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What are some of the professions we underestimate but make a ton of money?

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  • Aug 24th, 2018 12:07 am
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Deal Addict
Nov 12, 2004
2681 posts
1482 upvotes
Hometown
johanscott wrote: I know of someone who lives in Caledon living in a big property as a pharmaceutical salesperson (husband is an executive in a company so that might also be the reason they live there lol).

But I don't know if I'd consider sales here because it relies on more variables than other jobs.
Sales that are very lucrative are for services or items that are government MANDATED. Top fire suppression, monitoring sales people have an almost unlimited potential for sales. No commercial building changes hands or gets built or opened without the owner having to buy the services or equipment from one of those companies... Then the owner has to MAINTAIN those systems... Having the knowledge of the code requirements and being able to deliver on time and just slightly over budget, so you don't lose the maintenance contract after the install LOL, Are the hard part but the sales are basically FORCED by the government codes...

Also licensed installers can make excellent money as they are usually unionized, highly accredited and they ultimately make sure that any system will work when needed... Again though it is all driven by regulation so owners have no choice but to pay.
Jr. Member
Dec 6, 2017
141 posts
87 upvotes
mmmkwan wrote: It is tough to get a job as a teacher now, but that's because it's a good job, with good benefits and a pension. I don't blame people for wanting to be teachers. But their pensions are absolutely funded by the government. The employer (taxpayers) match the contributions that teachers themselves pay into their pension. It's like other government pensions. I, until recently had an OMERS pension which is comparable to TPP.
If you are a man
Have a teachable in a science
or speak french

It is not that difficult to become a teacher. Everyone else is a struggle.
Banned
Mar 13, 2018
1385 posts
679 upvotes
jleong8474284177 wrote: While I don’t wish to continue derailing the thread I want to make absolutely clear that OTPP is definitely funded by the government. Full stop.

This is huge misunderstanding or willful ignorance of how the pension is funded by many people who argue over teacher pay. I don’t care to fight over which side is right but this is a big misnomer - OTPP is 50% backed by teacher contributions while the other 50% is backed fully by the employer (ie the government unless it’s a private school that chooses to participate)

So for every teacher that says they paid $12,000 of their $100,000 salary for retirement each year, well the government and taxpayers also contributed an additional $12,000 to your retirement as well for a total of $24,000 in one year of work.

If the sunshine list took retirement and other health benefits into consideration there would be a lot more teachers on the sunshine list already. The $12k of extra retirement money paid by the government doesn’t get included when calculating the $100k cut off.
Huh? Do you even know how pension plans work?

Pension contribution if by private company into a sunlife fund is no different, would you say my sunlife managed pension is paid by my employer?

How do you think a corporation pension contribution works? Our work puts in 8% with no matching required plus stock matching and stock options as well . These are also not included in our "salary"

Do you even work? How can you not know such basics?
Newbie
Nov 8, 2017
7 posts
12 upvotes
Gboard2 wrote: Huh? Do you even know how pension plans work?

Pension contribution if by private company into a sunlife fund is no different, would you say my sunlife managed pension is paid by my employer?

How do you think a corporation pension contribution works? Our work puts in 8% with no matching required plus stock matching and stock options as well . These are also not included in our "salary"

Do you even work? How can you not know such basics?
I do understand them well enough thank you. You clearly need to brush up on how pensions work though as your post is full of contradictions.

If you actually care, try looking up the difference between who "funds" a pension versus the trustee that merely pays out your accumulated pension. It makes a big difference. But if you don't care I'll leave it at that.
Newbie
Apr 22, 2018
32 posts
29 upvotes
Vancouver
Mulder and Scully wrote: Just nitpicking this comment because in the past I'd applied to a few TTC jobs. Drivers start at $52k based on a 40 hour work week. After 2 years it rises to $68k. Drivers are only paid higher when overtime is taken -- and overtime is paid at 1.5x. If you have the time and inclination to do so, who wouldn't take overtime? Imagine if office jobs paid overtime! That can easily lead to a lot of money. So it's definitely not that drivers start at $100k/year. Let's look at the actual math.

Top of the payscale for a TTC driver: $34.07/hour = $1,362.80/week.
Overtime: $34.07 x 1.5 = $51.105/hour. Let's say that a driver puts in 8 hours per week for overtime, making this a 48 hour work week (pretty reasonable compared to every other job out there). That's an extra $408.84/week.
Let's say that the driver takes 4 weeks of paid vacation a year, and works overtime for entire rest of the year (48 weeks). $1,362.80/week x 52 weeks = $70,865.60. Overtime is $51.105/hour x 8 hours/week x 48/weeks = $19,624.32. Total salary with overtime is thus $90,489.92.

