How to make more money? What are my options?

[sprocket1200]

I can't believe 'taxsaver' didn't recommend that you get rid of your T4 income. the taxes are killing you. gross income means little. net income is where it is at...

[loggedout]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

What sort of 'high' income are you looking to attain.

I know a tonne of 21 year-old engineers in Calgary starting above $70k, and easily $150k by their mid-thirties.

My base is 80k and I am 30 now, living in the GTA. I grossed about ~150k last year (+ off the books per diems) but that was with a crazy amount of OT, site work (time away from home). I can't count that as projects come and go, and especially after I got this dumb idea of transferring to a desk job(!_!_! - but that's another story) that I just started. I was a control systems engineer for automated tooling but now I'm in risk assessment for nuclear safety engineering, where I am just getting my feet wet. It's with a crown corp but may not be for long, lol.

I'd like to be in the consistent 150k range (net) at least by my mid to late thirties but I can't see that happening if I stick to my current path.

The key is social networking. If you are someone who knows everyone and everyone knows you, then you get a lot of business from them. Learn things that most people can't do themselves, like plumbing, and you'll get a lot of calls. If you don't know nobody, then go where people meet, and make friends. Sign up to various activities, either sports, language learning, etc.

I like this idea, although I'm a terrible social networker but I'm sure I could do it if I put my mind to it. Up until now, I did not have the time nor stability to pursue work like plumbing, garage repair, etc. on the side.....

If you read up on the markets and increase your knowledge in that respect, you wouldn't necessarily be gambling. I mean...unless your intention was to buy a stock and wake up the next morning and be rich...b/c if thats the case buy a lotto max ticket.

I would consider higher education, assuming you like your field...and/or a part time job that doesn't feel like one...like starting a business on the side...or a friend of mine likes hockey...so he referees...or essentially gets paid to skate and exercise.

I don't see more education in engineering paying off but I have thought about patent law - but it's such a roll of the dice to quit my job, go back to school, as others have mentioned especially at my age. An MBA doesn't make sense to me because my career has been highly technical up until this point with limited exposure to business areas.

You may want to work part time at your own business.

At least initially the costs of starting and the equipment needed will offset the income tax you pay.

As a small home based business, you get to claim your housing expenses against your income. A certain percentage of your car, any office supplies, etc.

The first several years once you claim these expenses which you are currently not allowed to claim`against your purely employment income you will probably declare a fairly substantial business loss.

The tax savings alone are substantial.

I'm not sure what kind of engineer you are but small businesses and many other people may need your services. This way you get the advantages of self employment and the security of a job.

That's an interesting idea that I have thought about. The thing I don't like about providing engineering services relating to my primary area of experience (industrial automation) is that there's so much liability involved and it often requires physically being somewhere. Also, I have enough of engineering with my day job that I don't think I could handle even more w/o going crazy. It's also very time consuming.

[MoneyGal]

I suspect your *best* shot at attaining that kind of renumeration is to move higher in your field. In your shoes, I personally would not spend a lot of time opening up a side business. I'd invest in my human capital as much as I could.

(The reason I am saying this is that the amount of money you say you want to bring in doesn't lend itself well to any kind of self-employment venture given the time you'd have available to do it.)

You could become a patent agent, not a patent lawyer (although you are not going to necessarily earn any more as a patent agent than you are already earning).

Also, I suspect that an MBA may be of value to you precisely because you have had only limited experience with business issues up until now. It will diversify your skill-set. There are lots of part-time ("executive") MBAs available.

[osc]

Learn to trade/invest. It's gambling, but you can control the odds.

[stinsont]

Any one ever gave up the 'rat-race' and took the Canadian Securities Course went to full time trader? Interested to know who has done it and the experience...

[MoneyGal]

If you mean someone who did the CSC and became an investment advisor, me. If you mean someone who did the CSC and became a day-trader, NOT me, and I do not recommend the CSC if you want to pursue this path.

[FrugalTrader]

If you mean someone who did the CSC and became an investment advisor, me. If you mean someone who did the CSC and became a day-trader, NOT me, and I do not recommend the CSC if you want to pursue this path.

+1 CSC will not teach you to become a trader. However, doing the CFA course may be in more alignment with what you're looking for.

[Taxsaver]

I can't believe 'taxsaver' didn't recommend that you get rid of your T4 income. the taxes are killing you. gross income means little. net income is where it is at...

Good suggestion. I'm going to have my feet amputed. This way, I will never have cold feet anymore.

[MoneyGal]

...doing the CFA course may be in more alignment with what you're looking for.

Either that, it will break your brain. Have you ever looked at the pass rates? (Unfortunately, I can't find info that separates out the survivorship. But you can approximate it: using the pass rates for 2008, looks like that for every 100 people that attempt exam 1, a total of 9 people come out the other end having passed all three exams.)

[stinsont]

what does the CFA teach that the CSC deos not? The course description indicates that the CSC is for traders...