Gockie, wow, that does sound like nada! That's wonderful you get to do that with things you find rewarding.
Others, ....goodness. Quite a jump! I am only making around 9.5$/hr. right now, which is great but for saving a stache, practically nothing. I'm still saving a quarter to a third of my income, but it's just not much. Unfortunately, I took the job I did for the steady/constant nature of the work a couple years ago for the sake of having an income at all, but now I am ready for a new trajectory. There is opportunity for advancement in my org, (have been offered multi times), but it's all salaried positions which, given how much work you actually have to put in to do the jobs, run somewhere between 8-9$/hr., plus additional regular managerial stress, so a lateral move at best in my book.
Thanks for the interesting ideas!