If I had known there was so much overtime pay opportunity with the TTC, I would've applied to jobs there back when I was in school.

Sources: ttc.ca/jobs, Globe and Mail and actual TTC drivers posting on reddit.
After tax, pay is like: $66,276
Source: https://neuvoo.ca/tax-calculator/?salar ... on=Ontario
Newbie
Apr 22, 2018
32 posts
29 upvotes
Vancouver
Guys, sorry to pitch in like this, but we all are working in a job for someone, who will be paying us let's say 100k Salary, before taxes. But why, no one wants to be the person who pays 100k to someone?
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Dec 8, 2007
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PulkitK57038 wrote: Guys, sorry to pitch in like this, but we all are working in a job for someone, who will be paying us let's say 100k Salary, before taxes. But why, no one wants to be the person who pays 100k to someone?
Sure, that sounds good to. What are you trying to get at? This isn’t LinkedIn btw, ppl have much less tolerance for that “why hire smart people and tell them what to do when we can hire them to tell us what to do!” crap.
Hydropwnics wrote:"TodayHello is a certified hustler and original gangster."
Jr. Member
Oct 12, 2008
167 posts
24 upvotes
Toronto
Gboard2 wrote: Huh? Do you even know how pension plans work?

Pension contribution if by private company into a sunlife fund is no different, would you say my sunlife managed pension is paid by my employer?

How do you think a corporation pension contribution works? Our work puts in 8% with no matching required plus stock matching and stock options as well . These are also not included in our "salary"

Do you even work? How can you not know such basics?
That's a silly arrangement. You clearly have no understanding of how compensation works. If your employer is contributing to your pension, benefits, bonus, perks, are part of total compensation. Government jobs have high total compensation because of generous pensions and benefits that taxpayers pay for.

I don't have an issue with that and had a government job until recently but to pretend like TPP isn't taxpayer funded is crazy. If Sunlife is contributing half the money into your pension, then yes both you and Sunlife are funding your pension. If Sunlife is providing benefits and you co-pay a portion of it, they are funding your benefits as part of your comp.
Deal Expert
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Jan 27, 2004
52935 posts
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ONTARIO
DelusionalDiva wrote: But not everyone can sell...
And not everyone can become
-trades
-doctor
-lawyer

But I would say... all these useless little government jobs.
For example I know of a light tower operator. His job is just to turn the light switch on when the alert comes on. He gets paid about $20/hour with full government of ontario pension and benefits. This is literally a no skill no effort type of job.
You can write your dissertation while on the job.


also City of Toronto in-house security guard... $60k/year.
Member
Oct 24, 2009
398 posts
96 upvotes
UrbanPoet wrote: And not everyone can become
-trades
-doctor
-lawyer
How many of these jobs are all about persuading (ok some lawyers have to do that too) a distrusting skeptic, due to the reputation of sales people, to buy into their spiel and actually part with their money? I am not disregarding the importance of this skill, but I don't think its one of those skills where as long as you put in 20,000 hrs of practice you can nearly become an expert in it.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a good thing to be self-aware (i.e., know your limitations) or it's better to be oblivious and overestimate your capabilities?
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Aug 29, 2010
1020 posts
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Toronto
craftsman wrote: US long haul trucker makes $100,000 US... no experience necessary as they have an huge shortage in the US.
One of my friends from college was an older guy who moved people's stuff cross country or to the US in a tractor trailer. He said he cleared $300k the year before starting our program, but he essentially had to work solid and didn't see his family much.
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Aug 29, 2010
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Toronto
People keep mentioning trades but there are a lot of other jobs associated with construction that don't involve labour with good pay. Construction management is a very good career to get into. If you work your way up to an intermediate position you'll be making maybe 70-80k, and definitely over 100k as a senior.

I'm sure the same is probably similar for other industries as well. For example everyone knows doctors make a ton of money, but there are tons of support staff that go along with them that can make a pretty decent income with a lot less stress. You could also get a job at the TDSB that isn't teaching and probably pull in some good money with great benefits.
Banned
Mar 13, 2018
1385 posts
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mmmkwan wrote: That's a silly arrangement. You clearly have no understanding of how compensation works. If your employer is contributing to your pension, benefits, bonus, perks, are part of total compensation. Government jobs have high total compensation because of generous pensions and benefits that taxpayers pay for.

