, but those specialties might turn out to be excellent preparation if you're planning to go into a specialization that requires graduate study like law or business or journalism. Even undergraduate professional programs generally require students to take a few courses in liberal arts, social studies and science so they've developed their brains a little beyond the cookie-cutter requirements of a certain industry.

Well, it's no trick to make a lot of money if what you want to do is make a lot of money.

There are a several misconceptions that need to be destroyed.

1) The whole 'do what you love and the money will follow' is bullshit and Hallmark-card wishful thinking.

2) That if you work hard early, there will be a time when you don't have to work as hard. No - there is never a point where you get to just 'coast'.

Make yourself invaluable by working more hours and doing more than what is expected of you. Learn and study more in your field or business in your off-time to put yourself ahead of others. Look for openings or wholes in the business that need to be filled. Lastly, talk with managers and executives and ask what you need to do to get promoted or advanced.

"People think that success just happens. It doesn't." - Miranda Priestley - a very true quote.

edit: holes not wholes! Sorry.

R107

The hard data for the above largely comes from the Census, but my favorite insight form the above article:

One reason for the narrowing gap is that STEM jobs change rapidly, and workers must constantly learn new skills to keep up. In a recent working paper with a Harvard doctoral student, Kadeem Noray, I calculated how much the skills required for different jobs changed over time. Help-wanted ads for jobs like software developer and engineer were more likely to ask for skills that didn’t exist a decade earlier. And the jobs of 10 years ago often required skills that have since become obsolete. Skill turnover was much higher in STEM fields than in other occupations.

We can also see this by looking at changes in college course catalogs. One of the largest and most popular courses in the Stanford computer science department is CS229 — Machine Learning, taught by the artificial intelligence expert and entrepreneur Andrew Ng. This course did not exist in its current form until 2003, when Professor Ng taught it for the first time with 68 students, and very little like it existed anywhere on college campuses 15 years ago. Today, the machine learning courses at Stanford enroll more than a thousand students.

In contrast, much less has changed in my home discipline, economics, where we still mostly offer the classics like intermediate microeconomics or public finance.

Since new technical skills are always in high demand, young college graduates who have them earn a short-run salary premium. Yet when the job changes, these now experienced workers must learn new technical skills to keep up with fresh college graduates and a constant stream of talent from abroad.

The result is slower salary growth and high exit rates from the STEM work force. Between the ages of 25 and 40, the share of STEM majors working in STEM jobs falls from 65 percent to 48 percent. Many of them shift into managerial positions, which pay well but do not always require specialized skills.

R113 - well, one of the problems is to stop importing the 'talent from abroad' who keep taking away STEM jobs. There is no reason for this - we can create specialized tech schools in the US for these jobs as well.

Indians don't have some special talent for IT, but you would think so by how many Indian immigrants there are in US IT departments.

The problem is not lack of schools, R114. People from other countries pay full tuition and work for cheaper when they graduate.

Americans are just an expensive luxury.

[quote] Indians don't have some special talent for IT

Not only do they not have special talent, in my outsourced IT department, it takes the work of three or four Indians to equal the output of the American they replaced. The quality of their work is horrible. All that matters to management is the hourly rate per resource.

R27, that you are an escort? No

peroxide, nair and implants

Part education, part looks, part height, part luck and being male. That's what I would chalk mine up to.

R77 have you thought of writing a manual and passing it off as satire? It would make money

I make 6 figures working for a finance company and I barely completed one semester of college. I work hard for it but I believe it's 90% luck and being at the right place at the right time. A guy in my department has an MBA from Harvard and he was floored when I told him I don't have a degree. I said think of all that money you wasted to end up at the same place as me.

R121, yeah but he the COVID-19 issue and all the changes happening in finance now and in the future if you and your pal get laid off guess who would find it easier to get their foot back in the door — him.

R115 - You misunderstand. There are specific skill-based schools in India to supply the IT Jobs in the US. They concentrate specifically on a system or job skill.

We don't have anything like this for regular Americans. I'm not talking about foreign students to US Universities - I'm talking about hiring all of the foreign IT workers that graduate from this degree mill specialized schools in their own country.

R121 - that was a really douchey thing to say to the guy with the MBA.

Shows that you have money, but no manners or social graces.

People who don’t get their college degree spend the rest of their lives feeling insecure about it. Believe me it’s worse to be R121 than to listen to his “scathing commentary”

He asked me where I went to school and I told him I didn't. Nothing douchey about that. He also agreed with me that going into massive debt to pay for college wasn't worth it. We get along just fine, he's a good guy.

R126 you are so funny, you truly believe he agrees with you?

I'm telling yah the great depression is around the corner and guess who is going to be out: you. I suspect Mr Harvard will have the last laugh.

I bring in four times the amount to our company than he does. Not worried R127

Here you go, OP.