6 Figures 6 Certs Random Thoughts Thread

[Formerly Black Trash]

I make 50k at my MSP job, getting my CCNA in a few months and then getting my AZ104.

Been here 7 months and I want to go for more money plus be non client facing

I've been exposed to a lot( Barracuda, Azure, Office 365 Admin) but I think I'll have to thug it out and at least get promoted to tech

I know a lot of ppl in my family that make more than me. I came up good and fukked it up by being aimless in school

Visited my cousin recently in Cali and saw how he was living and that made me want to grind

It just kind of frustrates me that I'll have to grind it out. Might have to be here 2 years at a minimum

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

A YouTuber I follow got his shyt hacked, thought he had 2 Factor Authentication on but didn't. Could have lost his whole livelihood . I said lemme make sure I have it enabled for all my money stuff.

 

[Serious]

6 hours of sleep a day?

Eh, better off waking up later 2-3 days a week to get more sleep. I don't know how people are working out and then skipping breakfast either.

I'm nitpicking though. Exercise is key.

I somehow manage to get 8 hours whether I like it or not. It's not consistent though.

I'd crash hard if I wasn't wfh.

Taking these naps in between meetings is clutch or after 2pm all my meetings are usually clear so, I catch some make up zzz.

 

[Serious]

My linkedin was full of people getting new jobs. Now it's full of people getting laid off. Gotdamn what a change...I called it though.

I keep my resume updated and floating just in case.

 

[cartierhoe]

Excited to start my new grad position in a couple weeks and want to set goals and budget for savings and investments and wanted to ask the 6 certs fam for advice. I'll be making in the range of 85-90k with a 10% performance bonus at the end of the year. Now I'm blessed to be able to work remotely and I'll be living with my folks. I'm not really a big spender and would consider myself frugal, and plan to use this opportunity to build up my savings and investments.

I plan to maximize my 401k, the company matches up to 5%, also plan to maximize roth ira this year. I plan to invest every month into a brokerage in index funds.

How do ya'll budget and set goals for the year financial and otherwise? From lurking for awhile @phcitywarrior I'd definitely like to ask how you come up with yours. Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[Serious]

Excited to start my new grad position in a couple weeks and want to set goals and budget for savings and investments and wanted to ask the 6 certs fam for advice. I'll be making in the range of 85-90k with a 10% performance bonus at the end of the year. Now I'm blessed to be able to work remotely and I'll be living with my folks. I'm not really a big spender and would consider myself frugal, and plan to use this opportunity to build up my savings and investments.

I plan to maximize my 401k, the company matches up to 5%, also plan to maximize roth ira this year. I plan to invest every month into a brokerage in index funds.

How do ya'll budget and set goals for the year financial and otherwise? From lurking for awhile @phcitywarrior I'd definitely like to ask how you come up with yours. Any and all advice is appreciated.

Automate your budget as much as possible.

Live below your means.

 

[greenvale]

Just bought a car

Bought a house about ~6 month ago too. Never owned either before so while it's like damn to have two additional payments a month I'm still pretty excited

 

[phcitywarrior]

Excited to start my new grad position in a couple weeks and want to set goals and budget for savings and investments and wanted to ask the 6 certs fam for advice. I'll be making in the range of 85-90k with a 10% performance bonus at the end of the year. Now I'm blessed to be able to work remotely and I'll be living with my folks. I'm not really a big spender and would consider myself frugal, and plan to use this opportunity to build up my savings and investments.

I plan to maximize my 401k, the company matches up to 5%, also plan to maximize roth ira this year. I plan to invest every month into a brokerage in index funds.

How do ya'll budget and set goals for the year financial and otherwise? From lurking for awhile @phcitywarrior I'd definitely like to ask how you come up with yours. Any and all advice is appreciated.

First of all, congrats breh! Love seeing brehs move up in life and on to bigger and better things. And getting the finances down pat is definitely a key thing.

Similar to what @Serious said below, for me, I look to build systems for my finances (and goals in general) so that I don't have to think about certain things.

So that means each paycheck automatically contributing 5% pre-tax for my 401k (2 to 1 company match), contributing 10% post-tax to my company ESPP (employee share purchase program, 15% discount on company stock), contributing to my Roth IRA to max out by EOY and then moving a % of my income to my brokerage account.

Whatever else comes into my checking account after that is bills and discretionary spending.

For longer-term goals, a lot is just about where I want to be at a certain place in life. Like for me now, the next big goal for me is getting enough to buy a house by Q1/Q2 2024. I know I need let's say $50K for a down payment within the next ~18 months. And let's say I already have $35K. I would just do a straight line on how much I need to save for the next 18 months.

But my main tenants: no consumer debt, always have at least $5K in cash readily available and ensure that at the end of each year, I have at least 10-15% of my salary in either savings or investments each year.

Another thing about finances and getting better about them is you need to keep reading material and learning more about it. I've read everything from Dave Ramsey, to Suzie Orman to Robert Kiyosaki to Reddit Personal Finance. Just try and learn a bit more every day. Hope that helps.

Automate your budget as much as possible.

Live below your means.

