Posts Tagged ‘careers’

He’s an FBI agent living in Los Angeles and at the center of an investigation that has captured the attention of the world at large. Mark Benford of “Flash Forward” has enough on his plate without spending time worrying about pinching pennies. But does this father and recovering alcoholic make enough money to support a pricey West Coast lifestyle?

Who is Mark Benford?

Mark Benford is the husband of Olivia and father of Charlie. Mark is an FBI agent and a recovering alcoholic, both of which play large roles in his day-to-day life. He and his family live in Los Angeles, Calif., though his work has shown him jet-setting across the globe as he tries to make sense of an event that caused the entire world to fall asleep simultaneously.

How much money does Flash Forward’s Mark Benford make?

As an FBI agent with roughly 15 to 20 years of experience (based on his age), Mark likely makes approximately $75,000-120,000 a year, according to Payscale’s career profile. The show gives little to no evidence of credit card or financial struggles for the Benford family, though statistically, alcoholics have a high risk of financial trouble.

In addition to Mark’s salary, his wife Olivia has a high-profile career as a trauma surgeon, where she may make a salary of $300,000 a year, according to the Salary Wizard. With their incomes combined, therefore, the Benford family may bring in around $400,000 a year, substantially higher than the national average.

How much does it cost to live in Los Angeles?

It isn’t cheap to live in Los Angeles. According to City-Data’s comprehensive look at the region, the average income is just under $50,000 a year, the average cost of a single family home like the Benford’s is $670,000 and the cost of living is 162 (very high), whereas the average cost of living in the United States is 100. As such, Mark would be able to survive on his own, but his wife’s salary is the real boon that keeps his family afloat.

Assuming, though, that Mark and Olivia Benford have no outstanding debt or financial troubles, it’s reasonable to assume that they’d be doing quite well for themselves in Los Angeles compared to other residents. With no credit card debt that we know of and secure jobs, even with childcare for their daughter and a high cost of living, Benford just may be able to make his salary (combined with that of his successful wife) stretch far enough to make it!

Kelly Herdrich

Living in Miami can be expensive, especially if you’ve been burned. Just ask Michael Westen, a disgraced spy living in Miami and trapped there by his “Burn Notice” (USA Network).

Life on Easy Street

Before he was sold out by someone more powerful than he, Michael Westen was an international field agent - presumably for the CIA. Based on his level of technical proficiency and the sensitivity of the jobs he was given, it is safe to assume he made a nice living. The base pay for a top non-supervisory field agent is around $79,000 annually, and with Miami locality pay, the number increases to $98,000. That buys a lot of Cuban sandwiches.

But base pay is only part of the picture. As a jet-setting international man of espionage, Westen had access to a nearly unlimited expense account. On-scene weapons procurement, bribes and elaborate escape plans all require serious capital. Not to mention any “bonuses” he may have earned by neutralizing a particularly troubling target. All in all, he was sitting pretty.

Feel the Burn

After escaping death when his cover is blown, Westen was dumped in Miami, where he grew up. It was there he discovered just how bad a burn notice could be. No job, no identity, no social security number, no credit or personal history and a frozen bank account.

He managed to find a loft above a bar in a seedy part of town. Based on current rental information, a loft in Miami like Westen’s rents for around $800 per month. He grabbed his father’s old muscle car for wheels, so he saved some money there. But paying off the right people to find out how and why he was burned costs money, so Westen has to take a few “odd jobs” off the books.

Like any business, Westen’s requires start-up capital. For openers, a Sig Sauer P226R 9mm pistol (the gun preferred by special ops guys the world over) retails for $1,200. Given the current shortage of ammunition, Speer Gold-Dot Hollow Point 9mm rounds are selling for $1.50 each. Multiply that by 5,000 or so and, well, you get the picture.

Westen runs with a sketchy crowd, too. There’s Sam, a former SEAL turned FBI informant who is a bit of a shlub, but who always manages to come through for Michael whether he needs inside information or a good trigger man. There’s his on-again, off-again girlfriend Fiona, an ex-IRA assassin and demolitions expert who never met a mercury detonator she didn’t like. His brother Nate is a born con man. And his friend Barry is an international money launderer and identity thief.

