Would you rather work...

[obdigore]

I work 20-30 hours a week and make $8,000-$10,000 a year. I'll take the 20 hours option for now and go up to 40 when I get out of college.

You make just over 6 dollars an hour? Interesting how minimum wage is 7.25$ an hour, your state may be higher but it will not be lower.

[BowwJob]

Or you know. Some people are goal oriented and make good choices while still young, so they can retire young. Don't always trust the stereotypical retirement plan @ 65. Someone who does extremely well can retire at the age of 40.

Out of 100 people at retirement: 1 will be rich, 4 will be financially independent, 5 will still be working, 12 will be broke,29 will be dead, and 49 dependent on family and charity

Yes, to those lucky enough to be in that 4 to 5% of the population.

[DEATHETERNAL]

40 hours a week and make $250,000 per year

Someday I'm going to have a wife and I want to give her and our kids everything they could possibly need and a good deal of what they want. Could also save the lives of who knows how many starving African children with some portion of the larger amount.

[cherb]

125k a year for 20 hours? I'd take that all day. Could do whatever the fuck I wanted in life.

---------- Post added 2012-09-27 at 05:03 AM ----------

You make just over 6 dollars an hour? Interesting how minimum wage is 7.25$ an hour, your state may be higher but it will not be lower.

He probably calculated what he makes with taxes taken out.

Although if you do the math, @ an average 25 hours/week at 7.25 an hour, you only make $9400~ before taxes.

[igame]

This is a very intersting poll. Thanks OP. Can the result mean that most people are not overly greedy and want a balanced life prolly.

[DeltrusDisc]

20 hours and $125k.

Rather spend more of my time enjoying life/presence of friends/family than working.

[Deleted]

$125,000/year is plenty of money unless you live in one of the handful of places in the world where living costs are through the roof. In most places it will buy you a comfortable upper middle-class lifestyle.

So yeah, probably $125k/20hrs.

Unless you need an apartment in downtown Dubai, Hong Kong or Singapore. I can´t think of a single country where 125k a year is below upper middle class.

OT - 250k/40 hours.. Retire sooner, more money to spend.

Depending on where you are from 125k might not be that super. Here you can leave school at 18 and make 40k a year with 37 hour weeks and 6 weeks paid vacation.

[goodwrench]

I make over 125k/yr but I work a little overtime to get there. Even if I never worked overtime my base salary is 117k/yr and we get 8 weeks vacation and 4 weeks sick time per year. 40 hours a week isnt a lot, I work 4 tens and its fairly easy. The only down side of the job is the stress of not knowing when your time is up, one of the officers I work with was shot in the face on a traffic stop a few weeks ago for no reason.

[Klutzington]

Out of 100 people at retirement: 1 will be rich, 4 will be financially independent, 5 will still be working, 12 will be broke,29 will be dead, and 49 dependent on family and charity

Yes, to those lucky enough to be in that 4 to 5% of the population.

I guess you have to make good choices young. If someone really wants to do it, then they can. It isn't luck when looking from the perspective of the activist that could retire @ 40. Hard work.

[Fahrenheit]

Work 40h for 250k for a few years and have the capital to invest and have my money work for me sooner rather than later. Which leads to me having more free time in the long run.

[plaze6288]

Living on Long island id go with 40h 250k. Taxes and prices out here are absurd and 125k is around the normal to just about get by.

[Roose]

Interesting question and kind of surprising results.

Until I find some "work" that I love, I will continue to try to work as little as possible to make ends meet.

So many people work jobs now that are utterly useless. That is what happens with capitalism, you get tons of useless jobs for people to have money to buy tons of useless shit.

[anyaka21]

Easily 20 hours for $125,000.

However, it really depends on the job and what you are doing. If it's easy and fun, or something that is rewarding, then by all means 40 hours for $250k.
Other caveats, how intense is the job. Do you take it home with you every night and as thus even though you spend 20 or 40 hours in an office, you end up working at home for another 4-5 hours a night or stressing out over numbers and goals, etc...

[BowwJob]

I guess you have to make good choices young. If someone really wants to do it, then they can. It isn't luck when looking from the perspective of the activist that could retire @ 40. Hard work.

I hate this "Hard Work" bullsh*T catch phrase there are plenty of people that Work Hard, but will never be able to retire at 40. the numbers i gave you even show that 4 to 5% of the population will be able to retire comfortably at the age of 65. So if the average is only 4 to 5% at 65 i would guess that the % of retires at 40 is less than 1%

When i say luck i mean things you had no control over that greatly influence your chance of success. Your families wealth, intelligence, families connections, education(tied to wealth) Private schools. Also the US has the second Lowest Economic mobility of the developed nations.

[Amsden]

20H/ 125k easy

That's about 45K a year more than I make now with a 40h job.

[Livic]

depends on the job. i wouldn't want to work 40 hours a week at wal-mart for example

[Deleted]

20 hours a week obviously. 40 hours is too long and takes away all the free time. Some people live for their work, others work just to get money to pay for their outgoings and afford things.. I'm the latter

[Deleted]

40 hours a week. Sitting around gets boring fast.

This.

Also somehow matched with sudden wealth syndrome.

[vizzle]

This is a very intersting poll. Thanks OP. Can the result mean that most people are not overly greedy and want a balanced life prolly.

There is a point where you don't need more money to be happy. That point is reached with $125k, and to most people, anything more than that is just extra.

I think the results might be different if it was 20h/$60k vs. 40h/$100k.