What Do You Do To Pay The Bills?
 

Video store manager here. Free rentals, easy job, decent pay for this area, but still helps to save at the pump.

What about the rest of you?

I work for Exxon/Mobil and set the gas prices and take my $Billion or 2.

Just Kidding.

Long story short, before prescription drugs are approved by the FDA they go through an average 10-year research process from the microscope to when your doctor can prescribe it. I just play an impartial, 3rd-party role in the middle of the process -- reviewing and submitting data, subject safety oversight, FDA regulation enforcement, and racking up the frequent flyer miles. In the meantime, I work from home writing reports on my findings and wasting time at GasSavers ;-) It pays the bills, and I actually enjoy my job.

RH77
Senior Clinical Research Associate (CRA)

Awesome! Does this include food and a place to sleep?

When I get out of college, I'll be working as an engineer making $50-70k/year, and living in a van. Imagine it: 3 years later, $100k Tesla Roadster parked outside a $500 van, electricity pwoered by a small solar array and wind turbine with a small battery bank as backup, and all debts paid. I might upgrade to a VW Vanagon, cheap trailer, or beat up RV depending on my needs.

Houses, electricity bills, water bills, and all that crap are over-rated.

toecutter - don't discount the tax benefit of home ownership. writing off mortgage interest helps your bottom line for sure :D

That is awesome! I spend that much on toys alone.

Hey Toecutter,
The van idea is attractive (I would do it in a sailboat but it's the same idea). lindermant is right about the benefits of home ownership though. Since I have owned my home (2003), the appreciation has been about the same as my income over the same time period. When my mortgage payment is $1200 and my home is appreciating at $5000/month, the mortgage payment isn't so painful. Of course appreciation has slowed a bit recently.

I work as a mechanical engineer in a R&D facility for Horiba, a company that makes mass flow controllers for the semiconductor industry (among other things). It's the best job I've ever had and I get to play with cool new stuff all the time.

Do you ever notice how we seem to adjust every time our income increases (or decreases)? When I was living on less than $1000/month while in college I lived just fine and had lots of fun and toys. I am no happier than I was before, just more toys. I say persue the work you love, the money doesn't matter so much.

I work as a construction consultant.

I convert two dimensional autocad files to three dimensional and then do one of two things to them:

1) Compare the "exisitng" ground to the "proposed" (construction sites) and figure out how much dirt is going to be moved and let the construction companies know. THe amount of dirt to be imported/exported is a key factor in bidding on jobs.
2) Make a super detailed 3D model of the construction site in autocad which they feed into their GPS powered bulldozers/scrapers/etc. Using my 3D model and the GPS antennae, computers, etc... they are able to work ultra fast and be super accurate (within 1/10 of a foot... usually within 1/20 - 1/30 of a foot).

I also sell software to do exactly what I do to other people.

I work from home for a company in California that I've been working for since 2000. I really like my job.

On the side I run a few websites and I do custom programming for people using Microsoft Access.

Retired (at 35-now 40) Automotive engineer specialising in performance improvments.
Was the chief engineer for a small WRC team (world rally championship) and since moving to this new country I have been offered a job as consultying engineer and engine builder for a team that runs 8 cars across 4 different formulas.(i declined - but still considering the engine build side of it).

I owned a performance shop where we used to do all aspects of race car preperation and repairs.
Roll cages , turbo's , cylinder heads - the lot.
We also used to shoe horn massive motors into small cars - which often needed massive structual changes to the body shell.

Most of our customers cars were for off road use only - these customers are far better than found in normal retail. (they have money)

Engines that I have built have ranged from 1000+ Hp turbo v8's (they were complete sik) down to small RC plane motors. (if it runs and makes noise I love it).

The last 5 years has seen me turn away from cars in general (ide rather relax in the sun) but now with gassavers my interest has begun to rise again.

My current work is a residential building manager , but really , I dont do anything much except let people in when they lose there keys.
In return I got a free renovated apartment and a bunch of money every month.
I dont track my weekly costs , I just buy what i want - but suffice it to say is that I have no debt , everything is owned and I dont have to worry about who is knocking on the front door. (repo man)

When I get my laxy but off the sun chair I must get that Supermid and do sum FE experiments. :D

I am not working right now (going to college). But in the summer I worked for a plastic manufacturer. I just helped with production and made junk like this-

https://www.bawplastics.com/album4104001.jpg

https://www.bawplastics.com/album4043001.jpg

On the plus side it was easy to find scrap plastics for making front/ rear belly pan.

Hi kickflipjr
I wish i had done more with plastics , especially injection molding.
Instead mosly what I have played with is fibreglass and carbon composites.

The stuff I did was simple. bend, glue (melt together with acid), put rubber feet on it, and put it in a box.

i recently started software development under a contract to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon until November 2009(and it will probably be renewed). i can't tell you anymore though...

Woah da bus!
 

No way! I absolute LOVE the WRC. I wish it was more popular here. Once a year we have the U.S. National Championship come through Missouri and I volunteered last year as a medic -- going again in February. For me, the world STOPS when the Rally comes to town. I don't care what is going on, I'm there.

Thread.

There was a Bio-Diesel Golf that got awesome FE and stayed mid-pack.

To the others:

It sounds like everyone is happy with their jobs/education situations. I've learned that is VERY important. You can't put a price-tag on job satisfaction.