Identity theft is actually Westen’s stock-in-trade. In the variety of assignments he accepts, he always impersonates someone else, sometimes with full credentials provided by Barry the money launderer. While he is always a good guy, Westen illustrates just how easy it is to have your identity compromised and why it is a good idea to take the necessary steps to avoid identity theft.

By helping the right people out, Westen manages to make enough money (all cash, of course) to keep yogurt in the fridge for himself, beer on ice for Sam and miles of detonation cord for Fiona. Though he’s trying desperately to get back in the good graces of his former employer, he may discover that the security of a government paycheck might not equal the freedom and profitability of freelance spy work.

Dave Guilford

Although most people work to live, some folks are lucky enough to have jobs that they truly love. Will Schuester, the central character in the Fox’s series “Glee,” enjoys his teaching duties so much that he actually pays for the privilege of taking over a high school glee club.

The Opposite of a Salary

Schuester, nicknamed “Mr. Shoe” by the students, owns a car with a muffler that hangs so low it scrapes the road. Although his true passion is performing music, Schuester makes his living teaching Spanish classes to the students at McKinley High School. After the faculty adviser to McKinley’s Glee Club is fired for inappropriate behavior, Mr. Shoe asks to take over his duties. Unfortunately, the penny-pinching principal makes him agree to pay $60 each month to cover the costs of this extracurricular activity. Schuester also must monitor after-school detention for several months without pay to guarantee practice space for the Glee Club.

Teaching in Lima

“Glee” is set in Lima, Ohio, a town where the average salary for a teacher at Schuester’s level is $39,470, according to Salary.com. Thanks to his devotion to the Glee Club, he has to forfeit $720 of his annual gross salary, plus any additional money that he could have made during the hours he spends in detention.

Spending Habits
If Terri’s spending behaviour is a reflection of her spending habits, at best the Schuester’s likely carry a balance and at worst are in debt. Balance transfer or low interest interest credit cards would be a smart move, but not without a change in how the money is managed.

Schuester’s wife, Terri, works four hours a day, three days a week at “Sheets and Things,” which sells bedding and other household goods. Based on Ohio’s hourly minimum wage of $7.30, she contributes $87.60 to the household income before taxes. Unfortunately, Terri also takes her Pottery Barn credit card for regular outings, which forces the Schuesters to live paycheck-to-paycheck.

Her husband, on the other hand, is a pretty conservative spender as witnessed by his dangling muffler. The only time he shows any plastic in the pilot episode is when he uses a credit card to scrape gum off the shoe of a pretty, germ-phobic co-worker named Emma.

A Planned Pregnancy and a Career Change

Just when Mr. Shoe has rounded up some truly talented kids for Glee Club, Terri discovers that she is pregnant, which, along with finding a reliable glue gun, has been one of her life’s ambitions. A new baby costs quite a bit of money each month, which means that his teaching salary just won’t cut it anymore. At Terri’s insistence, he applies for a lucrative accounting job.

Waiting for the Other Financial Shoe to Drop

To stay at McKinley and do the work that he loves, Schuester is going to have to make some hard choices. With a wife that spends way above their means and a baby on the way, he must find ways to make additional money. Schuester is devoted to his Glee Club kids, but he’s also an honorable husband and father.

However, there is a very noticeable attraction between him and the cute, wide-eyed Emma, which is bound to cause some marital friction down the road. If he happens to end up in divorce court, he can expect Terri to take him to the cleaners financially.

Watch “Glee” online at Fox.com/glee today, and on Wednesdays this fall.

Steven Bryan

HBO’s “Big Love” follows polygamist family Bill Henrickson and his wives Barb, Nicolette and Margene, who all live in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, with their eight children. They try to keep their lifestyle a secret, even as they discover running three households can be extremely expensive.

Three Roofs

Bill bought three neighboring houses for his three wives and children. The median price of a house in Salt Lake City is $284,756, according to www.saltlakecityutah.org. That means that Bill owes a total of $854,268 for all three homes. In addition to mortgages, he would have to pay utilities and car payments for his wives’ cars. His first wife, Barb, is the most financially responsible. His second, Nicolette, grew up on a Mormon compound and has difficulties fitting into the modern world.

