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Posted: 5/4/2019 5:20:17 PM EDT

[#1]

CRNA.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/crna-average-hourly-wage-salary-for-all-50-states-montana-tops-the-list-at-243k.html

Posted: 5/4/2019 7:16:53 PM EDT

[#2]

Knowing what I know now I would become a nurse even though I'm a guy. I could work 3 days a week 12 hour shifts and get full time money. Many nursing jobs in any state. Constant exposure to female nurses. Good money. Variety of time slots to work. Can't beat it

That and worn better hearing protection.

Posted: 5/4/2019 7:22:48 PM EDT

[#3]

I would have studied my ass off and took my dad up on a free ride to UT for engineering.

Posted: 5/4/2019 8:03:46 PM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:
Knowing what I know now I would become a nurse even though I'm a guy. I could work 3 days a week 12 hour shifts and get full time money. Many nursing jobs in any state. Constant exposure to female nurses. Good money. Variety of time slots to work. Can't beat it.

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Hope you enjoy lifting smelly 400 lb patients.

Posted: 5/4/2019 8:08:37 PM EDT

[#5]

Quote History

Quoted:
I'd save every penny from the age of 5 and sink it all on Monster Beverages stock in 2001.

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Or RIP-ITs.

Posted: 5/4/2019 9:24:36 PM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
Hope you enjoy lifting smelly 400 lb patients.

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Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Knowing what I know now I would become a nurse even though I'm a guy. I could work 3 days a week 12 hour shifts and get full time money. Many nursing jobs in any state. Constant exposure to female nurses. Good money. Variety of time slots to work. Can't beat it.

Hope you enjoy lifting smelly 400 lb patients.

I can handle it. In the job I worked a long time I smelled a lot of nasty stuff for a lot less money.

Posted: 5/4/2019 9:37:53 PM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted:
$500,000 isn't what it used to be.

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Quoted:

Quoted:
I wouldn't have changed careers. But I did work hard as a teenager and if I had invested $5000 in Apple when I graduated high school it would be worth more than $500,000 today, so there is that...

$500,000 isn't what it used to be.

But added to my current situation would be very nice!

Posted: 5/4/2019 10:45:28 PM EDT

[#8]

Quote History

Quoted:

But added to my current situation would be very nice!

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There's no question about the fact that $500,000 would ease the tension a bit.

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:08:00 PM EDT

[#9]

My life is pretty great.

Full time firefighter for a big city, work with a great crew, get payed just under six figures with a good retirement. Part time I fly helicopters for Uncle Sam. Before that I was a Tank Officer in the Marines. All really cool stuff, great experiences, and most importantly have met some awesome people along the way. I really shouldn’t complain at all. But that’s not to say I don’t worry wonder what if. I’m a different man now than who I was when I decided to do all that.

I love the mountains and the outdoors, and right now I’m stuck for at least the next 15 years in a big city and one of the most populous states in the country. My job keeps me tied here, and if I were to quit now I’d lose my pension and have to restart my career from the ground up. I feel trapped, and I hate it.

I love flying, but Army life is Army life, and it’s a huge time suck. Not to mention deployments, additional duties, etc. It’s damn hard on a marriage and family.

Looking back now what would I do differently?

Maybe go to flight school earlier in my military career get in with the airlines young. I enjoy flying more than I do the fire department most days. No debating the lowlifes of society about going to the hospital for bullshit at 0300. Just you and a buddy, the aircraft, and ATC. No increased cancer risk. No witnessing horrific things and people every day. When I got on the FD I was young and wanted to experience all that, to really see life. Now I just want to live in peace.

Really in my gut having to do it all over again I’d go out west for college, study something like wildlife biology and go work for Fish and Game in some western state. Just me and nature. It would be hard for me not to smile if my office was in the backcountry most days.

But had I done that, I’d probably regret not serving my country, flying, etc. It’s a bit of a catch 22 I guess.

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:17:14 PM EDT

[#10]

I did.

Engineering -> Medicine.

No regrets

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:20:21 PM EDT

[#11]

Piano player in a whorehouse

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:40:23 PM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:
My Dad often said if he could start over he'd be a hermit.......

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This right here. For some reason when I was growing up it was important to live up to this ever moving goal post called "your potential", or to accomplish as much as you could before you died. This idea is so deeply ingrained I can't escape it. In retrospect, those that work 1/4 as hard and live up to 1/2 their potential (there are diminishing returns) are probably the winners.

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:45:10 PM EDT

[#13]

Rock Hounds are what "geologists" are normally called. At least they were when I was growing up in the 70's. Study of volcanoes would be a volcanologist.

