help with traveling question

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hello everyone,

i have a friend that tells me that one of her friends is making about $60.00/hr as a nurse in northern california. she made $200,000 dollars last year alone. what she does is "per diem" for 2wks and then returns home for 4wks. she has been doing this for years and makes more than the average traveler because she cuts out the middle man (travel agency) and pays for her own housing and transportation. can anyone shed some light on this please? thanks

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Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.

She makes more because by not using a travel company, she does not get medical insurance, housing, utilities, , travel reimbursement, etc. She is responsible for getting these things and paying for them on her own. So while her hourly rate might be more, I'd be willing to bet her bottom line after paying for her own insurance, housing, and travel expenses isn't much more than if she used a travel company....

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Sounds like she's talking about an "IC" relationship with the facility as vendor. As the previous poster stated: She's probably cut out the agency, but thats not a panacea.

First, if you're doing it correct and formed a company that bills the hospital and then your company pays you and you're following all the IRS rules.... take 25% off the rate right away to cover expenses and taxes and that's a "ballpark" to what you're probably closer to making.

Second, the point is take home, not overall billing. If you're operating as an IC you can set your own hourly rate, reimbursement package, retirement and healthcare options and juggle the number to suit your needs.

and third is I'd really have to be shown where you can make $200K/yr working two weeks of six. Assume that she works twelve hours per day @ $60/hr for 14 days = $10080

Then even assuming she works two weeks per month thats roughly $120K per year.

careful with that math stuff and meeting with the IRS if the records aren't meticulous

get an expert like one of people that specialize in taxes for travelers or locum tenens. better safe than sorry

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hello everyone,

i have a friend that tells me that one of her friends is making about $60.00/hr as a nurse in northern california. she made $200,000 dollars last year alone. what she does is "per diem" for 2wks and then returns home for 4wks. she has been doing this for years and makes more than the average traveler because she cuts out the middle man (travel agency) and pays for her own housing and transportation. can anyone shed some light on this please? thanks

i have a very close friend, and know of several others, who have been doing this for years. however, they do not work for travel agencies. what they have done is signed on to work the prn pool at various hospitals, and the rates vary from $60.00 to $70.00 per hr, depending on the specialty. some have secured their own apartments, some stay at "extended stay" type hotel/motels and some have gotten an apartment that they share with one or two others nurses who do the same kind of perdiem work.

as others mentioned, they are responsible for their own health insurance, and travel expenses, living expenses, etc. but given the rates, it offers them the opportunity to return home for several weeks each months, and so far it seems to have worked out to their benefit. my best friend is in her third year of working this way, and loves it. hope this helps. :up:

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i still do not believe the figures that your friend is telling you about. Taxes are still paid on that and CA has a high tax base rate in the first place. So the more that you theoretically make, the higher taxes that you pay.

And even if she lives in another state, CA still takes their share of anything made while physically working in CA.

No matter what their rate is, they are still not making $200,000 per year working just two weeks every six weeks or so. The math does not add up to that.

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Did you mean this for the person who originally posted?

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I think Suzanne did mean it for the original poster.

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