What's the fastest way to earn money to ERE?

[Q]

Local 39 building engineers do 4 year apprentice-ship and make around $37 an hr after they finish.
I'm looking into consulting myself, as it pays around $100/hr roughly (before your insurance and other costs).

[fandor]

I worked two summers in summer camps in USA - it was cheapest option to improve English, better than any language school, I had free board, laundry and they even gave me some pocket money - like a grand or two for the summer.
Some of the American co-workers worked there year-around, they had free living, it was in rural area (no chances to spend money), so they paid only for grocery and some gas. I guess they could save around 1000-1500 USD / month.

[photoguy]

I think it depends on what size nest egg you are looking to achieve. Greater education/training may allow one a higher salary at the opportunity cost of delaying full-time work. Looking at my area, I think one of the better options would be a career as a police officer / firefighter. They routinely top the highest paid city employees list (granted this may be with significant overtime).

[ktn]

@photoguy Assuming you want to get to ER with your psyche intact, I would not consider the police officer option if I were you. It's a job that psychologically grinds one down (esp true in the US). Every working day you get to see, experience, and deal with the very worst in human behavior - not to mention the race and political issues that come with the turf. IMHO over time it desensitizes and dehumanizes officers in a very negative sort of way.

[Concojones]

As Sven said: a jet-setting career can boost your savings by $20k or so (rough calculation in my head), because your living expenses will be paid for (say, $10k), and you get tax-free per-diem allowances (say, $50+/day).

[futuredoctor]

What's the fastest way to earn money to ERE?
strip.

[KevinW]

Another idea, working on a cruise ship:

http://www.howtoworkonacruise.com/

[JasonB]

Are you a US citizen, whose never done drugs, has no felony convictions and can do IT Support (Help Desk, SysAd work)?
Congratulations! You can go to Iraq or Afghanistan as a contractor and make $250k/yr and up!
Your employer can get you an interim Secret clearance, a plane ticket and youre on your way!
Housing, food and transportation is paid for. All you have to do is go to work, help your customers with their Outlook and setting up their printers, bill your time correctly and watch the money roll in!
Just make sure to wear your body armor and dont go outside the wire without your armed convoy.
Oh, and if you think I'm joking, I'm not.

[il-besa]

Hi Jason,

I know you're not joking, but personally I want to have a balance between "live life now and retire tomorrow" and this is too unbalanced

too much sacrifice now for an uncertain tomorrow. (tomorrow is always uncertain anyway)

[jacob]

@il-besa - How old are you? I found both from myself and from talking to older people, that in general, you get to "keep your operating system", that is, you will feel or think the same way ten, twenty, or thirty years from now. You will probably run "different programs", that is, have different opinions.
Most "old people" I've talked to still feel young inside. More specifically, they feel the same age on the inside as they've always felt regardless of how old they get for most of their life. People definitely change their opinions and priorities though.
My point is that sacrificing in the now is usually worth it because it's "5 years of now" versus "50 years of future".

[Marius]

[deleted]

[Concojones]

@JasonB: To me this seem like an very well-paid adventure trip. What am I missing? Why isn't everyone doing this? How dangerous is it? Is it only available to US citizens? You could do this for a year and save those $250k. It's probably exciting to be in Iraq, and by the time you get bored, the year is over.

[photoguy]

From an AP news article in 2007:
"In a largely invisible cost of the war in Iraq, nearly 800 civilians working under contract to the Pentagon have been killed and more than 3,300 hurt doing jobs normally handled by the U.S. military"

[Concojones]

Thanks for that figure! You should see this in proportion to the number of people working there, though. Quick googling suggests several hundred thousands -- at any given time or in total up till now? If in total, that's like a 1% chance, which is too risky for me. If at any given time, it's probably still more than 0.1%, still a little too risky as far as I'm concerned.

[jacob]

In comparison, the annual rate of death in commercial fishing is 0.13%
The annual rate of death of eating to many hamburgers is ...
I read somewhere that in terms of getting shot it was more dangerous to live in Washington DC than it was to be stationed as a soldier in Iraq. [anecdotal]

[aquadump]

Mint.com Blog Article: Who Needs a PhD? 5 Jobs That Pay Well Without a Degree

[James_0011]

@jason

Where can I get more info about this?

[fiby41]

Crime.

Then move to other country, just if you want to be safe yourself.

[TopHatFox]

The sad part is many of us with 4-6 YEAR college degrees might end up with 30-40k jobs. Obviously this depends on what one studies, but I remember seeing some sobering stats on debt-earnings ratios for college and master's degrees (even mba's & law degrees depending on the school).

I think if I had the courage to defy cultural and family expectations 3.5 years ago, I might've at least deferred college to learn how to be a high-skill machinist/welder.

[James_0011]

@olaz

Yeah, if only I had known about ere back then. Welding or working as a machinist for the rest of my life sound awful, but if its only five years its totally doable.