 

[Rawtid]

I have a one on one today and if the Qlik certification is mentioned, I'm going to ask if it's contingent upon my job and if so, I'll suggest they start the process of hiring someone else. This job also doesn't use the software to even 1/5 of it's capacity, I'm busy developing apps (6 since I've started a year ago) and I have other things I'm studying outside of work, so I don't have the time.

Ideally, I want to stay until they find a new person so I can wrap up some other projects, but if it gets heated, I realize it may be a right now thing. Either way, after 1/20/23, I'll be looking for a new job regardless. That's the date I gave myself to complete these last two major projects and finish some other things on my list.

 

[cartierhoe]

Automate your budget as much as possible.

Live below your means.

First of all, congrats breh! Love seeing brehs move up in life and on to bigger and better things. And getting the finances down pat is definitely a key thing.

Similar to what @Serious said below, for me, I look to build systems for my finances (and goals in general) so that I don't have to think about certain things.

So that means each paycheck automatically contributing 5% pre-tax for my 401k (2 to 1 company match), contributing 10% post-tax to my company ESPP (employee share purchase program, 15% discount on company stock), contributing to my Roth IRA to max out by EOY and then moving a % of my income to my brokerage account.

Whatever else comes into my checking account after that is bills and discretionary spending.

For longer-term goals, a lot is just about where I want to be at a certain place in life. Like for me now, the next big goal for me is getting enough to buy a house by Q1/Q2 2024. I know I need let's say $50K for a down payment within the next ~18 months. And let's say I already have $35K. I would just do a straight line on how much I need to save for the next 18 months.

But my main tenants: no consumer debt, always have at least $5K in cash readily available and ensure that at the end of each year, I have at least 10-15% of my salary in either savings or investments each year.

Another thing about finances and getting better about them is you need to keep reading material and learning more about it. I've read everything from Dave Ramsey, to Suzie Orman to Robert Kiyosaki to Reddit Personal Finance. Just try and learn a bit more every day. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice fellas. Also completely forgot to mention I'll be taking advantage of the company's espp. Definitely gonna write down my goals and automate things. Personal finance sub on Reddit is a key too, have things from there bookmarked.

 

[Rawtid]

*whew* She didn't mention it, so I can proceed about my current plans without revealing anything to them. She said the contractors were paid $120k over the 6 months they were there ($20K/month) and then asked for $15k/month after the engagement was over for "maintenance". They delivered ONE dashboard. From Nov 2022 to now, our team developed THREE dashboards. Where is our money?

fukk being an employee for real. The retirement and healthcare options are typically optimal, but there are adequate options if you go the self-employed route and you can write things off to offset.

 

[Lord Z]

*whew* She didn't mention it, so I can proceed about my current plans without revealing anything to them. She said the contractors were paid $120k over the 6 months they were there ($20K/month) and then asked for $15k/month after the engagement was over for "maintenance". They delivered ONE dashboard. From Nov 2022 to now, our team developed THREE dashboards. Where is our money?

fukk being an employee for real. The retirement and healthcare options are typically optimal, but there are adequate options if you go the self-employed route and you can write things off to offset.

That's the game within the game . To cover all the business expenses and offset your risks, you probably need to triple your income .

Now, the real challenge is how can you get that money : does your experience + certifications command a high hourly rate in your market/area ?

When your reach around 7 years in your field, self employed is the only thing that makes sense as long as the demand is there

 

[OfTheCross]

*whew* She didn't mention it, so I can proceed about my current plans without revealing anything to them. She said the contractors were paid $120k over the 6 months they were there ($20K/month) and then asked for $15k/month after the engagement was over for "maintenance". They delivered ONE dashboard. From Nov 2022 to now, our team developed THREE dashboards. Where is our money?

fukk being an employee for real. The retirement and healthcare options are typically optimal, but there are adequate options if you go the self-employed route and you can write things off to offset.

I'm learning that now...I was under contract with this company living cushy...barely doing shyt and getting paid about the same. I got on board with them directly just to have their name on my resume and these muhfukkas got me working for real now. Where was all this energy for the contractors??


Edit: anyways...I'm probably going to start looking to go the contractor route again after my baby is born. I don't wanna lose my insurance just yet

 

[Rawtid]

That's the game within the game . To cover all the business expenses and offset your risks, you probably need to triple your income .

Now, the real challenge is how can you get that money : does your experience + certifications command a high hourly rate in your market/area ?

When your reach around 7 years in your field, self employed is the only thing that makes sense as long as the demand is there

I'm currently in data analytics and trying to push into project management...some combination of the two. I definitely can make the money to sustain and some, but probably with a combination of projects, which I wouldn't mind. I'm aiming this year to take on a second role anyway, where the second income I can stack and prepare for a permanent transition to a more self employment route. LOL I tried to hop out before and failed miserably, so I'm preparing more carefully this time around.

 

[Serious]

Bob Iger just put his foot down and told Disney employees to come back into the office 4 days a week as the remote work wars rage on — FORTUNE

Iger joked when he returned to the company last year he planned to spend a lot of time in the office and joked that he hoped he wouldn’t be lonely.

apple.news