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:48:10 PM EDT

[#14]

I’d probably go to med school, and go into radiology. Residency is pretty easy, you make good money and don’t work long hours - and best of all, you don’t have to get your hands dirty touching actual nasty people.

Posted: 5/4/2019 11:56:32 PM EDT

[#15]

Id PCS 6 times in 8 years like all the pussies I went to flight school with so I wouldnt spend my entire 20s deployed or getting ready to deploy.

Because when we all met up again later in our careers, the Army had no way to measure cowardice and we were suddenly equal on a promotion board.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:13:55 AM EDT

[#16]

No way I could hack it now, but I would go molecular biology and learn to program microbes to do industrial processes.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:16:55 AM EDT

[#17]

Professionally speaking it has gone further than I ever imagined. My changes would most certainly be on the personal side.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:18:31 AM EDT

[#18]

Solid thread.

I'm only 30 and just now started saving for retirement. No need to give me shit -- I know that it was a huge oversight.

IB? You better love working 90 hour weeks. And I'm not exaggerating. You're also not creating anything but moving around money. Of course, you can amass lots of money.

Physician? Most physicians I know are unhappy with that path and wouldn't recommend it to their kids. Long hours and a ridiculous amount of education.

Pilot? As others have mentioned, pay is not great, work holidays, away from home often, etc.

Attorney? I'm an attorney and actually like the area I practice. This is not the case for the overwhelming majority of my colleagues. High rates of substance abuse, suicide, divorce, and depression. I could write a book about why so many attorneys hate their chosen profession

I think most people look at these professions with rose-colored glasses. I do this with the trades. I can't help but think that it would have been a smart move to start right out of high school on the path to become a welder, electrician, plumber, etc. No student debt, work with your hands, and make decent money. Like others in this thread, I'm probably way off.

ETA: The only other real regret I have, other than failing to save earlier, is that I wish I would have given less of a shit in general.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:21:11 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
I know a lot of military veterans do it because they have to. However, that’s a small percentage of the population. I’m considering going back to school and learning to be a rock hound. Mainly looking at the study of volcanoes and seismology. Pretty sure I would end up poor though so I might settle for something practical like welding/pipe fitting/ machining. I’m not one for sitting behind a computer all day in cubicle hell. It crushes my soul. I like results in a finished product that’s tangible.

So, if you could or have just said f it and shifted gears in mid life what would or have you done? More importantly, why?

View Quote

I went back and got my BS then MS in physiology.

I love science. In CO it doesn’t pay like you would think. Not sure it was worth the expense.

I proved I can be an accomplished scientist and currently work in science at a startup for a yutz.

I proved I can do anything I set my mind to. I prove every day I can do anything I am asked using my hands or my brain.

In that regard the confidence I gained and problem solving skills I’ve developed are excellent.

Many get that in the service.

You are right though, go back for you and don’t expect you will make a ton of money. I think for most those days are a thing of the past. Unless you go into medical or start a successful bus.

My .02

I would go back and tell my 16 yo self to go to college, lay off women and booze. Concentrated on my studies and became a surgeon on my dads tab.

Live and learn.

Why? I love science and working with my hands. Women and booze led me down bad roads, led to horrible life choices and inflicted immense needless pain.

Would have been easier to just do it right, in the right order.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:35:25 AM EDT

[#20]

Screwed that up!

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:39:05 AM EDT

[#21]

I would have put God first, been faithful to the angel He gave me for my first wife, kept the family in the church. Done more things with my son.

Career wise, I would have taken the record contract offered me. They wanted me to drop my band except for the lead vocalist, even though they were fantastic, because they were "too old."

I was loyal, and really I know the guys would have understood and been happy. They mostly wanted me as a songwriter / synth player / bassist. Who knows if it would have amounted to anything, but it would have been my shot. It was a one record deal with a major label, and I wouldn't have had any money in it at all.

The producer heard my demo tapes at his cousins house when he came home to visit family for Christmas. I played all the instruments but it was fairly sparse, but he still liked 4 of the 10 to want to work on them and have me write 6 more" good" ones ( which means about 15 more songs ). He'd just won a Grammy for Cypress Hill's Black Sunday and had started working with and producing for 311, Hed PE, Korn, and Rob Zombie.

I was stupid as hell, because he had a hot hand at that time, so I might have , somehow , possibly had a little chance to get something going.

I've made lots of bad decisions in my life. Damn.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:52:45 AM EDT

[#22]

In my personal life I would've kept perusing my hobbies more regularly. By now I could have my private pilots license, a ton more SCUBA dives under my belt, had my skydiving license, traveled more, be lifting far more weight/be fitter and be ranked much higher in USPSA. I've come to realize this is what I enjoy doing so I'm making these things happen.