Nicolette also has an addiction to shopping, and tried to hide her credit card debt from the family. She bought plenty of clothes from catalogs, and finally admitted to Barb that she accumulated $60,000 in charges on her credit card. She would most likely need a debt management plan if she ever wanted to pay it off in her lifetime.

Big Spending
With three wives and seven kids (so far), everyday expenses add up. Cash back credit cards can be beneficial—as long as they’re paid-off every month. Cash back rebates range from 1% of all purchases up to 10% at selected merchants. If the cards are used carefully, the cash back earned by the family spending would pay for the kids’ allowances…maybe.

One Income

Bill runs a home improvement store chain, while his wives are unemployed for most of the series. The purchase price of a franchise can cost up to $1 million, according to www.businessbroker.net. The show depicts Bill and his business partner, Don, purchasing property for their additional stores and seeking out a new business venture in electronic gaming. Bill’s credit score must not be that great; he had to ask his Uncle Eddie for a loan so he could bid on a casino business.

Margene, wife number three, decided to launch a jewelry business later on in the series, and Nicolette briefly worked at the district attorney’s office as a temp. In reality, the family would need more income to function each month.

The cost of living for this family keeps increasing as Bill tries to add a fourth wife to the family, and his wives have more children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that families spend $269,520 to raise a child from birth to the time they turn 18. Living a polygamist lifestyle is risky, and could cost them their family and their jobs. The show should probably be called “Big Debt” rather than “Big Love.”

Stephanie Armstrong

It is hard to make ends meet as a mural artist. It’s especially difficult if you also have dissociative identity disorder like Tara Gregson in Showtime’s “United States of Tara“. Tara has three alternate personalities named T, Alice and Buck. T is a rebellious teenage girl who loves to wear short skirts and go on shopping sprees at the mall. Alice is an old fashioned homemaker who loves to bake. Buck is a male personality who smokes and drinks. The question quickly becomes How do you support all of these personalities on an artist’s salary?

According to Payscale, Tara’s annual income as a mural artist can average around $43,000. Her husband runs a small landscaping business and probably earns $30,000 a year. They have two teenagers and live in the suburbs of Overland, Kansas. House prices in their neighborhood start at $215,900, and the average monthly mortgage payment is $1,658, according to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau. The census also states that the median household income for a family in Overland is $91,806. The Gregson family is estimated to make almost $20,000 less than the average, and most likely has plenty of medical bills and credit card debt.

Adding it up
If the Gregsons rely on credit cards to pay for the basic living essentials for a family of four (seven including T, Alice and Buck), there is no “best credit card” to use. Should Tara’s condition stabilize, depending on the size of the family’s debt, transferring high interest rate balances onto balance transfer credit cards would be the best step to take. But as soon as the debt is consolidated, the newly-empty accounts should be closed to prevent further spending.

Tara’s alternate personalities are not cheap either. T frequently steal’s Tara’s credit card and goes on shopping sprees with her daughter, Kate. Buck goes out to buy beer and a pack of cigarettes whenever he can, and his costly habit is coming out of Tara’s pocket. The family would have to rely on credit cards to keep up with Tara’s lifestyle and live as comfortably as they do.

Throughout the series Tara visits a therapist once a week, which can cost up to $200 an hour. The series does not address where the family is getting the money to pay for Tara’s medical treatment, but Tara did comment that she hoped to get better before their insurance ran out. When she admitted herself into an inpatient treatment center to figure out what triggers her alternate personalities, her husband mentioned that it was costing them $6,000 a week. She and her husband are self-employed and would have to pay out of pocket, use credit cards or purchase an insurance plan to cover her medical expenses.

Paying for medical bills with a high interest credit card can result in serious debt for the Gregson family. Tara only has one freelance job as far as we know: to paint a mural for an acquaintance. Tara was then fired because one of her alternate personalities ruined the mural. Her family cannot afford to lose any income when they have a mortgage and car payment to pay.

