$200,000 salary as a RN, it's true

Specialties NP

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I'm a NP who works in the Stockton/Sacramento area. One of my boating buddies is a RN at Kaiser. He has been there 10 years and is a charge nurse on a med/surg floor. I didn't believe it until he showed me but he does make a base of $200k a year. With overtime he clears a little of $350,000. This is due to Kaiser in Northern California being unionized. He lives in Modesto which is a low cost of living area but the contracts for the union are tied in with San Francisco which leads to high hourly wages. At retirement he is guaranteed at least $110k annually for life and lifetime medical benefits with any medical insurer he chooses whether it is Kaiser or not. I read the contract and couldn't believe what I was reading but there it was.

SO as a NP it makes me want to jump to Kaiser but......if I was to start at Kaiser with 10 years of NP experience under my belt I still wouldn't be making as much as my friend.

Disturbing??? Maybe....I'm happy for him. It just lets me know that there really are those rare RNs who make more than NPs....way, way more and more than most primary care MDs working on the floor. It makes you wonder if this model is sustainable.

Specializes in ICU.
On 7/22/2019 at 12:30 PM, traumaRUs said:

Wow is all I can come up with. However, while I "wow" the salary, I also "wow" the cost of a house! $400,000 for something decent???!!! Yikes!

Thats not affordable to my midwestern sense of affordable. I would think $320k for salary would translate roughly to 100k here in rural central IL where you can get a decent house fo 100k.

Lol, I would love to have that salary and houses that cheap. I live in MD working in the ICU and there are no real unions. I get paid 28.6/ hour and $5 for nights. That's only like $63,000 per year. Houses in Maryland are super expensive. I just saw an add stating new house starting at ONLY $900,000 in Howard county. So yeah, sign me up for $200,000 per year and $400,000 houses lol.

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Specializes in NICU/Neonatal transport.
1 hour ago, AgentHarmon said:

Lol, I would love to have that salary and houses that cheap. I live in MD working in the ICU and there are no real unions. I get paid 28.6/ hour and $5 for nights. That's only like $63,000 per year. Houses in Maryland are super expensive. I just saw an add stating new house starting at ONLY $900,000 in Howard county. So yeah, sign me up for $200,000 per year and $400,000 houses lol.

Really, the houses here are more like >700k, but buying is not the best option for everyone. It's a lie we've been sold. Just have to keep repeating this.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
12 hours ago, LilPeanut said:

Really, the houses here are more like >700k, but buying is not the best option for everyone. It's a lie we've been sold. Just have to keep repeating this.

A house in SF starting at >700K, yeah that's in a shady neighborhood and it probably won't qualify for a mortgage because its's unlivable.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

When I worked in Columbus Ohio, there was a bedside nurse making 260,000 at my hospital, was working 6-7 days a week though it was at a major university with all the employee salaries being publicly available.

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Specializes in Community health.
On 7/25/2019 at 4:35 PM, Jkloo said:

I have to agree with this. I'm not sure where people get the idea that it takes 500k to obtain a half-decent home in California.

I live in Connecticut and people (primarily online) say the same thing about this state. “You can’t get a decent house/good location for under half a million dollars.” Uh, what? My mortgage receipt (and Zillow) says differently. I am not sure the motivation to exaggerate so drastically.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.
On 7/22/2019 at 10:10 PM, ToFNPandBeyond said:

Not true. Many parts of Sacramento are very affordable. I can attest.

Not true. Slab City is absolutely free .http://www.wtfshouldidowithmylife.com/live-in-slab-city/ All you need are solar/wind generators and to bring in or buy your water and you can truly live rent free in California. Alternatively, here is a decent house for rent near Modesto California (I mention that because I just saw a Psych NP add near there that pays $100.00/hr) for only $2500 per month (5 bed/3 bath with a pool). There are many homes near me in Florida that rent for more than that https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4224-Frost-Way-Modesto-CA-95356/54984322_zpid/ . I also had a friend who lived in his mini RV (parking in Walmart's and other places) and taking showers with his AnyTime (24 hour) fitness membership. Again absolutely or nearly rent free (his mini RV was around 15K used and was pulled by an old Toyota Sienna with a hitch worth about 3K due to 250K miles). It is all a matter of how far you are willing to go.

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Specializes in Psychiatric and Mental Health NP (PMHNP).
13 hours ago, myoglobin said:

Alternatively, here is a decent house for rent near Modesto California (I mention that because I just saw a Psych NP add near there that pays $100.00/hr) for only $2500 per month (5 bed/3 bath with a pool). There are many homes near me in Florida that rent for more than that

You can easily rent a house in Sacramento if you are willing to pay $2000 a month or more.