Professionally I thought I would've liked to go to medical school if I had a do over but now I'm making as much as many doctors. I'm formulating a plan to get out of the medical field and into entrepreneurship or real estate. I want to make obscene amounts of money and I'm gong to do it.

My life isn't what I wanted it to be so I've been reinventing myself and loving it.

Posted: 5/5/2019 12:56:01 AM EDT

[#23]

Paleoanthropology.

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:00:48 AM EDT

[#24]

Quote History

Quoted:

It all depends.
Anybody that thinks it is like driving a bus either has no clue or are purposely massively understating the job.
I did it for the pay and the time off, both of those are gone.

Everything has it's advantages and disadvantages.

There are a lot of both as an airline pilot.

The good:

You don't have to sit in a cubical and do office work or go to meetings.
You don't have to drive to work everyday and sit in rush hour traffic
If you are lucky eventually the pay is ok.
once you have seniority you have control over your life you can work more, or work less and pick the days off you want
can live where you want if you want to commute long distances.

The bad:

You have to pass an FAA medical every 6 months or you don't have a job
You get tested every year and must pass or you can lose your job
starting pay sucks
everything works by date of hire seniority
you can not switch companies, you can but you start at the bottom so you are effectively tied to the company sink or swim.
lot's of pilots get furloughed when the economy tanks
in the beginning you have no seniority and no life
the airline has no holidays
away from home alot
work back side of clock alot
living in hotels sucks
if you fuck up you can kill people
you aren't paid enough for what you do.
you are around thousands of people a day and when you get sick from being exposed to thousands of sick people hacking up a lung, the company harasses you for being out sick.
sitting in a chair all day is bad for the back
there is no ejection seat

I wish i had done something else.

View Quote

@Mach
You forgot weather and turbulence, or do those make the job more interesting for you?

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:11:01 AM EDT

[#25]

Not get a DUI right out of High School!!!

Fucked me over till this day!! Over 36
years later!!!!

The other was when my parents went
so down hill that I was the main caregiver
and lost everything!!!!!! But the idiots
think that bad credit is because you do
not pay your debts?? How about you take
care of 2 parents complety incapable of
taking care of themselves and being the
only one taking care of them!!! Oh!?
and all of theirs and yours??!! But,

I ended up losing my parents and all of my
Money and shit!!!!

Eh, if I could do something from the past,
easy, get my parents care before that shit even started!!!!!!

.

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:23:01 AM EDT

[#26]

Is it me or are people misunderstanding the OP's question? I don't think he's talking about going back and doing it all over. Sounds to me like he meant stopping what you're doing and starting fresh.

Quoted:

So, if you could or have just said f it and shifted gears in mid life what would or have you done? More importantly, why?

View Quote

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:27:26 AM EDT

[#27]

Same thing I did but I would have kept my loud mouth shut.

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:38:57 AM EDT

[#28]

I would have joined the Navy @ 18 and gone to nuke school. Lord they were on me since the 11th grade when I took the ASVAB. They tried harder still when I was in the 12th and just after graduation. I would have been retired once and deep into a nuke job making bank.

Oh well, I have a good life now. I ain't crying and I don't like to keep looking over my shoulder at what might have been because it gets in the way of seeing where I am going now.

Posted: 5/5/2019 1:58:54 AM EDT

[#29]

That chick in high school

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:00:14 AM EDT

[#30]

if I could start over I would do what I do now only sooner.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:01:00 AM EDT

[#31]

I'm happy. My life is what it is and all the hard times have prepared me for my current position.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:03:33 AM EDT

[#32]

Rover/wanderer/vagabond. People could call me what they will.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:06:00 AM EDT

[#33]

Probably nothing. I am happy how my life has unfolded. I have made mistakes along the way, but God is kind and forgiving when we turn to him. I have great kids, a good wife, and have learned a lot from my experiences.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:07:09 AM EDT

[#34]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dentist.

Everyone I know makes bank and works about 6 hours a day.

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My cousin is a dentist. He's doing quite well.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:17:25 AM EDT

[#35]

Quote History

Quoted:
There's a piece of land in my area that was 30k in 1985. It sold recently for around 3.4 million. I'd buy that.

And I could have bought a 1958 Flying V in 1987 for 3k. I'd buy that too.

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Back in 1984 I could have bought the Brockburst or any other '59 Les Paul Standard for 7500 bucks and that was record setting at the time.

