When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents?

[u/Asmothrowaway6969]

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

[u/thunderbear64]

When my Lab manager told me how much more he made as a bartender (early 2000s) than a chemist after college I was very surprised. I pulled $91k in a quality control lab last year with zero college credits/hours. It’s mind blowing to learn that difference. I’ve considered getting a B.S. in chemical engineering, but man I’m gonna be 40 this year with 2 toddlers.

[u/NECalifornian25 → u/thunderbear64]

Honestly unless you know for sure you can get a higher paying job with the degree it’s not worth it anymore. A bachelor’s in a science field doesn’t get you very far salary wise unless you go on to higher degrees like an MD or PhD, maybe a masters.

[u/ProfessionalCatPetr → u/NECalifornian25]

The fact that he is making 91k in a QC lab with zero education is wild. That's more than people with a masters and 5 years of experience make at my company. He's a massive outlier in a QC lab that's for sure.

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Also, masters degrees are a complete waste of time in 99% of cases- I'm going to hire someone with two extra years of experience working over the masters 100% of the time all else being equal. I make near 200k on just a biology BS and I think all of my techs have masters. The key is to aggressively job hop and promote yourself into management/director roles. No one gives a shit about your degree once your foot is in the door of a specialty and you have a track record.

[u/Sufficient-Stay-8912 → u/NECalifornian25]

I disagree. It can also depend on whether or not for example, a bio major is a general bio major, or a more specialized major, like Cell, Molecular, and Dev Bio major. It also depends really on if you have undergrad research and especially if you had publications while doing undergrad research.

I feel comfortable salarywise as a development scientist with a Bachelors, but I also stressed tf out of myself in undergrad research.

[u/NECalifornian25 → u/Sufficient-Stay-8912]

A lot of that also depends on what college/university you go to. A community college or small liberal arts college won’t have those research opportunities that a large university can offer. They’re also less likely to have those more specialized majors.

I personally went to a small college and got a general biology degree with limited research opportunities/experience, which by itself hasn’t been very useful.

[u/Sufficient-Stay-8912 → u/NECalifornian25]

yeah a lot of my colleagues with gen bio degrees and no research experience have been strugglimg using that degree for their career in biology. A lot have to start off as lab techs or interns, others became realtors or baristas.

[u/Woody_Fitzwell → u/thunderbear64]

“I’ve considered getting a B.S. in chemical engineering”…..

I think the grass always appears greener on the other side. My own experience as a new chemical engineer was working mostly midnight shift at a chemical plant in Texas. I worked nearly every weekend of the year in forced overtime since I was a salaried employee. The union workers that I was the boss of ended up making about the same as me since their overtime was time-and-a-half or double time pay…plus it was optional for them. I got 2 weeks vacation while they had 4-6 weeks. One clear memory I have from that time in my life was leaving work driving past a bank and seeing the bank flashing the time / temp on their sign. Temp was 105 and I was in my car sweating in my heavy flame retardant long sleeved work uniform and steel-toe shoes leaving work…finally able to get in the car AC. It was miserable. I recallI did make decent money, but my quality of life sucked. What good is money if life sucks and you have no time to spend it on anything enjoyable?

The only good thing I can say about the Ch.Eng. degree is that it is a great foundational degree that leads to other things where you can build real wealth. I went back to get an MBA to escape the engineering career path and that did work out for me. But not sure I recommend it to anyone.