Earning potential as an accountant?
Asked by >>>=<<<
My dad is one and I am a junior in high school and I feel pretty good about going down the corporate path. He is either a controller or CFO now. He told me that If I wanted to just work my way up I could pretty much go to any college and get my CPA and then start working in my early 20's, he pretty much told me flat out that even if I wanted to live here in NJ that I would end up living in a condo for a while which only costs around 250k here which isn't too bad. He told me I would start out in the middle-upper 5 figures right out of college working in NYC and told me I could probably make much more than that when I get closer to 30, like around 120k.I don't know how much he makes now but it is probably pretty close to 200. If I work for about 20 years and work my way up to controller or whatever, could I end up making around this figure? I just want to know the potential, I am willing to put in the time I just want to make sure I'm hitting the six digits by the time I'm 30 ish. I hear ya.

Best Answer:
What your dad says is probably true, but hitting the $100K in New York is not the same as hitting $100K anywhere else. I don't know where you are in New Jersey, but you need to balance the commute vs. the salary you may command. In the rest of the country, you probably aren't looking at mid-upper 5 figures coming out of school, and there's a good chance that 6 figures is a little further off than turning 30.