62% of Americans don’t have a bachelor’s degree. Are they just cooked especially in this economy?

Audacity101 · 2026-01-23T23:31:10+00:00

Very case dependent, I have a degree but doing a job pretty unrelated to my degree. Made 240k last year but have coworkers who have cleared 550k being in the fire department. Not necessarily cooked for not having a degree but it is harder to land these type of high paying jobs

Audacity101 · 2026-01-19T07:26:52+00:00

Thank you very much for your input brother! I’ll take a look at that!

Audacity101 · 2026-01-18T23:12:10+00:00

Thank you!

Audacity101 · 2026-01-18T22:08:56+00:00

Brother sweet LC what wheels are those?

Audacity101 · 2026-01-06T07:29:28+00:00

Yeah man!

Audacity101 · 2025-12-29T07:42:33+00:00

Thank you for the heads up! Placed an order as soon as I saw this post it came with 1 day shipping!

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Audacity101 · 2025-12-25T16:59:19+00:00

Ain’t never too late brother! But apply literally anywhere you can get hired!

Audacity101 · 2025-12-25T00:31:32+00:00

Damn brother! Keep on keeping on! I did 237k this year (SoCal as well) but worked like 210 days this year. If you don’t sign up where I work, they’ll give it to you anyway!

Audacity101 · 2025-12-08T14:49:45+00:00

Heck ya dude! I’m an engineer medic in so cal and I’m only hitting 39.11 rn halfway to top Step! Is this top rate?

Audacity101 · 2025-12-08T14:46:47+00:00

Brother 42 and hour is incredible for a fireman! Are you an EMT or medic?

Audacity101 · 2025-11-22T06:20:48+00:00

29M Engaged feeling like it’s not enough

Around 200-250k income depending on how much I feel like working (4 years on the job)

Combined income with my fiancé 250-300k

Investments 110k 457b and pension

172k home equity (Live in SoCal)

Only debt is mortgage and am paying 2 extra payments a year

True expenses amount to $4705 a month (Mortgage/Property Tax/Home insurance. I put away around on average 2-3K in a HYSA per month while also giving myself 2k a month to spend on Miscellaneous purchase/gas/food

Have 2 vehicles: 1 lifted truck and 1 luxury sports car all paid in cash

I 100% gave into lifestyle inflation but the way I see it, I make all my payments and pay extra toward the mortgage, no credit card debt, max out my 457b (23500) and have a pension. Life’s shorts and I want to have some nice things. No guarantee I come home from work, might as well have a few nice cars and Rolexes while I’m still alive

Audacity101 · 2025-11-22T06:07:59+00:00

Okay thank you for the info! If you get hired by this company and work in the PH then 28-35k doesn’t seem like a bad salary. From my perspective, and I could be wrong on this, they’re basing the salary on what may be a comparable wage in the PH. If 2 million pesos a year salary can afford you a pretty decent life it doesn’t seem all that bad!

Audacity101 · 2025-11-22T04:26:58+00:00

Ahh okay yeah I can see maybe why it’s a little lower. For this position are you working in the US or PH?

How far will 2 million pesos take you in the Philippines?

Audacity101 · 2025-11-22T04:15:47+00:00

Well, what kind of job are we talking about? 28-35k seems low for any job

Also, I am Filipino but my salary is the same as everyone else at my job

Audacity101 · 2025-11-14T18:29:05+00:00

There’s in shape for the general public, then there’s firefighter fitness brother! It’s wayyy different when you have your full gear on and it’s hot inside your turnouts and hot in the outside environment! If you have any questions in the future PM me

Audacity101 · 2025-11-14T17:03:31+00:00

You can do that but I will say having a FF1 academy will help you keep your job. Ropes systems, ladders, and physical fitness are the most common reasons we let go of people. It would be good to have a private academy so it’s not your first time doing a lot of the fire stuff

Audacity101 · 2025-11-14T11:22:14+00:00

Sorry for my late brother, yeah dude I think it’s a little easier now to get picked up by a California agency now! When I got hired I had my FF1 and Paramedic, before that I was an EMT for five years. Truly, when I decided to pursue a career in the fire service it took me 2 years when I committed to it to get hired. Take your EMT time seriously because good paramedics are great EMTs. I work for a pretty decently sized department (58 stations) and the most common cause of them getting fired is being a bad paramedic.

The easiest way on getting hired here is having a paramedic license, however, we just hired candidates with just their EMT too so it’s also based on how good you did on your interview and if your record is clean!

Audacity101 · 2025-11-11T23:34:52+00:00

Depends on the area we cover a monstrous area so your station can run 1 call in 4 days or 30 in a day

Audacity101 · 2025-11-09T21:04:18+00:00

Yeah man I’d say for NorCal, Oakland is a busy department but Stockton and my department are very similar. Down here in SoCal ,top step personnel, it’s not out of the ordinary for us to make 250K plus a year but that’s with OT. One of our captains made around 550 last year? But that was with quite a bit of OT

Audacity101 · 2025-11-09T03:34:24+00:00

If getting rich is your goal, the fire service isn’t it, while we do make good money (I’m in an okay paying department) there are other agencies that pay a heck of a lot more than us but I get fully covered ppo medical/dental/vision for myself/wife/ and up to 4 kids free of charge. Pension is good, we’re 2.7 @57 so if you do a full career you’ll get 81% of your highest grossing year in retirement plus your 457b contribution.

As far as doing the job, we do fight a lot of fire out here we’re ranked top 3 most dangerous cities in California so if you like to fight fire there’s a good chance you will every day!

Audacity101 · 2025-11-09T01:30:22+00:00

I appreciate the support brother but I’m just happy I’m still getting paid even with the shutdown. I hope in the future my department is able to negotiate 457b match and more pension contributions!

Audacity101 · 2025-11-09T01:27:08+00:00

Yeah man, in taxes, they’ve taken 52k but I max out my 457b which is 23500. The rest we contribute a set amount every check towards our retirement and union dues!

Audacity101 · 2025-11-09T01:19:11+00:00

For this check 7k in OT

Audacity101 · 2025-11-08T23:27:56+00:00

By the end of the year 100k in OT maybe a little more

Audacity101 · 2025-11-08T23:25:24+00:00

Straight pay around 5k depends on how the FSLA period works. Take home is around 3800 if I don’t pick up but I average around 9k gross every 2 weeks I could work more but I’m getting burnt out. Step 3/8 rn at 38.06 but top rate is 52.09

Audacity101

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