Stephanie Armstrong

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo is part of the team of investigators that make up Jethro Gibbs‘ crack squad on “NCIS.” DiNozzo is promiscuous, smart, a huge movie fan, and utterly obsessed with the finer things in life including nice clothes and nice cars. In fact, he has been known to say that his car is part of who he is. Disinherited by his wealthy father, partially orphaned by the death of his mother, and resistant to the very concept of long-term relationships, DiNozzo has created a family that consists only of his fellow NCIS agents. The question that haunts “NCIS” fans is whether being a resident of this “copland” means being economically sound enough to afford all of those Italian suits and shoes and expensive high-performance cars that define him.

Dressed to Kill

A cursory view of any of the Rat Pack’s movies reveals a definite similarity to the style with which agent DiNozzo presents himself to the world of murderers, not to mention every single attractive female he meets. DiNozzo prefers form-fitting suits from Prada and Hugo Boss, shirts from Zara and Bloomingdale’s, shoes from Rockport and jeans from Marc Ecko. Those Hugo Boss suits can easily run over $1,000 and Bloomingdale’s shirts can run in excess of $300. It is easy to assume that his claims of disinheritance may be overstated since the salary at NCIS probably does not allow him to pay for these things with cash.

The Color of Money

The money that arrives in DiNozzo’s weekly pay packet is clearly not enough to allow him to afford the stylish European tailored suits that he wears while he drives his ‘90 ZR1 Corvette. According to the Department of Defense National Security Personnel System Worldwide Pay Table, the salary for an NCIS agent maxes out at just over $130,000. Considering that DiNozzo has been on the payroll for less than 10 years, it seems unlikely that he is near the top end of the pay scale.

A Place in the Sun

Since DiNozzo is famous for clinging to sophomoric behavior, it is entirely within reason to suspect that his claims of being disinherited by his wealthy family may not be entirely authentic. However, he often expresses a very real grief over not having access to his ancestral wealth. So, if his disinheritance is authentic, it is reasonable to assume that he has piled up a rather substantial amount of credit card debt.

In a very real way, DiNozzo personifies the central paradox of the modern American dream. He is probably using credit to live beyond his means while simultaneously living far below the economic status to which he was born. The story goes that DiNozzo’s father abandoned him in a hotel room and forgot all about it until the incoming credit card bills reminded him of his son’s predicament. How fitting.

Timothy Sexton

Before Rebecca Bloomwood hit the big screen and startled audiences with frivolous spending in Confessions of a Shopaholic, she was the main character in the Shopaholic book series by author Sophie Kinsella. With out-of-control spending and an inability to stay on top of her credit card debt and finances, Rebecca is a financier’s worst nightmare.

Who is Rebecca Bloomwood?

Rebecca Bloomwood is the main character in Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions of a Shopaholic series and recent film. The Successful Saving magazine writer lets a flat in London, and can’t seem to stay on top of her shopping habit. The deeper in debt Bloomwood falls and the more trouble she finds herself in financially, the more she appears to spend, unable to curb her frivolous spending habits. Both the books and the movie focus on how Rebecca can handle her creditors — while still shopping and falling in love, of course.

How did Rebecca’s spending get so out of control?

In both the books and the movie, you quickly see that Rebecca has an obsession with shopping—name brands, especially when they’re on sale, popular and trendy stores, and staying fresh and in style. Even with a reasonable salary writing at Successful Saving (a typical London magazine writer’s salary would be approximately $20,000 to $26,000 British pounds; a writer in New York City would earn between $40,000 and $60,000, depending on the publication), Rebecca would have been in a tight spot simply paying for rent, food and utilities, even without the excess spending.

Dealing with Addiction
With out-of-control spending and only a moderate salary, Rebecca’s precarious financial situation is all too common in today’s economy. Once she get’s control of her spending, Rebecca would benefit from consolidating credit card debt to balance transfer credit cards. And if there’s no happy ending, a debt snowball is her best bet.

Is Rebecca’s financial chaos in Confessions of a Shopaholic realistic?