I just rented a house for $1450 on the border of Elk Grove, fully furnished, for a 7 month lease, 3 BR 2 BA through a listing agency for traveling nurses.

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14 hours ago, myoglobin said:

Not true. Slab City is absolutely free .http://www.wtfshouldidowithmylife.com/live-in-slab-city/ All you need are solar/wind generators and to bring in or buy your water and you can truly live rent free in California. Alternatively, here is a decent house for rent near Modesto California (I mention that because I just saw a Psych NP add near there that pays $100.00/hr) for only $2500 per month (5 bed/3 bath with a pool). There are many homes near me in Florida that rent for more than that https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4224-Frost-Way-Modesto-CA-95356/54984322_zpid/ . I also had a friend who lived in his mini RV (parking in Walmart's and other places) and taking showers with his AnyTime (24 hour) fitness membership. Again absolutely or nearly rent free (his mini RV was around 15K used and was pulled by an old Toyota Sienna with a hitch worth about 3K due to 250K miles). It is all a matter of how far you are willing to go.

Nobody in their right mind would live in Slab City. I worked at a nearby clinic in Niland and it was the worst city I've seen. Literally just sand and meth heads. Slab City was glorified in the movie "Into the Wild"

It's an old army base that was abandoned after WWII. There is really no running water besides an irrigation pipe that is broken where the residents bathe, use for drinking and use for toileting. There is no power unless you have solar. Don't go there unless you want to live in absolute poverty. Trash is everywhere and so is the dirt. Summer temps can reach over 124 degrees and winters get below freezing in the middle of the desert. It's free to stay but not worth it unless you are addicted to Meth.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma, neuro.

Maybe, but it is "free". I might not be in my right mind, but honestly if I had a suitable RV or camper I might consider spending some time there. There are always trade offs especially when you are talking "free" and California. Also as a PMHNP living and working in Florida I find those suffering from drug addiction to be no less pleasant than many of the MD's I am forced to work under (and certainly less pretentious). I thought that "Traveling Robert" did an excellent segment on his Amazon (free for Prime and also free on Youtube) show Traveling to the West.

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Specializes in Nephrology.
On 7/23/2019 at 7:40 PM, Xance said:

Making over 200k isn't unheard of for me as I saw Paramedics making 330k in Afghanistan when I went and the starting salary for new paramedics was 150k for Afghanistan even in 2012 so an extremely high salary such as that isn't unusual to me. What is unusual is that it's in CA, so you can kiss most of that money goodbye. 200k for a 'small empty plot of land'? Here in Texas most small parcels of land cost 10-20% of that depending on area and even less outside of cities. There are ads for those KB Homes they put up real fast for 150-250k depending on certain size and area. A 400k house is nearly a mansion in San Antonio...

Well, go work in Afghanistan then.

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Specializes in FNP.

I have lived in the midwest for roughly 15 years before moving to California. I thought the topic was very interesting that I thought I would jump in. Yes, so many people, believe that living in California is the last thing anyone with sane mind would do. That is perfectly understandable. That's how I thought California was based on everything I have read and heard people, who have not experienced living in California, say. That is why it took us roughly 15 years before we made our long awaited move. 

While most people who know little about California living obtained their knowledge from numerous San Francisco-bashing dailies or magazines, the truth is, San Francisco does not represent the entire California. In fact far from it. 

We moved to a city in the bay area about an hour east of San Francisco. Yes, housing is still expensive. But it is not nearly as expensive as a run-down house in San Francisco. My home costs three times as much compared to my home in the midwest. On my first year in working as an NP in Cali I made 3x as much with overtime. My wife doubled her salary. Together we were making 350k. Back in the midwest which is comparable to San Antonio or Houston, together we were making 140k. In Cali we end up with around 227,000 after about 35% taxes and other deductions. My mortgage is 4k x 12= 48000, we are left with 179k a year. Yes food, gas, utilities, car maintenance, etc may be higher, but nowhere near to break what we have left in our pocket. Contrast this with midwest where after 30% tax we have 98k left. Minus mortgage of 1300 x 12 = 15,600. We have 82k left. 

At the end of the day considering everything, we have almost three times left in our pocket after tax. Don't forget that if you retire in California, you invest more for retirement because of higher salary and thus expect to make more during retirement. The last but not least is that my home, is money invested. Yes I put more money for my home but at the end of the day it is my money. If I sell my house, I would have more money in my pocket than I would have if I sell my house in midwest.  

Moving to California is the best decision we made. I don't know how long it will last. But we definitely far exceeded a version of ourselves in the midwest. 

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