Does being a Travel Nurse REALLY put more money in your pocket???

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2015

An Associate Degree of Nursing is also a degree.

I never said it wasn't. In fact I never said anything about the Associate Degree. I said a BSN is a degree. Not the only degree.

Why the insistence on even bringing it up. The OP didn't, so I didn't. It's not relevant to anyone except those who continue to think there must be a BSN vs ADN argument. Jeez, people.

NedRN · Oct 13, 2015

Umm, you brought it up again. I merely expanded it to include hundreds of thousands nurses who don't have a degree at all. I didn't disagree with you at all.

ixchel · Oct 31, 2015

Ned, the OP was talking about being a BSN or an RN, and in that context, appeared to not understand that a practicing BSN is an RN. My best guess is the OP is calling ADNs RNs. So for the OP to be grammatically correct, they should say BSN or ADN/ASN. Maverick was simply pointing out that BSN is a degree type, and RN is a license type, so a BSN is an RN as well.

Really, this is an issue of semantics getting confused. I think you both essentially are actually saying the same thing as each other. The confusion rests with the OP's understanding of degree vs. license.

Nurse_Lightning · Nov 1, 2015

I gotta get up to North California! Where I'm at (Indiana), they started me off at $17.78 as a new BSN grad, and 3.5 years later, I'm at $23/hr. :no:

DanidelionRN, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2015

homeschooling is wonderful thing. I was homeschooled, and I cannot imagine a better way to learn and explore the world, than traveling around the country and learning as you go.

_zoubisoubisou_ · Mar 5, 2016

Can someone please break down the tax home thing for me? I don't own a home. I understand that in order for stipends not to be taxed, I need a tax home....does that mean to own?

NedRN · Mar 5, 2016

You can also rent or houseshare. You have to understand the basis for business expenses here, you must be duplicating expenses that you would not have incurred if you had stayed at home, you are maintaining a home (otherwise there is no duplication of expenses), and the nature of your job means that you have to have lodging to rest before your next shift (which means you cannot commute from home).

So to give you a choice, you can pay income taxes on all your compensation as a traveler such as housing and per diem. Your status is itinerant worker, thus you are home everywhere you are. No tax home needed.

The usual tax free benefits of being a traveler with a tax home add up to around $10,000 extra net income a year you can put in the band for most travelers. If the cost of maintaining a tax home is more than that, it is better to just be itinerant.

andrea4_2005 · Mar 9, 2016

What agency where you able to sign on with to do travel nursing as an LPN, i'm from Indiana and was inquiring what would be a good agency.

Julius Seizure · Mar 9, 2016

I have a much larger savings account after 2 years of travel nursing.

However, my retirement account has stagnated because there is no employer contribution. I also have no life insurance, disability, paid sick or vacation time, and minimal health insurance because I pay for it myself on the marketplace.

NedRN · Mar 9, 2016

There are lots of agencies that offer 401 plans, some without vesting requirements (better for travel nurses who operate as free agents). This is one area where Highway Hypodermics "best" agency list might prove helpful as it is heavily biased on benefits. The downside to such agencies is that they may be larger agencies that pay less overall. So you have to weigh things carefully. That said, I've worked for a couple of smaller agencies that have allowed me to max out annual 401 contributions in one assignment (the gross amount, not some lame small percentage of your taxable earnings). That really provided a nice pop to my retirement accounts.

You can of course contribute the max easily to an individual IRA, but that is not pre-tax like ordinary 401s (non-Roth) and the annual amounts are low.

One other caveat to mention with agency 401s - most of them are really bad with well hidden costs. I don't purchase stock funds with agency 401s, instead I go the money market route to preserve capital. As soon as my assignment is done, I transfer the 401 to my IRA (no cost to do so by law) and then purchase index funds. Choose Vanguard or Fidelity index funds for the lowest fees and the largest gains in your retirement account decades later.

tabitha1979 · Mar 15, 2016

BSN isn't a thing, its the education you received in order to test for the NCLEX, which if passed, awards you your LICENSE to practice nursing, or RN. You can have a bachelors of science in nursing and not be a registered nurse. I HATE it when people say "I'm a BSN". It sounds silly.