Jobs/Careers that pay good money with minimum hours

devilkingx2

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Basically curious about the fields out there that respect your work-life balance and free time as much as possible, while still paying you enough to afford your own bachelor pad + going out on the weekends
 

devilkingx2

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What’s your skill level and background?
I'm 25 years old, I have 2 years of college under my belt but no degree. Planning to go back and complete a new major before I'm 30 (currently considering Finance, Chemistry or Computer Science)

I've got 2.5 years of retail experience and 6 months or so in an office setting. 2 months doing door to door sales.

My best skills are my tech skills (I've rooted some of my android phones, and I've gotten rid of some tough viruses on my past computers, I upgraded my PS4 Pro with a 2TB Solid State Drive.)

And my charisma + people skills (I can pick up girls from behind the register, convince people to give me free things and I got the most donations when my store was doing a charity thing)

Edit: I also made about $1000 investing in crypto and meme stocks last year during the bull market. Spent a lot of time reading about things like PE ratios to get the hang of it.
 
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taiyuu_otoko

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Everybody wants big pay for short hours. You've got a lot of competition.

Which means to get those jobs you've got to choose a field that is always in demand, AND you've got to be in the top 10% of that field.

If it were easy everybody would have big money jobs with a lot of work/life balance.
 

devilkingx2

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Everybody wants big pay for short hours. You've got a lot of competition.

Which means to get those jobs you've got to choose a field that is always in demand, AND you've got to be in the top 10% of that field.

If it were easy everybody would have big money jobs with a lot of work/life balance.
I don't think "big pay" is having my own apartment and partying on the weekends.

I thought "big pay" was becoming a petroleum engineer and owning a beach house, driving a Tesla, but spending half the year on an oil rig.
 

jaygreenb

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Basically curious about the fields out there that respect your work-life balance and free time as much as possible, while still paying you enough to afford your own bachelor pad + going out on the weekends
Best chance of achieving this long term is starting a business then building it out over time to suit your lifestyle. Will be a lot of work on the front end though to do this, especially if you do not have a lot of capital. Other way is doing some sort of highly specialized work where there is a lot of demand and minimal supply. Not being a smartass but there aren't really any magic tricks to bypass the hard work. If it is easy and there is a low barrier to entry you may only get windows of time to make it work before you have a lot of people piling in to drive the reward down.
 

logicallefty

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I.T. has a lot of issues regarding who gets selected as managers. Won't get into that now. But as far as work life balance goes it has improved with that post pandemic IMO. There is more working from home and more picking your own hours vs having to be working on a set clock. They also used to push people into working more hours and had a “people are replaceable, take a hike if you don't like it” attitude. (I've literally heard those exact words twice in my career from a manager). Now, they are so hard pressed to find people that you won't get pushed to work 80-100 hours a week on a base salary because they know that NOBODY will tolerate that anymore. Employees have the upper hand for the first time I have seen since the mid 1990s (but the upper hand is even stronger now).
 

AureliusMaximus

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Basically curious about the fields out there that respect your work-life balance and free time as much as possible, while still paying you enough to afford your own bachelor pad + going out on the weekends
There is no shortcuts...
Start your own business if you want make the big bucks or go into the financial sector as a forex/stock/commodity trader for the big banks/brokerage firms and later start your own brokerage. Become coder and work for the big software/IT companies and then start your own. Build niche sites and earn revenue from ads/affiliate programs and selling stuff etc.

but with all these options there is a catch, you still will have to do the "dog years" where you require the skills required to do this. Whether it is investing time studying to be become a trader or run your company, run your own websites or code it will require many long hours of time spent to gain the knowledge needed for the trade.

So yeah, there is not shortcuts.
There is always a price to be paid. You need to work for it.
 

