How much $ do you make per year as an individual?

What's your yearly individual income?

  • Less than $25k

    Votes: 12 5.8%
  • $25k - $50k

    Votes: 27 13.1%
  • $50k - $100k

    Votes: 62 30.1%
  • $100 - $150k

    Votes: 56 27.2%
  • $150k - $200k

    Votes: 22 10.7%
  • $200k - $250k

    Votes: 5 2.4%
  • $250k - $350k

    Votes: 10 4.9%
  • $350k - $500k

    Votes: 5 2.4%
  • $500k - $1 Million

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • $1 Million ++

    Votes: 4 1.9%

  • Total voters
    206

MSPAviator

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MSPAviator
How much money do you make per year as an individual? If you are married just vote with your individual income--NOT as household.

I put this poll up because there have been many threads on money and how much money it costs to fly. It would be interesting to know what kind of distribution we have here. Results are anonymous, unless an admin goes into the database to see what you actually put, and even then I don't think that info is available.

I'll answer, I'm just not gonna be the first since it will be obvious with one vote that it was me.


bling.jpg
 
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Almonds, more than peanuts but still not up to the level of walnuts...
 
Enough to pay all my bills, not enough to be happy about it.
 
Ask my airplane and my wife, they get it all...
 
I used to have two nickels to rub together but the IRS came by. I don't even have two pennies1 BTW: My first review with my new company was today. Probably making less now!
 
Some years bring tears to my eyes. So do some others.
 
How will you know the flight/aircraft/currency status of the respondents? Lots of pilots round here - not all of them (us) are "partaking" at the current time....
 
Some of us were given airplanes too


-VanDy
 
Interesting results so far.... In the distant past I used to give a quantative answer of "To have a 'no sacrifices' life, it takes at least $70,000 to support a life that included an aviation habit and I would start a flame war for it. The results here are so far bearing out that as a realistic figure.
 
How will you know the flight/aircraft/currency status of the respondents? Lots of pilots round here - not all of them (us) are "partaking" at the current time....


Simple answer: We don't know. The poll isn't perfect, but it is eye opening--right?
 
When I started flying 12 years ago I was in the bottom three brackets area.

My wife worked, we had no kids, had used cars, my only debt was a mortgage and avgas was $2/gallon. I had disposable income coming out of my ears.


Five kids later.........I moved up a bracket or three, but there seem to be two orders magnitude more things leeching on that disposable income. On the bright side, if the kids don't get into college I can buy a king air with their college funds I'm currently working to accumulate. :dunno::D
 
In the first bracket right now, so that's what I put. Most I've ever made puts me in the middle of that second bracket, and I was pretty content. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I was in the third. Nobody in my family has ever made that kind of money.

It's ok, though. I'm should have my commercial pilot rating in the next year or so. I'll just get rich flying. :D
 
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Interesting results so far.... In the distant past I used to give a quantative answer of "To have a 'no sacrifices' life, it takes at least $70,000 to support a life that included an aviation habit and I would start a flame war for it. The results here are so far bearing out that as a realistic figure.

No sacrifices you are probably on the low end. Does it take 70? No, but tit for tat
 
What amazes me is that I actually know a few "millionaires."

A lifetime of airline employment (on the ground), 35 years to be exact, does not put one into the upper income brackets, but in my career I did approach the pay of a 10-year first officer on a widebody.
 
I no longer have any taxable income. :D
Zero, nyetsky.

Starve the beast!
 
I don't think the results really surprised me. Those two leading brackets are what I expected before taking part.

I think I was a little surprised by the lowest and the highest though. Wow to both.
 
When I started flying 12 years ago I was in the bottom three brackets area.

My wife worked, we had no kids, had used cars, my only debt was a mortgage and avgas was $2/gallon. I had disposable income coming out of my ears.


Five kids later.........I moved up a bracket or three, but there seem to be two orders magnitude more things leeching on that disposable income. On the bright side, if the kids don't get into college I can buy a king air with their college funds I'm currently working to accumulate. :dunno::D
:yeahthat:
 
Before or after deductions? *grin*
 
Considering he said individual income, I didn't expect anyone to click the 7 figure+. I need to adjust my thinking.
 
Considering he said individual income, I didn't expect anyone to click the 7 figure+.
Why?

I suspect that most folks with a 7 figure income, are mostly basing that on an individual income even if they file jointly.
 
I previously didn't consider that a person could earn it on their own efforts. I always assumed a business venture, requiring 2 or more people. Tax status does not factor into what I said.
 
Comp is comp. In every business I've owned or have been employed, the results could (and do) range from peanuts to lah-de-dah depending on many factors including the economy, the stock market or fuel prices. Just ask anybody in the aviation buyer rep business how they did in 2009-10. Then ask how they did from 2003 through mid-2008.

I previously didn't consider that a person could earn it on their own efforts. I always assumed a business venture, requiring 2 or more people. Tax status does not factor into what I said.
 
I'm not at all surprised at the results of the poll. Another thing it shows is that, as a group, we make far more than average when you consider the median household income is somewhere around $50,000/year.
 
Comp is comp. In every business I've owned or have been employed, the results could (and do) range from peanuts to lah-de-dah depending on many factors including the economy, the stock market or fuel prices. Just ask anybody in the aviation buyer rep business how they did in 2009-10. Then ask how they did from 2003 through mid-2008.

Ditto with most car guys! 1998-2006 was a very good time to be in the car business!! :yes: 2008-2010, not so much. :mad2:
 
I'm not at all surprised at the results of the poll. Another thing it shows is that, as a group, we make far more than average when you consider the median household income is somewhere around $50,000/year.

We're smarter and better looking too!! :D:D:D
 
I don't think many folks in that range are living large at the airport. I sure wasn't during 1962-67.

I'm not at all surprised at the results of the poll. Another thing it shows is that, as a group, we make far more than average when you consider the median household income is somewhere around $50,000/year.
 
I don't think many folks in that range are living large at the airport. I sure wasn't during 1962-67.
That was my point, though. If you had a family which was making $50,000/year or less you probably wouldn't have any to spend on an expensive hobby. It might be different if you were single.
 
I don't think many folks in that range are living large at the airport. I sure wasn't during 1962-67.

If you were making $50K per year in the early to mid 60's, you certainly could have bought and maintained a pretty nice airplane! :D
 
I can't answer the question. I wanted just to click on something to see what everyone else was claiming, but I didn't really want to screw up the survey so I didn't. My annual income depends on two things, how my investments are doing, and how much I want to skim off them to live on. If they are growing and I don't want a lot, then life is good. If there isn't any growth and I have a hankering for things and stuff, then things kind of suck. Most times I have enough to do what I want. I think though that the question is how much do you need to make in order to fly, and I think for most people with a limited income it depends on how much they want to sacrifice to do it. You can do a lot more flying if that is all you do.
 
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Eleventy Billion Internet Dollars
 
I think you are assuming that yearly income is a constant. Mine certainly is not. From one year to the next, income can vary over many of your bracket ranges. I may have been able to more accurately click a bracket for a question stated as how much income did you have in the last three tax years or how much did you make in the three tax years prior to Pres 'O' and how much did you make in the 3 tax years after Pres 'O'...:rofl:
 
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