What do y'all do for a living?

01-15-2026

"Affordability" can certainly have a wide variety of definitions. To some, that means only if it can be paid for in cash. To others, it's driven by a monthly payment amount - damn the terms even if that means paying 50% of the vehicle's value on top in interest over time. I get your question in the general sense, and I'm not looking to nitpick - I just think it can become a slippery slope to aim a career path based on obtaining a checked box that it can be "afforded." There are plenty of folks driving around in near six figure vehicles that may be floating day-to-day by the way of a growing credit card balance.

Dad mode out of the way, if you're looking for suggestions with a conservative, yet wide net, pursue something that has tremendous overlap. This isn't to say that something specialized like dentistry cannot be lucrative (my mom worked for one for probably 40 years - he has multiple BMWs

), just the same as a welder or a plumber. My neighbor just finished up his multimillion dollar home build by running a local spray foam insulation outfit. My suggestion is to get something with a big umbrella that can be used anywhere. Engineering, business, finance, etc. I've been in industrial powertrain, pest control, healthcare, agriculture, mining, blah blah blah...

Second on kicking off retirement good and early. I opened my first retirement account at 14 - knock on wood, getting where I want for retirement figures "should" be a breeze. As such, it opens up some fun money until then without going into worry mode about the future.

01-15-2026

Moe2Moto wrote
My advisor told me there was no difference. (There is) but I’m still majoring in chemistry, but taking the required classes to get into dental school. Regardless of my major.

Sorry, but I have to include this from Seinfeld:
Kramer: You think that dentists are so different from me and you? They came to this country just like everybody else, in search of a dream.

Jerry: Kramer, he's just a dentist.

Kramer: Yeah, and you're an anti-dentite.

Jerry: I am not an anti-dentite!

Kramer: You're a rabid anti-dentite! Oh, it starts with a few jokes and some slurs. "Hey, denty!" Next thing you know you're saying they should have their own schools.

Jerry: They do have their own schools!

01-15-2026

Injection molding engineer.

01-15-2026

Commercial pilot….as my old man told me when I was thinking of getting out of the Navy: “flying for a living is a fantastic part time job, but the crappiest career in the world”. Boy was he right.

I was very fortunate, in a lot of ways, in that I was able to fly on active duty for a decade, then in the reserves for over a decade. It became the back-up plan for when the airline job was not very good in the 2000s. That said I have many, many friends and colleagues who applied themselves in a wide variety of fields and industries, mostly not flying, to get thru the furloughs, etc. Virtually all of them came back to flying eventually. It’s that good of a part-time job. Set the parking brake at the end of a 4 day, go home, work on your cars or other hobbies, side business, etc. and don’t think about the Company until your next trip. And when you do go to work you are flying planes.

Getting yourself to a position where you qualify to apply is the challenge. I went the military route and loved it. I’d recommend it to anyone, even with the lengthy commitments. Mine was 7 years after wings, now aviation contracts are running 10 years for most services. If you go the civilian route, paying for your flight training initially, it’s expensive and will take less time, but it can be a real slog. Young an unmarried, who cares because you are flying planes. Kids and a wife make it tough as you are gone a lot as a junior pilot (seniority based industry) and making highly average wages. That said, in 8 years maybe, economy depended, you can get the experience and licenses you need to qualify for an interview with a major airline.

I’d recommend the military route, but that’s just my experience. Plus, lots of guys do 20 years and then get out and go right to a major airline. FAA mandated retirement is at 65 for us so they will have 10+ years flying commercially and their mil pension.

Working for a unionized major airline is the goal. The only reason it’s a job with having, and that flying on a US/EU/Asian flagged major airline-carrier airplane is the safest form of transportation in the world, by multiples, is because of the union which advocates relentlessly for safe practices, operations and scheduling. The system safety practices and policies developed (with management) and adopted at major union carriers are eventually adopted at virtually all major carriers, unionized or not.

Contracts across the industry are good right now, lead by (at my airline) competent and smart management and an active and engaged union. It’s not always this way and there will be ups and downs for sure, but the nature of the job as you build seniority will afford you time to develop a side gig or be a mil reservist which is your safety net should the economy crash or other factors cause an industry implosion again (covid, 911, etc.)

