What's Your Earning Potential?

Whether you’re trying to decide on a college major, looking to land a first job, or making a career change, potential earnings is always an important consideration.
 

While we’d all like to be making six or, heck, even nine figures, not all careers provide that opportunity. In fact, even people in the same careers make different salaries based on factors including level of education or certification, skills and years of experience, the region of the country where the job is based, job title, and even the value of the benefits package that comes with the role.
 

If you’re solely interested in figuring out how to earn the highest salary possible, there are lots of online resources for researching potential opportunities:

Highest Paying jobs
Highest paying jobs without a degree
Highest paying entry level jobs
Well-paying with potential for growth

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) also maintains a comprehensive list of careers with median pay, entry-level education requirements, projected number of new jobs and projected growth rate. This site is particularly handy as you can search jobs by the noted categories (i.e. education, salary, etc.) and match them to your situation and goals. You can also play around to figure out what a bit more education or training might lead to in terms of a salary bump and weigh whether the expense is worth the potential reward.
 

Of course, as noted, you do need to take location into consideration. Once you identify a potential job, it’s worth visiting  online resources such as Indeed.com, or Salary.com to find out what salary you might make where you live or where you’re willing to relocate. Jobs based in areas with a higher the cost of living tend to command higher salaries. In most cases, the pay difference evens out once you factor in the increased cost of rent, food, transportation, etc.
 

Currently the BLS reports that jobs in the field of healthcare top the list of the highest-paid opportunities. The BLS also reports that employment in healthcare is projected to grow 13% from 2021 to 2031, an impressive number given projected overall job growth in the U.S. for the same period is just 5.3%.
 

While many healthcare jobs, such as doctors and nurses, require extensive education (and expense), there are many other jobs that only require a high-school degree (or equivalent), post-secondary nondegree education, or an associate’s degree. In many cases, employers will subsidize the cost of education in part or full for employees, making it possible to advance your career (and salary) at no cost to you.
 

Of course, there are plenty of other high-paying careers out there outside of healthcare. Other fields with noteworthy salaries—including several that don’t require a college degree—include:

•   Management Occupations, including executives: Annual average income $137,750
•   Legal Occupations, including lawyers and paralegals: Annual average income $133,820
•   IT, Computer and Mathematical Occupations: Annual average income $113,140
•   Architecture and Engineering Occupations: Annual average income $99,090
•   Business and Financial Operations Occupations: Annual average income $90,580
•   Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations: Annual average income $87,870
•   Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations: Annual average income $75,520
•   Educational Instruction and Library Occupations: Annual average income $66,400
•   Food Service Managers: Annual average income $63,060
•   Construction and Extraction Occupations: Annual average income $61,500

SOURCE: BLS.gov

DISCLAIMER: This article is meant for educational purposes only and is not intended to be construed as financial, tax, investment or legal advice.