how do you spend your $$$ ?

[echoy97]

Before I decided what kind of job to do, I want to know more about OTR drivers. For those of you doing OTR and dont get to go home often, even if you are earning a big pay check, what do you do with it?

Lets say I am doing OTR , spending lots of time on the road and go home once a weeks or less than once a week.. Lets say I have $ to buy a $1000 TV or a $100,000 car. I only get to watch big screen TV once a week, or drive my dream car once a week ?

For those if you have experience driving OTR, i would really like to know how you enjoy spending your $$$.

And then there are things $ cant buy. Anyone got problem with family members after starting a OTR job ?

[marcel27208]

who doesnt have problems w/family members after going OTR ?

[Uturn2001]

Ok....reality check.

First year realistic income for OTR drivers is $30-$32.000.
Many 5-10 year drivers do not break the $50,000 mark.

Road expenses are going to run around $100-$140 a week on average, depending on how often you eat in a resteraunt and how often you buy your snacks in the truck stop.

So if you have a family you are not going to be buying $1000 TV's and $100,000 cars, unless your spouse is making a lot more money than you will as a driver.

As far as family members it is important to discuss the realities of what OTR driving is going to mean with them before starting. 2-3 weeks out, home for 2-3 days and do it all over again. You will likely miss some b-days, little league games, school plays, and whatever else your kids/family are involved in. You spouse is going to have to handle most things around the house and you will have to understand that there is little you can do except offer support and advice because you are hundreds of miles away. Also everyone will need to understand that except for deaths or very, very serious injuries/illnes to imediate family you will not be able to get home just because grandma fell and broke her hip or little Johnny needed 10 stiches from falling off his bike.

[Longsnowsm]

Before I decided what kind of job to do, I want to know more about OTR drivers. For those of you doing OTR and dont get to go home often, even if you are earning a big pay check, what do you do with it?

Lets say I am doing OTR , spending lots of time on the road and go home once a weeks or less than once a week.. Lets say I have $ to buy a $1000 TV or a $100,000 car. I only get to watch big screen TV once a week, or drive my dream car once a week ?

For those if you have experience driving OTR, i would really like to know how you enjoy spending your $$$.

And then there are things $ cant buy. Anyone got problem with family members after starting a OTR job ?

Like Uturn2001 said, your not making much as an OTR driver. First you need to ask yourself what expenses you have at home. Rent? Car payment? Utilities? Cable TV? Phone? Cell Phone? Insurance? Credit Card payment? What does all that stuff add up to? So let's throw out a fiction example:

Rent $600
Car Payment $200
Cable TV $50
Phone $25
Garbage pickup $15
Cell Phone $40
Insurance $100
Credit Card $50
Utilities $100
Fuel $80
Misc expenses $100

So in this fiction example you have $1360 a month in basic expenses. Now lets look a a typical newbie starting off and lets say you landed a job paying .30 cpm with a decent company and lets assume an average weekly miles at 2500.

.30 X 2500 = $750 (gross pay)

After Uncle Sugar gets done with you, social security, benefits etc your take home is going to be roughly $525 give or take. Oh you want to retire some day??? Ok, lets say $472.50 a week pay. That is $1890 a month take home. Oh yeah, road expenses for you living on the road will set you back at leat $100 a week, or $400 a month. So now you take home pay is $1490.

$1490(take home) - $1360(basic expenses) = $130 (your money)

So as you can see from a pretty simple example your not going to be buying $100,000 cars, $1000 TV's(unless you save for a very long time), or buying a mansion somewhere unless you have a spouse that also works and makes good money and you can afford to bank her checks.

It sounds like you have a pretty unrealistic view of what an OTR driver makes. BOL

Longsnowsm

[DesertRat]

I'm not exactly sure. I just get my allowance (road money) for the week, my wife spends the rest (actually she does a good job of saving a lot of it.) Truth is, I'm not home to spend the money. The bills, the groceries, the rent, all of that falls on my wife. My bit of the money is spent on food while I'm out there. On a rare occasion I will treat myself to something and then it's not an expensive something. And my wife usually sets aside a good amount of savings, so when I do get home there's always money to splurge on a good dinner, or an evening out. But that isn't because of my obscenely high income (ha ha) it's because my wife knows how to handle the money. I dunno what would happen if she weren't, and I don't want to.

[TomB985]

Longsnowsm, you have some good points.

BUT, that also depends on a lot of things. I am looking at driving for Roehl when I get back, and they start me at $.30 a mile. BUT, after a year, that goes to $.36 a mile. Assuming 2500 miles a week, that works out to a little over $46,000 gross for the year.

You can save quite a bit on $46,000 a year, if you know how to handle your money.