Happy to talk more about it…pm me if you are interested

01-15-2026

Sales/ real estate

Do what makes you happy. At the end of the day you’re the one who has to do that for a living. I love what I do.

01-15-2026

Buildings construction investor, it runs in the family for more than 25y now.
My advice is to follow your heart and your interests, lets say you are really interested in being a dentist, if you really fell in love with that idea, than pursuit it, because when you learn and study, and later work in that branche, it is SOOOO much easier to learn/work because you will have big interest and Joy doing it.
If its some field that can bring you a lot of money but you are like 60% interested in it, you may find it hard to study, everythings looks boring and drains your energy.
Blessed are the people who love their job. Currently i am not 100% enjoying my business, but when i reach certain level of savings, i hope i can start my own business with something about cars or bikes, i love automoto world and that is something i find super engaging, like for example, when i studied for my MBA, i fell asleep reading those boring financial terms, laws and so on (boring to me at the time, not generally speaking), but you give me news paper 20pages long about modern cars, i will read it casually once, and remember like 30% of the text without trying.
Being able to go to your job with a smile on your face instead of with a stressful grin, is almost priceless. Good luck to you ofcourse, cheers

01-15-2026

maticCRO wrote
Buildings construction investor, it runs in the family for more than 25y now.
My advice is to follow your heart and your interests, lets say you are really interested in being a dentist, if you really fell in love with that idea, than pursuit it, because when you learn and study, and later work in that branche, it is SOOOO much easier to learn/work because you will have big interest and Joy doing it.
If its some field that can bring you a lot of money but you are like 60% interested in it, you may find it hard to study, everythings looks boring and drains your energy.
Blessed are the people who love their job. Currently i am not 100% enjoying my business, but when i reach certain level of savings, i hope i can start my own business with something about cars or bikes, i love automoto world and that is something i find super engaging, like for example, when i studied for my MBA, i fell asleep reading those boring financial terms, laws and so on (boring to me at the time, not generally speaking), but you give me news paper 20pages long about modern cars, i will read it casually once, and remember like 30% of the text without trying.
Being able to go to your job with a smile on your face instead of with a stressful grin, is almost priceless. Good luck to you ofcourse, cheers

I’ve been seeing everyone say do what you’re interested or what you love. Frankly I don’t know what I’m interested or what I love. I loved being in the office environment and working with everyone. But I haven’t been shadowing recently, so I don’t know if that love is still there. I know the obvious answer is to shadow, but I unfortunately do not have the time.

01-15-2026

Alfisti wrote
There's balance int he whole save early thing. I get the math but truth be told, once at 45 or so, shit starts to get less fun cos you just cannot do what you could at 22. I dropped a shit ton of money on travel and cars and yeah sometimes I regret it but it's not the same doing it now at near 50... it just.... isn't.

When I received my car, my dad told me to enjoy my youth, but always focus on school. School has always been the main priority. But I’m afraid I’ll be unable to find a balance between when it’s enough for me to stop spending and when it’s the best time for me to start saving. As of now, I have stopped wasting money, but would also like some advice on how to save or invest my money.

01-15-2026

I never said waste it. I am a scrooge at heart and saved a lot when young but then spent it on experiences, I didn't blow it on cigarettes and booze so to speak.

01-15-2026

As a few have mentioned, I was also lucky enough to fall into my career.

This year will mark 26 years in Commercial Banking; the last 23 years specializing in Goverment Banking credit. I’m in a credit leader role and responsible for a large portion of the country.

It has been a great career thus far and allowed me to move around the country.

Good luck with becoming a denitist. I hope you end up like my current dentist; just great all around.

Also, start saving for retirement from day one...

01-15-2026

lots of golf!

01-15-2026

Enterprise PMO - specializing in manufacturing/planning

Similar to you, when I was younger I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I interned in the finance sector then technology. My first job was in marketing. I ended up at nearly the polar opposite. Point is, just keep yourself open to new opportunities. I think you'll be surprised at what randomly you come across.

01-15-2026

Moe2Moto wrote
...I’ll start, I’m 23, I’m in college majoring in Chemistry in hopes of being a dentist. Currently unemployed and in school.

So I'm a dentist practicing for almost 35 years. My father was an Oral Surgeon and retired early and became a lawyer at 55. Have you looked at the cost? Many people are graduating loans of almost $700k. Furthermore, the profession is changing, and corporate chains are begining to dominate. I am fortuante that I am not on any insurance plans, but it is getting more and more difficult to keep that business model.

