Ok check this out, i have a plan to retire by the age of 30:
I'm 21 yrs old and about to graduate a ADN program
i will spend 1 year gaining experience in the ICU, then i will spend the next 8 years as a per-diem or traveling nurse, working no less then 60 hrs a week, 11 months a year.
so heres the math:
40hrs X $43hr = $6880 month
20hrs X $65 hr = $5200 month
total (net income) $8100 month
$2500 month living expenses so $5600 month to invest
Starting with $5,000 and depositing $5,600 monthly over 8 years (at a rate of return 12%, compounded monthly and taxed at your marginal rate of 28%), you will save $769,593.Initial balance:$5,000Total deposits:$537,600Total interest earned:$315,268Total taxes paid:$88,275Total Saved: $769,593
Now i understand that 769K will be different due to inflation 8 yrs from now, so we will say 669k so at 10% a year $66,000 a year!
Now for 8yrs i will work my ass off and be traveling and have little social life, but at age 30 i will never have to work again, and i will probably never want to in nursing cause i will be burnt out, but i think it would be worth it, what do you think?
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
You'd have to invest that $669,000 very, very well indeed if you don't ever want to work again. It sounds like a lot of money, but when you're looking at making last 50 or so years, well.... good luck.
Honestly if you're 21 and want to be a travel nurse, I would suggest going for your BSN and going into the military at age 23. After 20 years you retire with 50% of your income, up to 75% at 30 years. So you can realistically retire at age 43. If you make Lt. Colonel (O-5, which, as far as I know, is very realistic), you will be making (according to 2008 scale, which absolutely will go up each year) 7409/month. 1/2 of that is approx 3700/month, or 43000 a year. You can also put part of your paycheck (say, 10%) in a 401k that the military offers. If you put an average of 500/month, or 6k a year, at 20 years and not including interest you'd have 120k in a retirement fun. So you are then guaranteed 43000 a year before taxes, and have 120k in a retirement fun, which you can then use, once you're out, to buy (or put a fantastic down payment) on a house. You also get the medical, dental, & vision, guaranteed job, and aren't required to work 60+ hours a week. It's a more realistic goal, imo.
Wow, I can hardly live with this kind of optimism.
Lawsuits? Nurses worry incessantly about lawsuits, while hardly any nurses are ever sued. It's very easy to deal with, if someone is that worried: buy some liability insurance (for almost everyone reading this, less than $100 a year) and forget about it.
Mistakes? Everyone makes them. Even those who work 8 hours a week. Or whatever. The rule is be the best nurse you can be, do the best you can be, and, again, don't worry about it.
In it for the money? Who cares? I'd far rather see someone in it for the money, than the crusading do-gooders who are there "to help people." Those "in it for the money" are usually competent, qualified, organized nurses who don't operate with the illusion that nursing is some kind of religious order.
Just for the record, I routinely work 60 hours a week. I'm self-employed and I love what I do. People who are chronically exhausted aren't usually over-worked -- their problem is that they don't like what they do and don't have a goal. Get a goal, get a plan and aim for it. You might not hit it -- that's the risk you take with a goal -- but you'll go a lot further than someone who's just putzing along.
Quote from the head of the OB department in a town of about 18k people
"If you work here for 5 years and haven't been subpeoned yet, you're in the vast minority".
My friend has been working there 7 years and has been to court for 3 different cases.
Quote from the head of the OB department in a town of about 18k people
"If you work here for 5 years and haven't been subpeoned yet, you're in the vast minority".
My friend has been working there 7 years and has been to court for 3 different cases.
Has your friend ever been sued?
I'm not talking about being brought in as a witness in someone else's (say, a physician) suit. I'm talking about a nurse being sued. It happens. But about as often as people get hit by lightning. So if a nurse is terrified of being sued, buy the Liability Insurance. Either way, it's hardly worth worrying about.
I'm not talking about being brought in as a witness in someone else's (say, a physician) suit. I'm talking about a nurse being sued. It happens. But about as often as people get hit by lightning. So if a nurse is terrified of being sued, buy the liability insurance. Either way, it's hardly worth worrying about.
where are you getting your stats from? You have the opinion that lawsuits aren't very common, but what's your source?