[geeshock]

As the others said, you realy don't usualy make big paychecks, and when you do the next one is small or non existant so they sorta cancel out eachother, lol. When on the road I get little things, like tools for the truck, books, locks, groceries at the local walmart, etc. at home Me and the wife go out to eat one night, and mabe a movie. nothing big

[Longsnowsm]

TomB985,

Good point. Roehl is a good company.

The toughest time for the newbie is surviving the first year(things are tight no matter how you slice it even with a good company). If your with a good company things will work out well once you get to that 1 year mark and beyond.

The thing that everyone should notice is that there is a huge difference between starting with a company as a newbie making .30+ cpm vs other major carriers that start the newbie at .25-.27 cpm. If you rerun that fictitious scenario at these lower pay rates you see just how tight it would be trying to live at those pay rates. BOL at Roehl.

Oh, and on that little work of fiction list of expenses I omitted groceries... People gotta eat and with only a little money left for the month it better be mac n cheese or ramen...

Longsnowsm

[One]

Pah! I've been saving for a new PC for a month+! Your not exactly white collar as a truck driver you know!

[ben45750]

Assuming 2500 miles a week, that works out to a little over $46,000 gross for the year.

Don't count on getting 2500 every week, even having a weekly average of 2500 miles is alot harder than it sounds.... prolly not going to happen your first year. Your going to have them 500 mile weeks. You cannot control freight, traffic, mechanical failures and weather. Your going to have some 3000 mile weeks and some 500 mile weeks.

[Longsnowsm]

ben45750 speaks the truth. Go searching through the archives here... Especially in the Jan-Mar months of the year. Your going to see a lot of folks screaming bloody murder about being starved out, and how this company or that company is to blame. The truth is that everyone is slow that time of the year and you have to have the reserves to make it.

If you hang around here for a while you also notice that there are highs and lows as far as freight is concerned. The number of people you will see on this site during the summer talking 3000-3500 mile weeks is really great and it makes ya think... Wow, this is great... BUT you hang around long enough you also see the winter months after the holidays and freight dries up and you hear some of the same folks talking about being starved out! They are lucky to get a 2000 mile week and this can last for months. Are you going to have the money in savings to survive it?

So if your getting miles and making more than you need to cover the bills you better be socking it away cause some lean times are coming in a few months.

Longsnowsm

[syl77dar]

good luck

[ghost_ryder]

Before I decided what kind of job to do, I want to know more about OTR drivers. For those of you doing OTR and dont get to go home often, even if you are earning a big pay check, what do you do with it?

Lets say I am doing OTR , spending lots of time on the road and go home once a weeks or less than once a week.. Lets say I have $ to buy a $1000 TV or a $100,000 car. I only get to watch big screen TV once a week, or drive my dream car once a week ?

For those if you have experience driving OTR, i would really like to know how you enjoy spending your $$$.

And then there are things $ cant buy. Anyone got problem with family members after starting a OTR job ?

Like Uturn2001 said, your not making much as an OTR driver. First you need to ask yourself what expenses you have at home. Rent? Car payment? Utilities? Cable TV? Phone? Cell Phone? Insurance? Credit Card payment? What does all that stuff add up to? So let's throw out a fiction example:

Rent $600
Car Payment $200
Cable TV $50
Phone $25
Garbage pickup $15
Cell Phone $40
Insurance $100
Credit Card $50
Utilities $100
Fuel $80
Misc expenses $100

So in this fiction example you have $1360 a month in basic expenses. Now lets look a a typical newbie starting off and lets say you landed a job paying .30 cpm with a decent company and lets assume an average weekly miles at 2500.

.30 X 2500 = $750 (gross pay)

After Uncle Sugar gets done with you, social security, benefits etc your take home is going to be roughly $525 give or take. Oh you want to retire some day??? Ok, lets say $472.50 a week pay. That is $1890 a month take home. Oh yeah, road expenses for you living on the road will set you back at leat $100 a week, or $400 a month. So now you take home pay is $1490.

$1490(take home) - $1360(basic expenses) = $130 (your money)

So as you can see from a pretty simple example your not going to be buying $100,000 cars, $1000 TV's(unless you save for a very long time), or buying a mansion somewhere unless you have a spouse that also works and makes good money and you can afford to bank her checks.

It sounds like you have a pretty unrealistic view of what an OTR driver makes. BOL

Longsnowsm

Well, the thing is if you are OTR you can sell your car, put your stuff in storage so no rent. Then you can take off everything else but the cell phone. This is of course if you are single. Trust me, if you have any family at all, they will love to have you stay over their house for 2-3 days every now and then. If one could stand being out there for a few weeks for 5 years or more in this situation, sure they can become very wealthy. As far as eating out, I do it all the time anyway. Also I know I spend alot more money at home then what I did on the road. Besides I eat out anyway mostly and when I am home, the restaurants are alot more expensive then flying J or petro. So if you live while at home, the expenses may be the same but probably more. Think about the gas you put in your personal vehicle to travel to and from work? I have a Silverado V8 and gas alone costs me $160 a month. This would not be an expense if I was OTR.