Murk

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There's no quick fix. Create a game or an app, or a website if you really want lots of residual income after the project/work. Otherwise, you have to work hard and smart, this includes long hours and weekends. There are plenty of jobs and fields you can get into, for minimal hours you need to be an expert, you're not giving me "I want to be an expert in my field" energy. You're giving "I'm lazy" energy.
 

eli77

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Import export is something you could do for less than under 10 grand
 

threeforfree

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I’m a software engineer with tons of experience. If you get with the right company you will have the freedom. I have unlimited within reason time off as long as I get my work done, I’ve been fully remote for at least 10 years. My company doesn’t care where I am in the world. I’m probably going to live a month or two in Mexico next year and might go a few other places.

Yeah it’s about 40 hours a week but with all the time off and flexibility AND an over 6 figure salary, I’m ok with it.
 

BillyPilgrim

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Everybody wants big pay for short hours. You've got a lot of competition.

Which means to get those jobs you've got to choose a field that is always in demand, AND you've got to be in the top 10% of that field.

If it were easy everybody would have big money jobs with a lot of work/life balance.

Good jobs with minimum hours is easy, simply introduce legislation to mandate overtime at 30 or 35 hours a week. This will also reduce unemployment and enable the option of reducing the glut of worthless governmental, non-profit, and managerial jobs. They've done this is France (reduce the OT threshold). Why are we working 50 hour weeks despite significant increases in technology?

Keynes said we should be working 15 hours a week in the future over 90 years ago.

But the The Powers That Be can't have us thinking, researching, and talking amongst ourselves too much.
 
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BillyPilgrim

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The big problem with IT is that most people find it boring as hell. Back in the day, no one took computer science as an elective except the extreme nerds. There was a reason for this - inherent lack of spiritual fulfillment for the vast majority of people.
 
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jimwho

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Good jobs with minimum hours is easy, simply introduce legislation to mandate overtime at 30 or 35 hours a week. This will also reduce unemployment and enable the option of reducing the glut of worthless governmental, non-profit, and managerial jobs. They've done this is France (reduce the OT threshold). Why are we working 50 hour weeks despite significant increases in technology?
The big problem with IT is that most people find it boring as hell. Back in the day, no one took computer science as an elective except the extreme nerds. There was a reason for this - inherent lack of spiritual fulfillment for the vast majority of people
Clearly your ideas of real world reality are on point. Your synopsis is very doable for all mankind. I suggest everybody on the forum listen intently to gain much needed help in regards to your knowledge. I would like to start tomorrow and follow your lead. Can you help with a game plan to begin changing the world?

(Don't forget to add a massive well thought out comeback)
 
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f(x)

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If you’re considering computer science then I suggest enrolling in a software engineering program instead. It’s probably more applicable to the job market. I think my computer science curriculum was more math than programming.

The job search after graduation was tough and it was only then I realized how much my technical skills were lacking. I'm in IT now and working in a cloud support role. I’m lucky to have it and it is remote. The pay is on the low end in terms of the industry average, but the growth potential is pretty good.
 

taiyuu_otoko

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Keynes said we should be working 15 hours a week in the future over 90 years ago.
Keynes is an authoritarian moron whose book is riddled with inconsistencies that misunderstand cause and effect and is based on green cheese trickery.
 

BackInTheGame78

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Basically curious about the fields out there that respect your work-life balance and free time as much as possible, while still paying you enough to afford your own bachelor pad + going out on the weekends
Software engineer depending on where you work.
 

Kotaix

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Respecting work/life balance is as much about the company employing you as it is about the field. Some fields like Law have very little respect for this and are full of psychopaths that will work you to death given half the chance.

The company I work for has an official policy of disincentivizing after-hours work, and it still manages to be an industry leader that is growing while the category is declining overall.

Software engineering is a great career path, but the supply of software engineers out there is getting pretty big and there are companies that are paying junior software engineers minimum wage.

I strongly recommend you learn SQL or other database languages because you can use them in any industry, as opposed to programming languages which are specifically related to software development.
 
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