I don't have an issue with that and had a government job until recently but to pretend like TPP isn't taxpayer funded is crazy. If Sunlife is contributing half the money into your pension, then yes both you and Sunlife are funding your pension. If Sunlife is providing benefits and you co-pay a portion of it, they are funding your benefits as part of your comp.
No..my employer pays into a sunlife fund. When I retire, sunlife pays my pension not my employer. If sunlife messed up, then I don't get as much (or vice versa) and pension payments are from sunlife depending on performance

Same thing with TPP. Taxpayers don't pay the pension, the pension plan through their returns do. If TPP does poorly, taxpayers don't make up the difference

You have no idea what you're talking about

A real govt paid pension would be something like the fed or provincial govt where the govt is paying the pensions and responsible for shortfalls and payment to members

Total compensation is often a lot lower in govt due to lack of stock options, bonuses , stock purchase plans and a scam that they force employees to match pension contribution whereas at my work, it's just lumpsum 8% gross and matching is optional (and stupid)

Stock matching is better use and I just use my annual bonus to buy stock matching in addition to awarded stock options which are vested for 5 yrs before they can be redeemed .
Newbie
Jan 15, 2017
68 posts
77 upvotes
I am sympathetic to the notion that teachers' pensions are government funded, because first step of funding comes from teachers' salaries (government payroll) and government contribution, hence, people apply a government funded label.

However, that's not giving enough credit to pension fund managers like OTPP, OMERS, HOOPP, etc that turn the initial funding into the total funds required to pay out actual pensions.
If you look at OTPP, with net assets of $190bn, ~80% of those funds came from investment returns, 10% came from teachers' contributions, 10% came from government contributions (check their annual reports).

When you think of the "generous teachers' pension funded by the government", most people picture $60k a year, all coming from the province. But the reality is that the majority of the annual payout is sourced from the investment return of professional management, done by a private corporation. The province does not pay during a teachers' retirement years, the pension and its accumulated assets do.

Now, it's entirely fair to say that teachers have generous pension benefits thanks to the government, because a 12% contribution rate from the government does represent additional total compensation. But I do think that more credit needs to be given to pension managers for ensuring there are adequate assets to handle everyone's retirement.

A parallel but extreme example is the fact that companies generally have a life insurance on their employees. If the employee dies, there will be a payout. You wouldn't call the insurance payout "company funded" or "government funded". The employer has paid for an insurance product on behalf of the employee, similarly to how the government pays for a pension product for their teachers.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 31, 2017
5182 posts
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The plan is working. The ones on the bottom are fighting over each other salary, and the one’s at the top continue to reap the benefits. Please stop dragging others down. Many of these positions will eventually be phased out, a lot of boomers are going to retire, stop championing for the ones coming up to be paid like crap.
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Aug 31, 2017
5182 posts
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UrbanPoet wrote: And not everyone can become
-trades
-doctor
-lawyer

But I would say... all these useless little government jobs.
For example I know of a light tower operator. His job is just to turn the light switch on when the alert comes on. He gets paid about $20/hour with full government of ontario pension and benefits. This is literally a no skill no effort type of job.
You can write your dissertation while on the job.


also City of Toronto in-house security guard... $60k/year.
I’m sure there’s more to the light switch job, and even if not, what’s bad with someone getting a pension? Whatever happened to working an honest life and then retiring. Do you really think that many people would want to do these jobs? There are a lot of thankless jobs out there, and many people think it’s easy, but it really does take a toll on you mentally.
Deal Expert
Jan 27, 2006
21844 posts
15620 upvotes
Vancouver, BC
Lemonylol wrote: One of my friends from college was an older guy who moved people's stuff cross country or to the US in a tractor trailer. He said he cleared $300k the year before starting our program, but he essentially had to work solid and didn't see his family much.
He was well compensated at $300.000 a year. He probably could have move to part-time work and worked only 1/2 the year and still cleared $100,000.
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Aug 29, 2010
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craftsman wrote: He was well compensated at $300.000 a year. He probably could have move to part-time work and worked only 1/2 the year and still cleared $100,000.
Well his wife was a VP, they were totally fine if he stopped working completely, I think they just wanted to take a risk and start his own business doing construction (we were in school for construction management).
Deal Expert
Jan 27, 2006
21844 posts
15620 upvotes
Vancouver, BC
Lemonylol wrote: Well his wife was a VP, they were totally fine if he stopped working completely, I think they just wanted to take a risk and start his own business doing construction (we were in school for construction management).
Maybe his wife laid down the law and told him to stay at home more! :)
Jr. Member
Aug 13, 2015
159 posts
93 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
Hindenburg1 wrote: Anything police related. Cops start off at almost 100k. Work 5-10 years and you'd get up to 150-200k. It's unbelievable how overpaid these guys are. There is a fella at OPS that drives around and posts accidents in their official Twitter page. Looked him up, he makes 160k for what is essentially a 50k job.
Do you have any real source for that? Last time I've checked, initial salary was around $50K, so even with benefits would be hard to double that:
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/regular-me ... -rates-pay

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