What's your retirement plan?

[KrazyHorse]

I already spend on whatever I want. Interest on the mortgage is 5-6% of combined income (pretax money); property taxes are another 4% (pretax as I am about to start escaping the clutches of the AMT). Car payments, daycare (will likely move to a nanny soon) add another 4% or so (post-tax money). Other than those expenses, I spend 3% or so a year on vacations, 3% on food/alcohol (including restaurants, bars, groceries etc). Everything else (other than income taxes) is small potatoes.

Hopefully should be able to double income over the next 5-7 years or so, peak in the 7 figures.

[Al B. Sure!]

It is if you are working as a postdoc and have reasonable sized debts from undergrad.

So with ~$250K in foregone earnings from all those years in schooling plus ~5 full years of entry-level salary, I don't know that his degrees offer a good ROI unless he makes a career change. What sort of earnings potential does he have?

Never really understood the hoopla re: undergraduate debt. Sizable undergrad debt seems more indicative of poor financial planning than anything else, especially since Jon's undergrad degree predated the recent large inflation in education costs (tuition rates at my public alma mater have more than doubled in the 7 years since I graduated).

[KrazyHorse]

Are you an idiot? His degrees clearly have not offered a good ROI from a purely financial standpoint. Nobody who can add up numbers would think that they did.

[Al B. Sure!]

Are you an idiot? His degrees clearly have not offered a good ROI from a purely financial standpoint. Nobody who can add up numbers would think that they did.

He never stated his pay scale or potential earnings. Theoretically, there could be significant increases in average pay for his degrees after a few years. I'm giving Jon Miller the benefit of his intelligence rather than assuming poor financial decisions.

[KrazyHorse]

You narrow ****. Jon does what he does in large part because he wants to do it, not because it is the best purely financial decision.

[Al B. Sure!]

You narrow ****. Jon does what he does in large part because he wants to do it, not because it is the best purely financial decision.

I thought income was the measure of a man? I thought making professional decisions for intangible reasons, like joining the Marine Corps, were irrational?

[KrazyHorse]

You're living the dream, albie...

[Al B. Sure!]

You're living the dream, albie...

Honestly, I'm glad I'm a reservist because it offers me more flexibility. I don't know that more time in the Fleet Marine Force as a lieutenant would give me any more experience I can leverage into the private sector or more resume bullet points that I haven't already accumulated on this deployment. Maybe some more connections but until captain or I fetch an interesting billet, I probably won't gain any more private sector value.

Believe it or not, I've made significant impressions among higher echelons in a very short amount of time, especially given my grade. I wouldn't say I'm a wunderkind or anything but I made a significant contribution that has garnered attention in Germany. Come May when my current orders expire, I will have a decision to make between accepting an offer in Germany (and possibly adding more value to my resume) or returning to BNY Mellon.

[Dauphin]

As what at BNY? Dare I ask?

[Al B. Sure!]

As what at BNY? Dare I ask?

I don't know yet. I was an accountant. Definitely will seek employment elsewhere in the company, both geographically and departmentally. I'll have to see what my resume can get me.

[KrazyHorse]

I believe he is/was a fund accountant (striking navs for mutual funds as fund custodian).

[Jon Miller]

Maybe you should?

I am seriously considering it.

The thing is that I have some really great projects going on (2 more would have had publications last year if I had had childcare, 4 weeks of my travel last year was not paid for by my grants but were paid for by institutions which desired to hear me speak in Trieste and Santa Barbara). I think it is likely that within 3 years I could have a job as a professor in North America.

I actually made the decision to come to Chile based purely on financial reasons (suddenly the pay became important, and European Postdoc salary is terrible). It is possible that I could have a tenure tracked position in NA now if I had stayed in Brussels, but I wouldn't have had the other great projects because I wouldn't have had the freedom to pursue them.

JM

[KrazyHorse]

how much do euroland postdocs pay?

[KrazyHorse]

also, what would you want to do outside academia?

[Jon Miller]

There is some truth to Alby's complaint about me.

I decided to change fields and go to Europe instead of getting a postdoc in the US (because I wasn't interested in staying in the same field). This directly cost me at least 20k USD in earnings per year (postdoc salary in the US is ~50k and in Europe is ~30k, gross) plus an additional ~10k when I switched institutions and was not pulling salary for 3 months.

Additionally, there is at least 20k of inexcusable debt from graduate school (which is at least in the form of low interest (~2 percent) student loans) due to living above my means (going to bars/restaurants) for a couple of years.

I also took 7 years to get my PhD and not 5 (350k in forgone income and not 250k).

The starting salary for a professor in a good institution in the US is ~100k. A high salary in the US is >200k, which is similar to what the leader of my group (in Chile) makes.

JM