None of my dentist friends have had any of their kids go into dentistry or medicine. And my wife who is a Periodontist agrees with me that we don't want out kids going into dentistry.

Just food for thought.

01-15-2026

DocL wrote
Have you looked at the cost? Many people are graduating loans of almost $700k. .

This is the result of a failed state. Complete and utter lunacy.

01-15-2026

I am still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

01-15-2026

Alfisti wrote
This is the result of a failed state. Complete and utter lunacy.

Yessir. I agree 100%.

Our entire education system is utter lunacy. If my kids were to go to Boston U and Tufts Dental like I did, it would cost in excess of $1,000,000. There is no way I'm letting my kids get into that much debt. And I don't even think secondary education is needed anymore for people to be successful.

01-15-2026

I retired a couple of years ago. Started out as a software engineer, and stayed in that field my whole career, eventually becoming a VP of engineering at a public company toward the end. I enrolled in business at college, but within two weeks of my first Fortran class I switched my major to software engineering. Just loved it, and no regrets.

Managed to save some money. About 25 years ago I got deep into the stock market. First five years I made a pile of mistakes, but managed to not lose everything. Got heavy into Apple, Amazon, Google, etc., in the later 2000's, and that set me and wife up for the future.

If I could council my younger self, I would have shipped my butt to silicon valley to get involved with a start up or two. Austin also a good place for that today. Any opportunity to build your own business is definitely a ton of work, but extremely rewarding (I was part of an IPO in the 90's).

Ultimately, if I didn't enjoy what I did, for the most part, the struggle would have been exponentially harder.

What I told my two step-daughters over a decade ago: Try to get all of your career missteps out of the way before you turn 30. Also, personal relationships turn out to be way more beneficial than skills and experience. Your connections can help you get way further. My best job opportunities were never advertised, but came from my contact list.

01-15-2026

DocL wrote
Yessir. I agree 100%.

Our entire education system is utter lunacy. If my kids were to go to Boston U and Tufts Dental like I did, it would cost in excess of $1,000,000. There is no way I'm letting my kids get into that much debt. And I don't even think secondary education is needed anymore for people to be successful.

That's just fucking wild.

01-15-2026

DocL wrote
So I'm a dentist practicing for almost 35 years. My father was an Oral Surgeon and retired early and became a lawyer at 55. Have you looked at the cost? Many people are graduating loans of almost $700k. Furthermore, the profession is changing, and corporate chains are begining to dominate. I am fortuante that I am not on any insurance plans, but it is getting more and more difficult to keep that business model.

None of my dentist friends have had any of their kids go into dentistry or medicine. And my wife who is a Periodontist agrees with me that we don't want out kids going into dentistry.

Just food for thought.

Can you elaborate a bit more? I’m aware of the debt, and have a targeted school that’ll have very little debt, of course I have back up schools in case I don’t get in. But please elaborate more.

01-15-2026

Alfisti wrote
That's just fucking wild.

People have no idea what costs to become a dentist. And then afterwards what it costs to run an office. To build out a three operatory office will cost around $500k, and that's before you open the front door.

01-15-2026

Moe2Moto wrote
Can you elaborate a bit more? I’m aware of the debt, and have a targeted school that’ll have very little debt, of course I have back up schools in case I don’t get in. But please elaborate more.

The consensus with a lot of dentists, and on the private the FB dental pages where I am a member, is that dentistry is not worth it to go into today. Now this may just be a small sample size, but all of my friends feel the same way. And that should say something.

Now if it's your dream to become a dentist, then by all means follow your dream. I just like to be brutally honest when I've seen the profession change over the past 15 years, and not for the best, business wise.

And btw, I was a Psychology major in college. One of my friends was a nutrition major. Another was a history major, and so on. Picking a science major makes it alot harder on yourself in college with the workload. I did have all A's in the pre-med classes.

HTH.

01-16-2026

DocL wrote
People have no idea what costs to become a dentist. And then afterwards what it costs to run an office. To build out a three operatory office will cost around $500k, and that's before you open the front door.

Yeah I figured the office would be high, all that gear etc, but for the future of your country you just cannot have these exorbitant education costs, it is so short sighted.

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What do y'all do for a living?