Kinsella does a good job of interjecting bits of seriousness into her account of Rebecca’s antics, with letters from creditors and banks regularly filling Rebecca’s mailbox. While Rebecca’s fall into debt is very realistic, one has to wonder how long she’d be able to keep up her spending before a collection agency became involved. The movie notes that Rebecca has maxed out 14 credit cards at one point—add to that her regular bills and rent, and a credit consolidation agency or collection agency’s involvement is almost a certainty in the real world.

If you call yourself a shopaholic, it’s an almost certainty that you could take lessons from Confessions of a Shopaholic’s Rebecca Bloomwood.

Kelly Herdrich

Having the life of a skilled plastic surgeon is amazing. It ensures fast cars, fame, money and women. This is true if you’re the dashing Dr. Christian Troy from the dark satire “Nip/Tuck.” He is one half of McNamara/Troy, the plastic surgery practice he owns with best friend Sean McNamara. They are two successful plastic surgeons from Miami who live a glamorous lifestyle and have recently relocated to Los Angeles to enhance their careers.

About Dr. Troy

Christian Troy is vain, wealthy, and loves to splash his money around. He drives a $200,000 Ferrari 360 Spider, owns a speedboat, wears $1,000 Gucci suits, and has a pretty nice Beverly Hills bachelor pad. He spends money frivolously on women, dining and drinking out on the town with McNamara. The cost of partying in Los Angeles can easily cost $200 a night at some of the top restaurants and bars, if not more.

The Practice

The median annual salary for a plastic surgeon is about $250,000, according to PayScale.com. That is almost his whole salary just to pay for his Ferrari. While Troy and McNamara do run their own company, the cost of rent for their business in Beverly Hills can start around $1,500 a month, and they would still have to pay their employees. The median medical secretary salary is $30,000 a year, and Liz, their head anesthesiologist, would cost them at least $183,000 per year.

The real Dr. Troy
If Troy’s salary was the median for his work, he would definitely have to use his credit cards to make ends meet. Working in LA however, with the higher cost of living and the endless clientel, he probably does fairly well. Since image is important, his wallet would be full of excellent credit credit cards—probably even a Platinum Amex waiting to be upgraded to a Black Centurian Card.

This doesn’t take the cost of their medical supplies and legal fees into consideration. McNamara and Troy have made plenty of mistakes over the years, and probably would have been sued for malpractice in reality.

While the number of cosmetic surgery procedures have increased over the years, both surgeons would have to clock in long hours to pay for their fast paced lifestyles. Troy must have a great credit score to finance his car and be able to lease his office building and apartment.

While McNamara feels a bit of financial pressure on the show, Troy is carefree and often charges dinner, his bar tab and his designer addiction to his credit card. In short, Troy’s finances are about as real as the surgery he performs.

Stephanie Armstrong

With five children, a house in Queens, a car of his very own and a job working for the New York Police Department, Detective Elliot Stabler of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” lives an often-stressful life. He is a senior detective who spends his days investigating sex crimes, as well as crimes against the young and the elderly. It may be a living, but does it pay the bills?

Feeding the Family

Stabler’s five children are definitely a lot to handle, though one has left the house and another is only an infant. His wife, Kathy, does not work, but she has her hands full taking care of the kids.

We learn in the first season that Stabler married his wife because she was pregnant with their first daughter. They wed shortly after he left the military. He landed a job on the force because he needed a way to support his already growing family.

Today, Stabler and his family live in a nice two-story home in Queens, which is probably worth between $400,000 and $500,000, according to Trulia.com. On a cop’s salary, that probably means a hefty mortgage each month. Additionally, his wife recently gave birth to child number five, which means medical bills and plenty of diapers to buy. Stabler is fully covered under the NYPD benefits plan, but he certainly has a number of financial responsibilities.

Stabler has gotten himself into trouble numerous times, usually because of his quick temper and his desire to put sex offenders behind bars. Suspensions and several periods of forced time off for psychological evaluation have meant interrupted income, putting him and his family further behind the eight ball.

Stable Stabler

When a stressful financial situation arises, it’s rarely about debt. Stabler is likely to benefit from rewards credit cards that feature discounts for everyday purchases. Charge cards, such as American Express cards, also include rewards for purchases made a grocery stores and gas stations.

