Not much as an enlisted man in the military. I started at about 450 a month gross and finished ten years later at about twice that. Starting from nothing and with nothing, it seemed like more at the time.
Worked my way up to top office person without a degree in a top shelf civil engineering firm in Birmingham, AL by age 36. I was making 60k gross and Mrs. Geno made 24k as a sit down restaurant manager in a very small town a couple counties away. I owned 6 small businesses in addition with the two best performers being earth moving (we had a backhoe and a tracked loader that stayed busy) and masonry (2 masons and 4 helpers) and did pretty well. For a decade, we lived off of 50k+/- a year and my highest earnings were just under 160k. Hers was 40k as an accountant. (Different Mrs. Geno back then)
Retired for 10 years, earned a BA in underwater archaeology and an MS in Geography (GIS and fluvial geomorphology).
I am back at work as a geospatial engineer (I build 3d models of the as-constructed utilities for google, facebook and microsoft data center sites) and made 91k last year (I could make 125+/- pretty easily if I wanted to do a real job with an office and a commute but I work from home in my underwear with a cocktail in hand and absolutely love the people I work with). Mrs. Geno earned a doctorate in literature and makes 60k as a university professor. Her pay will dramatically increase over the next few years as this is her first year at it but mine won't increase much other than cost of living.
A person who's happy will make others happy. Anne Frank
