Ultimate 6 Figure Salary Guide: Easier Than You Think

Here at Turbo Wallet, we are all about helping you improve your finances and reach financial freedom. However, one of the easiest ways to achieve your financial goals is to get a steady source of income in the form of a salary. For this purpose, we are constantly providing you with new guides and tools to achieve just that.

A 6 figure salary is a level of income that most people consider a great salary. However, there are a lot of considerations that are needed not only to earn it but also to manage it.

In this guide, we will be looking at some of the best jobs to achieve a 6 figure salary, financial considerations, and much more. Let’s get started!

What Is A 6 Figure Salary?

A 6 figure salary is an annual income from a job that ranges between $100,000 and $999,000. On the other hand, a salary of $1,000,000 has 7 figures while wages between $10,000 and $99,000 have 5 figures.

To get this 6 figure salary, you should expect, in most cases, to work hard. You will get the required experience in lower levels before getting promoted. Also, the requirements many times involve having a bachelor’s degree.

However, some industries don’t expect you to have a degree and pay this type of salary. If college is a boomer for you, there is always the option to get into tech. This sector is very competitive. Despite this, you can make it if you study hard on your own.

6 Figure Salary Breakdown

A 6 figure salary income is touted as one of the most coveted income figures in a lifetime. We will be setting $100,000 as a common 6 figure salary for this example. So, how does this payment look when we break it down?

Monthly

Most people in the U.S get their salary monthly. If we take $100,000 and divide it by 12 months, we get an $8,333 monthly gross income. That seems like a very good amount of money for every person.

If you didn’t know, the median salary for all American workers that are more than 16 goes over $3,968 a month. That is way lower than this salary and may cause many people to adjust their lifestyle to a cheaper one.

Weekly And Biweekly

Many people in the U.S receive their salary on a weekly and biweekly basis. If you wanted to know the figure, you would receive it weekly, which would be $2,083 per week. For the biweekly amount, you need to multiply that number by 2. This will give us a result of $4,166 per 2 weeks.

Daily

When we get into it daily, you surely know that you will be working from Monday to Friday. If we get the numbers right and divide your weekly salary ($2,083) by 5, it gives us a total of $416 a day. If you work more than 5 days a week, as some people do, you will need to do the math again but with those additional days.

Hourly

Now we will be checking the hourly numbers. There are 260 workdays in a year and the legal amount of work hours is 8 per day. For this reason, you will end up working 2,080 hours in a whole year. If we do all the calculations again, the hourly income will be $52.

We can notice this amount of pay is well above most of the U.S population. It can fit many expensive lifestyles and may be a perfect amount of money to live comfortably. Of course, this depends on where you live.

The 6 Figure Salary Lifestyle

What happens with taxes and costs of living? Do they affect a person who earns a 6 figure salary? That is a good question, and these factors certainly affect this range of income in many ways.

Taxes

If you make $100,000 a year, you will be paying about $26,903 in taxes. That includes:

• $15,253 in federal income taxes to the IRS
• $6,200 in social security taxes
• $1,450 in Medicare taxes
• $4,000 in state income taxes (Variable)

After taxes, you are bringing home $73,097 a year. That means that each month your take-home pay after taxes is $6,091.

Needs

The general rule is that a person should be spending 50% of their income on their needs. These include:

• Housing
• Utilities
• Groceries
• Health insurance
• Car payment

You are bringing home $6,091 a month after taxes. If you will budget 50% for your needs, that means you have a budget of $3,045 a month. Let’s use national averages.

• $500 for groceries
• $400 for health insurance
• $200 for utilities
• $300 for the car payment

This means you are left remaining with $1,595 for housing. You can look online for what $1,595 a month gets you in your geographic location if you rent.

If you buy a home and put a 20% down payment, with a generous 2.75% interest rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage, you can afford a $450,000 property. Always take into account property taxes.

Wants

You should be budgeting 30% for wants. These include things such as:

• Shopping
• Dining Out
• Traveling
• Entertainment
• Hobbies

Let’s see how much money you will have leftover for you to play with for your discretionary spending. Your after-tax take-home pay is $6,091 a month. You take 30% as a discretionary budget, and you are left with a budget of $1,827 a month for wants. That breaks out to $60 a day. That will be your daily allowance to spend on things like getting coffee, shopping, and everything we said before.