RH77

:D

i make a living as a freelance illustrator, mostly advertising work but also books and other odds and ends. here is a link to my online portfolio if any of you are interested:

https://www.portfolios.com/beepbeep

i also work one or two days a week with a rental car agency, driving cars around, it's nice to get out of the house for a bit plus i get to test drive a wide variety of cars and also see how reliable different brands are-

ie- don't listen to what jd powers says- dont' buy a hyundai!!!

Nice illustrations, BTW.

Also, with the rental car agency, I've found that I like the Kias better and Hyundai's quality isn't as good. Are Kias in the same boat?

-RH77

...and also, I think JD Powers and ASSociates are full of it.

I work with computers for a living. The last few years I've been doing mostly database development, however my current projects are moving me towards web site tools.

BTW: Cars and computers might not seem like they have a lot in common (except possibly for the ECUs in the cars). But the common thread is that they are both "technology", and I'm a technology person. So learning the basics of what makes cars happy, is a lot easier (for me) than some might think. Because I already understand technology in general, so to understand cars I just had to learn the specific details of that technology (vs some other technologies I already understood). And why bother, you might ask? Two reasons: 1) If I learn something new, I've learned something (and continuing to learn is "a good thing" IMHO). and 2) If I learn the basics of a given field (that I'm not in), I can make much more informed decisions as a consumer (vs just "throwing up my hands" when the "experts" disagree on some subject in the field).

BTW: A mechanic I know once said that working on cars was just the practical application of physics. While that's probably an oversimplification, he has a point. A lot of the work on cars does involve physics in one form or another. And it seems that you can often "get it right" simply by solving the problem from a physics standpoint, without having to know what the "right way" to do things is (for example, many FE mods work by using physics principals to tune a car for more efficient results). Food for thought...

I currently live in a trailer and will soon start building a house (after the garage). Actually it'll be a series of 400-500 sqft. "sheds" linked together. The first will be cob. Then I am considering papercrete, next strawbale and so on. Plenty of land and the wife and I are basically calling it our own little "Waco" - of course we're both loners so people aren't invited to hang out. The plan is to have everything self contained and use an assortment of earth friendly buildings to see which weathers best for our area.

I'll retire from my current job in 4 years - I just do a bit of this and that, for the most part teach people how to prepare hazardous materials so we don't have another ValueJet fiasco. I do some other stuff but it falls into thisisntjared's catagory.

both kia and hyundai seem to have the most problems of any cars in the fleet, whether it be plastic parts breaking, quarter panels not flush with the front bumper (two sonatas with this), wierd electrical issues, you name it, they run the gamut in quality issues.plus, i think the design and styling of the cars is totally second-rate, the styling is always borrowed from other manufacturers' successful models.
we usually delete cars from the fleet before they hit 40,000 km, so i'm not sure how they stand up in the long haul though
rental cars tend to get trashed, so it is probably a good barometer of quality.

part of the reason i bought a toyota was because the corrollas we have are NEVER in the shop, the biggest problem i have seen is they tend to lose the emblems on the front, and the covers that hide the holes where fog lights would go get knocked out, and some of the plastic parts break easily.

i disagree. cars and software have a lot in common. debugging both requires the perserverance and patience in finding the problem and solving. creating add-ons, or plug-ins requires solid understanding of the existing equipment/code and then your creative, yet logical ability to add to it. also, the amount of time you end up spending on a given project depends largely on your tools and how well you know how to use them. there are a bunch of similarities in which the way of thinking is complimentary to the other.

I'm a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry. Say what you want, but I believe that it has been a good way to direct my efforts for the last 2+ years. I came along at just the right time, as the next 10-15 years are going to be extremely interesting.

The old Chinese curse comes to mind, "May you live in interesting times."

Things could get interesting indeed.

I've never heard that one. I count the days until my life becomes less interesting.................

Why would you say that about your involvement in nuclear power?

Edit- Oh yeah, I'm currently not working as a profeshunal slacker.

Hi kickflipjr - ?The stuff I did was simple. bend, glue (melt together with acid), put rubber feet on it, and put it in a box.?

Well ,,thats experience that I havent had b4 ,I didnt know they glue with acid, and even if it was a bit boring ,, now you KNOW how to do something.

Well done.

I work as the sole manufacturing engineer for a small biomedical company in Atlanta, GA called SaluMedica (www.salumedica.com). We make cutting edge biomedical products from Salubria biomaterial.

Our current product line consists of SaluBridge and SaluCartilage. SaluBridge provides a protective environment for peripheral nerve repair after injury. SaluCartilage is an implant for replacing worn articular cartilage in the knees for "total-knee" candidates. Our product is best because it is less invasive and it restores mobility and relieves joint pain with a very quick recovery period post surgery, unlike getting a total-knee. Of course there are many more breakthrough products in the R&D pipeline, but I am not at a liberty to discuss those.

I started as the draftsman and moved up to technician. Both of these positions I held while attending college @ Georgia Tech. I finally became the manufacturing engineer after getting my BSME. I draft using the most current release from SolidWorks.

I'm supposed to be closing on my first home in two days!

Congrats Dax! Over the last year, we've been seeing you grow in your career and in life. Congrats on the home too! Best of luck to ya...

Also, Keep up what you're doing because I'm likely going to need some of your products down the road :rolleyes:

RH77

SCORE!!! now your set for life and if you mess up your knee real bad playing football or whatever you will have the materials for free too!

seriously though, congrats man, the first house is a big step and my next one.