In retrospect, any of them would have been a stellar investment. Of course it goes without saying that the same would apply to any first gen 1958/1959 Flying V or Explorer. Throw in a '59 Bassman or two just to sweeten the deal and then get a few of those Marshalls with the plastic faceplate. (Plexiglas, they call it.)

Don't even get me started on what could have happened with bitcoin.

Posted: 5/5/2019 3:08:05 AM EDT

[#36]

Quote History

Quoted:
I’d probably go to med school, and go into radiology. Residency is pretty easy, you make good money and don’t work long hours - and best of all, you don’t have to get your hands dirty touching actual nasty people.

View Quote

Same here. And possibly plastic surgery or a med spa.

I never thought I was smart enough to be a doctor, then met same dang stupid doctors.

I love what I do though so no real regrets

Posted: 5/5/2019 3:47:58 AM EDT

[#37]

If I could start over?? I would be too
young to know!!

No, I would have been more involved
with all the Bands that I was with at the
time in the 80's!!!!!

Queensryche, Metal Church, Heart, The
Accused, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden,
Tad, Melvins, Alice and Chains, Mudhoney,
Green River, My Sisters machine, Sanctuary,
etc.... and then

Death Angel, Metallica, Exodus, Y&T,,
Tower of Power, etc...

Damn, I was in quite a few docs. and
footage with most of these bands and a
few of the bad shit that did happen
with a few others, like Slayer!! Or GBH!!

Fun back in the Day!!

But now, If I had to do over, How about
getting my brain to think about my future
and not about my middle leg getting me in
trouble and a brain not to party my early life
away with stupid shit!! Oh well, The Past!
It is the Past!!! It is Done!! Livin the Now!!

.

Posted: 5/5/2019 4:16:01 AM EDT

[#38]

If I was somehow transported back in time to re-live the first half of my life, I would go all-in into real estate.

Posted: 5/5/2019 4:36:18 AM EDT

[#39]

Study hard, get a boring job doing something either in law or finance.

Posted: 5/5/2019 6:52:14 AM EDT

[#40]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dentist.

Everyone I know makes bank and works about 6 hours a day.

View Quote

Do you know a guy that can print you a license?

Posted: 5/5/2019 7:09:21 AM EDT

[#41]

Quote History

Quoted:
@Mach
You forgot weather and turbulence, or do those make the job more interesting for you?

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:

It all depends.
Anybody that thinks it is like driving a bus either has no clue or are purposely massively understating the job.
I did it for the pay and the time off, both of those are gone.

Everything has it's advantages and disadvantages.

There are a lot of both as an airline pilot.

The good:

You don't have to sit in a cubical and do office work or go to meetings.
You don't have to drive to work everyday and sit in rush hour traffic
If you are lucky eventually the pay is ok.
once you have seniority you have control over your life you can work more, or work less and pick the days off you want
can live where you want if you want to commute long distances.

The bad:

You have to pass an FAA medical every 6 months or you don't have a job
You get tested every year and must pass or you can lose your job
starting pay sucks
everything works by date of hire seniority
you can not switch companies, you can but you start at the bottom so you are effectively tied to the company sink or swim.
lot's of pilots get furloughed when the economy tanks
in the beginning you have no seniority and no life
the airline has no holidays
away from home alot
work back side of clock alot
living in hotels sucks
if you fuck up you can kill people
you aren't paid enough for what you do.
you are around thousands of people a day and when you get sick from being exposed to thousands of sick people hacking up a lung, the company harasses you for being out sick.
sitting in a chair all day is bad for the back
there is no ejection seat

I wish i had done something else.

@Mach
You forgot weather and turbulence, or do those make the job more interesting for you?

Wx and turbulence are nothing. Not even a consideration.Just part of the everyday job. They are routine and normal. It would be like asking a taxi driver if he was concerned about bumpy roads and driving in the rain.

I don't like or want interesting. When it gets interesting there is less room for error and a report to write.

Last time it got interesting I had a tire come apart at lift off the runway on takeoff, put a whole through the flaps, cause a hydraulic leak and the big chunks of rudder and flap go down an engine. You can keep interesting.

Posted: 5/5/2019 7:38:52 AM EDT

[#42]

Gotten my GED as quickly as possible and skipped college. None of the jobs I've ever worked have required education, just experience.

Overall I'm good with IT. I've had some crappy gigs but currently I'm doing great. Good team, good company and if things work out just right we may all get a huge payout.

I don't think I can do it 25 more years though.

Posted: 5/5/2019 7:44:05 AM EDT

[#43]

I think I would have worked to get into the aerospace field sooner, knowing what I know now. But at 30 I’m blessed.

Ive owned 3 businesses now. Created from nothing and sold 2 thus far. Still operating one part time. So working for myself just feels like it’s in my blood.

