Do Nurses really make "good money?"

Libby1987 · Mar 22, 2016

I don't think it's good money but as a single mom I've been able to provide for my kids, buy a home, keep a horse and help (not fully finance) my kids through college.

Where it falls short is choosing between entertainment and substantial savings. Good money allows you to do both, nursing wages require you to make choices.

Ard123 · Mar 22, 2016

My base hourly pay works out to a $48k yearly salary. With overtime, shift bonuses, skill-based pay and shift differentials, I made $100k+. Not shabby for the Midwest. I haven't had to worry about money since the first year I was out of college.

That's pretty impressive, thank ask how much ot are you getting

kcheck5, MSN, APRN, NP · Feb 20, 2018

Right out the gate for the hospital I work for, I am making the equivalent to about 80k, this is on night shift. The average in Oregon according to the union is about 88k. You can make more when you work overtime if that is important to you. All I can say is that this career has allowed me plenty of opportunities and to save up for a car and home in the same year, as well as the single year of tuition that I needed to complete my BSN. Not sure how your finances are, but that has been my experience. I have no children and my previous loans have been paid off, and no current car payment as that has been completed too (hence a new one coming soon, mines old haha). I currently pay a mortgage and have usual bills related to the home and everyday costs.

Oldmahubbard · Feb 21, 2018

I am an NP. I became one, not for the money, because there wasn't any at the time.

Thankfully things have changed.

Recently, I thought of where I would be now, in my late 50's, if I had remained at my last RN job, and the picture isn't very pretty.

I am divorced, no children.

I would be living OK, maybe out to dinner once a week, but otherwise not much savings. The company didn't offer any form of retirement, not even 401k, but if they had, there would only be a few thousand dollars in it.

Two weeks of vacation a year, but I could only afford to travel one of those weeks.

Essentially, I would be looking at working until I drop, because my projected Social Security benefit would be about 1800 dollars a month.

Thankfully, my NP career worked out extremely well, so the financial picture is very bright.

The RN jobs that tend to pay more, are also much more stressful.