Stabler’s Credit Situation

With a mortgage, car payment and lots of bills related to family life, Stabler has probably used credit from time to time, if not on a frequent basis. Although he often defies authority and likes to live life on his own terms, he is also devoted to his family and loathe to cause them pain.

The average salary for a New York City detective is around $48,000, according to Indeed.com, though his experience in the military and his loyalty to the NYPD might increase his salary somewhat. Living in New York, where the cost of living is quite high, Stabler would have difficulty meeting his financial obligations without relying on credit of some kind.

Steve Thompson

Good Careers in a Bad Economy, Part 5

As teens and young adults pursue good careers in a bad economy, they will be told that their quests will be difficult.

Some analysts will inform them that they can’t really get anywhere without a college degree. They will be told that the world has gone from making things and doing things to a high-tech global information society. In short, things have completely changed.

After all, this is the worst economy, with the worst career prospects, since the Great Depression. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent at the end of February 2009, up from 4.8 percent a year ago, and could be heading toward 12 percent or more.

What’s a young person to do?

Career counselors Bob Rosner and Sherrie Campbell on Payscale.com encourage a back-to-basics approach. They assert first that while the economy is changing, there still is demand for traditional jobs, and that not all of them require four-year college degrees. They add that no matter what, you must “Stay positive during a recession.”

Make a Plan and Stick With it

The process of planning for a good career — both in a bad economy or a good one — starts with the basics of taking pen and paper and mapping a step-by-step plan. Or nowadays, a computer screen will work just fine.

Good Careers in a Bad Economy
Part 1: Graduating in a Recession
Part 2: According to the March 2009 Bureau of Labor Statistics
Part 3: Potential Careers Arising from the Stimulus Bill
Part 4: Career Forecast: Look for Overlapping Opportunities
Part 5: Career Planning: The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same

First, make a list of careers that are of interest to you. Don’t concern yourself with the bad economy. You can whittle down your list later. And, as outlined in the first report of this series, you can pursue a dream career and a more realistic recession-proof career at the same time.

Dare to dream. Have your eye on star athlete or entertainer, corporate chief executive, “green” energy entrepreneur, heart surgeon, even president of the United States.

Explore more down-to-Earth careers. Think school teacher, carpenter, nurse, mechanic, insurance representative, police officer. Most jobs, in spite of all the global economy talk, are still old-school jobs. Society still needs food and shelter, public schools and public safety, health care and transportation.

Think of overlaps to broaden your prospects. For school teacher, write “educator” because who knows, you may become the superintendent of schools. For carpenter, put “contractor” because you just might start your own company.

Think of career cousins. Career counselors Rosner and Campbell describe “career cousins” as careers that are similar. If you have dreamed of being a teacher, for example, you might also find an interest in social work.

Once you have made your big list, pick two or three options for careers. Explore the book studies and/or training programs that are required. You’re not alone, because virtually all schools and training programs have career counselors. Find a good one and keep in regular contact.

Cope With the Cost of Education and Training

The pursuit of a good career in a bad economy, or any economy, requires more than good intentions. A young person also needs resources.

Members of today’s up-and-coming generation face a challenge. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 47 percent of households say their children can’t afford to go to college.

Policymakers are aiming for reforms. Some state governments are rewarding publicly-funded universities that hold tuition in check. The new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the $787 billion economic stimulus package, includes $2,500 college-cost tax credits for this year and next year.

Community colleges are a lower-cost option for getting started. Many professions, ranging from building trades to nursing, do not require four-year degrees. Furthermore, most students who achieve those so-called four-year degrees actually invest more than four years; six years is the average, with breaks taken to save money for the next round of tuition.

Students this year will receive a combined $143 billion in grants and loans, according to the College Board. Some 38 percent of full-time students will pay less than $6,000 a year, but super-elite schools drive up the overall average. The College Board is among many scholarship search sites.

Pursuit of a good career requires hard work. Pursuit of tuition for college or training is the same.

Remember that at some point in society’s chain, there is a link to fill that is essential. Try to find a career link that you will enjoy.

Michael Thompson