I always had a dream of being a cattle rancher or something. Owning a thousand acres and working on my ranch all day. Might hate it, or it might be the freedom I’ve always dreamed of.

Posted: 5/5/2019 7:58:37 AM EDT

[#44]

I've sort of done that twice already. After growing up working for my dad in his construction company, a building company gave me an offer I couldn't refuse when I was 28, so I went to work for them doing accounting and estimating in an office. After two years of that (and being "salaried"), I had enough of it and started my own business in June of '99. My time at the building company was crucial in teaching me how to operate a business, so I'll always be grateful for that opportunity.

So now I'm coming up on 20 years and I have to say that I wouldn't want it any other way. Six years ago my father retired and I bought his business, too. Since then, I've worked diligently on becoming more efficient in every aspect of the business. Most of the genesis of that effort to streamline comes from necessity: I'm not 35 anymore (49) and the faster and easier I can make the work to do, the better it is in the long run. I'm even in the beginning stages of patenting something I invented to make the job more efficient.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:38:09 PM EDT

[#45]

Quote History

Quoted:
I could write a book about why so many attorneys hate their chosen profession

View Quote

Would you just list a few reasons for us?

I'm curious about the reasons why attorneys make themselves unhappy.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:56:23 PM EDT

[#46]

Quote History

Quoted:
Rock Hounds are what "geologists" are normally called. At least they were when I was growing up in the 70's. Study of volcanoes would be a volcanologist.

View Quote

Rockhound to me is someone whose hobby it is to collect rocks.

Google “You might be a rockhound if..”

Owning a rock/mineral shop is my attempt at starting over, although it may be more of a way to pay for travel and not have a boss than a lucrative career.

I would do accounting if I had to do it all over. Tax accounting if I didn’t want to work all year.

Or wish I would have just made better decisions on the kind of real estate I purchased / sold.

Posted: 5/5/2019 2:57:53 PM EDT

[#47]

Quote History

Quoted:
I’d probably go to med school, and go into radiology. Residency is pretty easy, you make good money and don’t work long hours - and best of all, you don’t have to get your hands dirty touching actual nasty people.

View Quote

AI is going to replace that job, within 2 years at most. But, between now and then, you could make bank!

Posted: 5/5/2019 3:00:35 PM EDT

[#48]

I'd be a rap star. I'd drive a big car, have plenty of bling, and women.

Posted: 5/6/2019 4:32:54 PM EDT

[#49]

Quote History

Quoted:
I'd be a rap star. I'd drive a big car, have plenty of bling, and women.

View Quote

Classy.

Posted: 5/6/2019 4:43:11 PM EDT

[#50]

Quote History

Quoted:

I'm the guy in the industry making half as much as everyone else after 20+ years. Year to date though that's still $55k for being a shitty regional jet pilot. At times it's very depressing knowing that pilots out there doing the same job as me will make 3x as much. Very Depressing. I'm too old now to ever be in that position. I'd still be a pilot though. This job has a bunch of perks beyond the pay. (Like I've got 9 days off at the end of May while only using two days of vacation.)

3x times in my life I made major choices on which way I would go that had a major impact. First getting out of the Army at 22 after four years. Staying in and retiring at after 38 would have happened back in 2005. I enlisted in 84 under the old retirement system as well. 20 or more years would pay better than the current system. I just didn't think the military paid enough at the time. Second, after college and working for a few years and saving up some money, I was looking at taking 2-3 years off and sailing the Pacific. Still in my 20s and single. I met my wife and it didn't happen. Third, got hired for a flying job in Alaska, all packed and ready to go. Got an offer from an airline instead and thought that would be better for my career... Flying low and slow over Alaska would have been entirely different than a jet at 35,000 feet.

I've got too many responsibilities with a wife and three kids to pursue other things at this point. Now I'm think at retirement in 13 years I might get a boat and sail the Pacific, or go to Alaska. Or do both. I'll probably have to do it on my own as the wife has zero interest in it.

#1 thing for everyone out there should be putting more into retirement when they are young. Start when you are a teenager and put away as much as you can. I don't give a shit how poor you think you are. That should be your number one priority. Forget the cars, cell phones, trips, etc.. Save that money, live frugal, and retire early. If I had just skipped buying a few cars in my youth, I'd probably be retiring way earlier.

View Quote

The way I see it, at the end of our life, all we have is a collection of stories. How good they are probably defines how good a life you had.

I burned a lot of money on cars. My only regret is not keeping my ‘86 RX-7 and dumping my wife...

TC

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - If you could start over what would you do? (Page 3 of 4)

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