I HIGHLY recommend you move if 100k is the top end if you are in this field. We are hiring no experience people for over 100k.
This advice is spot on. I don't think people appreciate the value of moving to where the jobs are located. MMM moved from Canada to pursue better opportunities. He busted his ass to get promotions and raises. He then moved to where he wanted to live.
Those saying that it is not possible, are not using your MMM logic. It is very possible and almost impossible to not make $100k after 10 years if you are smart, hard working, and move to where the money is. You are Mustachians!!
If the thread was how do people make $500k+ per year, I think that would generate more interesting and challenging ways to turbo charge your career. $100k is too easy, if you are willing to flex your Mustachian ways.
I agree with you that the power of moving is highly underestimated and that there will be areas where it's "easy" to get to a $100k salary (usually with corresponding increased COL though). However I think you take it too far by saying that it's almost impossible to not make $100k after 10 years if you're moving where the money is.
Not every field of work has the same timeline to 100k, if this timeline exists at all. So if you picked the wrong college degree or just have a lack of talent for [insert high paying field of choice] you'd first need to get another degree to be able to get your desired job in one of those areas.
Then there's the big question of "do you even want to live there?". Now I'm a person that's very fond of moving, but I don't want to live anywhere. Sure I could've become a semi-self-taught bioinformatician, move to the bay area and make a killing. However that means that I'd have to live in an area where I don't want to live far from family. I know this is to a certain extent what MMM did, but it's not for everyone.
Also, I don't know how you grew up, but for many people from lower income families $100k DOES seem like a long stretch away and almost impossible. In my country/continent $100k salaries are hard to come by so I'm still surprised by the numbers I find here sometimes.
What I like about the example of $100k is that it's not impossibly high and that there's many ways to get there.
- Certain fields of work you're most likely to get to it (medical doctor, big law)
- Work hard in a good market (currently seen in many trades/carpentry jobs)
- Have your own business/be a contracter for a high hourly rate
- "Just" move over to a HCOL tech startup hotspot where they hire college grads with the right degree for $100k straight out of school.
So if "just move" doesn't apply to you, there's still plenty of other ways to reach a $100k in another area (probably also with lower COL).
$500k salaries are rare even in the highest cost of living areas and will require you to combine multiple of those strategies and/or start a very succesful business. I'd still be very happy to read the responses onto that though for inspiration :)