So if I make 40 or 50k a year and I don't have a car note (and insurance), rent, or all the other expenses from an apartment or house, its very possible and from what I have read on this forum, has happened before. Think about it... why would you need a car if you are not using it? When you come home from the road, you want to just visit family and relax. Then why pay rent, cable TV and utilities? Your only home 2-3 days a month, you don't need to. It would even be cheaper to stay in a motel for those 2-3 days.

This is a different look at it and of course if you had a wife and family you could not do this. If you are young, single and paying rent, this could be an opportunity to pack alot of cash away. You just have to get rid of everything but your cell phone, you won't need none of it because you won't use it. Then that little food expenses and other things while on the road is nothing. Also you won't always have to eat out if you don't want, only once a day really. Thing is, I actually thought about doing this, I had a girlfriend at the time but we were not married. If I could have brought her with me, it would have been on then! Oh, I do know all of this sounds great but not as easy as it sounds to be out there constantly, but if one can do it, it will be rewarding.

[Aligator]

Think about it... why would you need a car if you are not using it?

Great thinking....why don't you just whack off your peepee...you don't use it very much, either.

[ben45750]

Think about it... why would you need a car if you are not using it?

Great thinking....why don't you just whack off your peepee...you don't use it very much, either.

:nervous:

[Longsnowsm]

I guess if your single, with no place to hang your hat, no responsibilities, no bills, and don't need a car then you won't be buying $1000 TV(since you have no place to put it) or a $100,000 car(since you don't need one)...

My oh my what does one do with money when one doesn't need any money????

Most people do have bills, responsibilities, and obligations that eats up most of that check. Especially when you first start out. I mentioned this since it sounded like the original poster was under some sort of misguided idea that if your a trucker your rich.

Once you have some experience on the road the checks get better and things get easier, but your still not going to be rich by any stretch of the imagination. The average trucker is not going to be buying $100,000 cars no matter how you slice it. There are some OO's here that have probably spent $100k on a new truck, but that is a different story.

Longsnowsm

[echoy97]

I didnt say i can make $100,000 as a newbie driver. perhaps a better question would be how you enjoy your $, other than paying bills or spending it on family. If you are not at home 10-14 days, when do you have time to enjoy your $ .

and again, I am not making any conclusion, so you dont need to tell me OTR drivers are not rich. I just want to find out more from those experienced drivers.

[rubberducky]

I am a local driver. I make very good money. My wife makes pretty good money. We have all the usual bills, kids. I enjoy spending my money on my garage, home improvements, project cars, family outings. My freight never dries up year round. I make the exact amount every week. I haul coal to power plants if your wondering what kind of freight it is.

[TomB985]

Back in high school, I worked at a hotel, in the kitchen. One of my friends was a 40 year old guy, who was a cook, and made $9.50 an hour. He told me he was happy if he made $23,000 a year. He'd been doing it for years, but never was good enough at management to become a chef. He had a POS car, not a lot, but he was happy where he was.

Comparing driving OTR to $23,000 a year makes it look pretty darn good to some people. I'm in the military, and I'm making almost double what my friend Bob did.

Sure, I'm gonna take a pay cut when I start driving, but that's not why I wanna do it. I wanna do it because it's something I've always wanted to do, and I really think I"ll enjoy it. I read somehwere that 80% of people who work full time HATE their job. I refuse to be one of those; I want to find something I enjoy doing, and I think driving a truck is going to be that. If it's not, I'll go elsewhere.

I guess my point is that it's better money than a lot of people are making, but it's a lifestyle that I believe you should persue if you WANT to do it, not because of the money.

[Aligator]

I was an unwanted stepchild.
So I left home at 17 and joined the service; stayed there 9 years, too, until I had matured enough to establish a home and career for myself. Then I became a salesman and even excelled in it - in 1987 I was top salesman at 3M; tops out of 2500, so I was no slouch.
Last year (at 60) I retired and became a trucker. Because of the care I exercised in investing money and saving money I can now claim that I make 30,000/yearly before I even get out of bed!
And in 4 years - when I'm 65 - I'll draw another 26,000/year in SS and delayed pensions...that'll be 56,000/year before I get out of bed.

My message:
Save and invest your money! Listen to what the older people are telling you and, take care of your financial future. That's not to say you can't buy some of the things that you want and you should enjoy your time and money; just keep an eye on the future because some day you will want to be financially independent.
Most people turn 60 and still, the only money they have is next weeks paycheck. Don't be one of them!