Savings

You should be saving 20% of your after-tax money. You can convert this into $1,218 a month or $14,616 a year. That might sound like a lot of money, but keep in mind this. Let’s say you want to buy that $450,000 home, and you want to put 20% as your down payment.

If you are going to be saving for that, you would need to save for 6 years at that rate.

Additionally, if you have other large purchases, such as a new car, that will take away from your savings. Finally, if you have emergency expenditures, that will take away from your savings.

To sum everything up, if you make $100,000 a year and live within your means, this is what you get:

• $450,000 home or rental for $1,595 a month
• Spending allowance of $60 a day
• If you put your savings into the stock market and earn 7% a year, you can retire on $1,380,000 in 30 years

6 Figure Salary Jobs (Degree & No Degree)

Investment Banking

The median salary for an investment banker in the U.S is around $109,319. If you choose to become an investment banker, you will probably work for a huge bank. Your role will help bank clients raise money, go public on the stock market and handle financial deals.

However, as an entry-level analyst, it may be pretty boring. You will just be sitting around a computer all day looking at excel spreadsheets and making PowerPoints for your bosses.

That’s why the most important skills to have when joining investment banking are data analysis and financial modeling.

Management Consulting

The median management consultant salary in the U.S is $119,224. There are a bunch of consulting firms in the U.S. Most of them don’t focus on specific industries. This means that you could be working for a tech company on your first project.

However, a few months later, you could be working for the government on a different problem. This is why consulting is best for people who don’t know which industry suits them the most.

Because management consultants work with many different clients of different industries worldwide, their experiences are really valuable. They say 1 year in consulting equals 5 years of working a normal job. This is because they learn so much.

As an entry-level consultant, most of what you do will involve Excel and Powerpoint. Your team will look at your client’s data, analyze it and think of the best solution. You will need a lot of critical thinking, people skills, and data analysis.

Software Development

The median salary for a software developer in the U.S is $120,000. This, however, depends on the seniority level and geographic location.

They build anything you could imagine doing on a computer, internet website, smartphones, and similar devices. This includes websites, applications, and games.

The need for software developers is growing exponentially, with a demand expected to grow 20% over the next 10 years. This makes sense because everybody uses technology, and businesses need software to run.

The huge upside is that you have so many different options on where to work. Maybe a cool trendy startup suits you, or you prefer a huge tech company like Google.

The most common major to do this job is computer science. However, it’s becoming more common for tech companies not to require a degree related to the field or even a degree at all. All they want for you is to have solid programming skills. You can learn these as self-taught skills.

Marketing

Marketing is the key to building any successful business. You can have a great product, but it will never be successful without adequate marketing. That’s why you can make a lot of money in this position.

Think about Apple. The main reason they are number 1 in selling phones is their marketing strategy. Apple’s whole brand is built on simplicity and makes us feel like we need their products.

A bachelor’s degree is not needed for this position. You can study for a marketing degree, but everything you need to know is learned with practice on the job.

If you grind and become experienced in the industry, you can make real money. The median salary for a marketing manager is $136,000. If you work for a big company like Apple, you can make upwards of $200,000.

So if you have a creative mindset, can think outside the box, and lead a team, you might want to look into marketing.

Human Resources

The median salary for HR managers is $116,070. It can be unclear what people do in HR because they do a whole bunch. They oversee everything that has to do with the company’s employees.

The great skill needed to be successful in HR is people skills. This is because a lot of what they do is vetting people to be interviewed at their company. They are also in charge of performance reviews and training new employees.

People in human resources tend to have really good job satisfaction. It’s not a stressful job where you work tons of hours like in accounting or finance. Despite this, they still make a good amount of money.

Conclusion

Your income goal should be based on what your budget is. If you are not making a 6 figure salary income, that’s fine. Many times, people shoot for this salary just because of hitting 6 figures. Because it feels different, or maybe to flaunt it.

Your income goal should be based on the budget that you have. What are your expenses? What kind of income do you need to live the lifestyle you want? Try to seek something that makes you comfortable or makes you happy.

Just don’t do it for the sake of saying you made 6 figures. You will impress a couple of people, and that’s about it. What matters is your happiness. Always remember that.

However, if you felt like this article encouraged you to get that 6 figure salary, please leave a comment down below. If you are also interested in what investment decision to make to multiply that salary, check out our investing section.

I hope you enjoyed the article! Remember always to put your happiness before money. But if money makes you full, our website can do a pretty good job for you.