and to the op, don't forget, the more you make, the more you get taxed. Also depending on where you live. Getting taxed in NY making 80k a year is far different than getting taxed in WA (no state tax) making 60k a year
I think it is great to have plans and goals. And the fact that you are even thinking about retirement (when most your age are very self-centered and foolish) is commendable. But just because you have a plan doesn't mean it will pan out. Life is filled with unexpected surprises (good and bad). Do NOT go without insurance, that is an accident/illness waiting to happen. Especially if you have kids. Plus, you want to enjoy you life while you are young. If you work your butt off in your 20's, trust me, by 30 you will feel like 50, and are much more likely to be of ill health and worn down from not eating/sleeping/taking care of yourself like you should (Plus, if you have no insurance, you probably aren't likely to even go to the dr when sick or hurt). Nurses can be horrible when it comes to taking care of themselves, my mother is a prime example. 62 and a nurse for 20 years, she is in horrible health. She rarely sleeps, doesn't eat well and smokes like a chimney. She loves to take care of others and puts herself last. Just wait until you actually are a nurse and see firsthand how it is. Maybe you can handle it, maybe you can't. But don't make concrete plans like you have without first being in the nursing profession for at least a year. Good luck, I hope you can do it.
where are you getting your stats from? You have the opinion that lawsuits aren't very common, but what's your source?
Do a web search. Google queries about nurses and lawsuits brings up results dealing with physicians being sued. If this were the terrible plague that the sellers of malpractice insurance would have us believe, it would be very easy to find instances of nurses being sued.
Likewise, if suits were this common against nurses, Liability Insurance wouldn't be as cheap as it is. At under $100 per year for 99% of nurses, it's nothing. And since it's nothing, that tells me that the insurance companies know this is a very minor risk.
And my final question to nurses who worry about this: have you ever known personally a nurse who was sued? I graduated from nursing school in 1980, and have been in full-time practice since then. I've never met one, and never had anyone give me an affirmative answer to this question.
Ok check this out, i have a plan to retire by the age of 30:
I'm 21 yrs old and about to graduate a ADN program
i will spend 1 year gaining experience in the ICU, then i will spend the next 8 years as a per-diem or traveling nurse, working no less then 60 hrs a week, 11 months a year.
so heres the math:
40hrs X $43hr = $6880 month
20hrs X $65 hr = $5200 month
total (net income) $8100 month
$2500 month living expenses so $5600 month to invest
Starting with $5,000 and depositing $5,600 monthly over 8 years (at a rate of return 12%, compounded monthly and taxed at your marginal rate of 28%), you will save $769,593.Initial balance:$5,000Total deposits:$537,600Total interest earned:$315,268Total taxes paid:$88,275Total Saved: $769,593
Now i understand that 769K will be different due to inflation 8 yrs from now, so we will say 669k so at 10% a year $66,000 a year!
Now for 8yrs i will work my ass off and be traveling and have little social life, but at age 30 i will never have to work again, and i will probably never want to in nursing cause i will be burnt out, but i think it would be worth it, what do you think?
Well, I'm glad your handle is "AlwaysLearning", because you indeed will be doing that for a very long time to come.
As for your....ideas....well, I have to say that they are unrealistic, not feasible, and will likely lead to a huge disappointment for you when you find that NONE of what you described is likely to occur. Or, pieces of it may well work out (job experience, travel nursing later on, etc) but frankly, you have a GREAT deal to learn about nursing as a lifestyle/career. The planning process is nice, but you are SO far out from the realities of nursing, job expectations, employer limitations, that you can't even yet begin to figure in future costs of normal living expenses.
Your expectations for hourly wages, your expectations for numbers of hours per week, are not realistic. There is equally no realism in the total dollar amount "saved" being what you could expect to live on from age 30 to, say, age 90. Unless you're planning on "offing" yourself somewhere around age 45, I'd say you should come up with Plan B for THAT reason alone.
There's alot more I could say, but I suspect that given the length of this thread, it's been well covered!
Specializes in Midwifery, Case Management, Addictions.
Hey AlwaysLearning,
How wonderful that you are thinking in these terms at age 21! Wish I'd done the same.
I scanned through the bazillion replies you received. May I recommend two additional ideas that I didn't see posted here? Idea #1 is to increase your income by continuing on with your education. A nurse practitioner or nurse-midwife almost always makes significantly more money than a staff RN. You could work fewer hours that way (though I do know mid-levels who work well over 40 hours per week, so do your best to control your time commitment!).
Idea #2 is to develop multiple streams of income. Doing so will help preserve both your energy and your sanity. There are many books available on that subject. PM me if you want some specific suggestions.
In the meantime, remember: "First you set the goal, and then you see."
Keep your intention clear about what you want to accomplish and then allow the magic to happen. There are plenty of naysayers who will give you a hundred reasons as to why you can't possibly achieve this goal. I'm just suggesting that one way to do it is to choose "easy" rather than "hard."
LydiaNN
2,756 Posts
You'd have to invest that $669,000 very, very well indeed if you don't ever want to work again. It sounds like a lot of money, but when you're looking at making last 50 or so years, well.... good luck.