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I think decent retirement is possible from an in-house job

Posted By: only, not for the at-home MT. nm IMHO on 2007-10-18
In Reply to: Scared about future - MT4eight

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I don't know about you, but I've got kids to feed, clothe, and house. I need to make a decent

living.  I'm not going to be cheated.  It sounds as though you've decided to let yourself be used and abused aby the MTSOs all with a big smile on your face.  Whatever!  It's MTs like you, not I, that have caused the pay rates to decline.  MTs like you who will accept whatever abuse they companies hand out, accept being cheated, and accept losing jobs to India. 


You'll be back on here next week or next month posting under a different name, crying about your paycheck and looking for sympathy. 


How long was the in-house training period? I'd be willing to travel for a few days for a decent
nm
All I want for Christmas is a decent job, a decent job, a decent job.

One that's not 95% ESLs, steady workload, steady accounts, good communication, office staff who aren't rude buckpassers, decent line rate, no offshoring, direct deposit, flexible schedule, not having to do 50+ 30-second reports per day, and a platform conducive to speed.  I know it's not possible, but a girl can dream, can't she?  This is, after all, my Christmas wish list.  I never get what I want for Christmas.  Why is that too much to ask for?  It doesn't even matter anyways.  After Christmas, I QUIT MT!!!!  Burger King is just down the street, and they give food discounts.


One year and you make decent money? What is decent money to you?
k
My retirement
I worked for a large multi hospital alliance in Ohio that is now under scrutiny by the attorney general and has many hospitals pulling out of their contracts and at a cost to patients and physicans....everything about it was to cut money and cheat people. Our pension which was noncontributory by us, works like Social Security. You retire early, you get reduced amount. I was forced to retire early because of the war and now I need more money. I was told when I took the reduced amount that I could not work again till I was 66 unless I kept it under $900, just like Social Security. I do not know what an independent contractor is. I didn't think I would NEED to know...I just am trying to find out how it is done, how it works, because the jobs I see that I want wnat ICs. I'm sorry I even asked. Since so many jobs say IC only, I assumed that some of you would know what an IC is and how to be one. I need to work at home because the other grandma has no computer. I was just trying to find 15-20 hours a week. Let's just drop it. I don't see what I did wrong. Thanks to those who understand I am not trying to break the law. Good grief.
they get half pay for retirement too!
Bus drivers are making $63,0000 and that is with no education. you can be a hs dropout or a foreigner. I hate NY and glad I left.


Retirement Accounts

I am considering getting into a retirement account this year.  I am a sole proprietor with no employees to contribute to.  I am also looking to reduce my tax obligations for next year with this account.  I am also over age 50, so this may be a consideration.  Any suggestions from knowlegeable MT/business owners out there?  Some of this stuff is very confusing.  so any help would be appreciated.  Also include who to go through for set up, if known. 


thanks  


I'm going to be 58 in a few months, don't see retirement in my
:(
Yes. I cant take early retirement because I
x
Who wants to take early retirement if not
x
Why did you take early retirement

if you knew it wouldn't be enough? I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me you want to have your cake and eat it too. I don't think it's right you want to cheat the gov't by putting everything in your husband's name.  I suggest you ask your clergyman what he thinks of your proposal.


I have been married to the same man for the last 13 years.  We had 3 children together after we got married.  My husband and I each had to pay for our own college educations.  We have worked for everything we have and have done it the honest way.  I would have loved to have had a child first and then went to school for free while my husband was living with me and supporting us but had a different mailbox so I could still collect welfare.  Then after school, I would have popped out 2 more and continued to receive welfare while I was looking for a job (but secretly planning our wedding) and then got married while the gov't picked up the tab, so I could sit back now and enjoy my beautiful house that I was able to afford while I was ripping off everyone else. 


It really burns me when someone tries to get ahead in life by taking from others.  I'm sorry that I don't share in your plight, but what you are doing is illegal. It is fraud, and if you chose to go that route, I hope someone finds out and reports you.  Maybe the gov't wouldn't screw us so much, if so many didn't screw it first.  Shame on you!  


They want a retirement that they don't even contribute to, they already retire at 55.
x
you sound more than ready for retirement!
x
Why take early retirement if you cant afford it?
x
When you took early retirement, did you not find out
how much you could earn and other questions about retirement? If you did not, very foolish on your part. I have another year to go to have FULL retirement age- that for me is 66. I could retire now but knew AHEAD of time if I did, then for every 3$ I make, the government takes a part of that. I did not want to pay in any more than I have already. I went to social security last month, found out how much I will get at full retirement, etc. etc. If I live and take retirement money out (I plan to continue working) I will be getting almost $2,000 a month. With my salary, the full retirement money and some retirment money I get from a company I used to work for, that will be a very good sum for me. Having said that, there is no way in hades that I would ever try to pull the wool over Uncle Sam's eyes- talk about trouble- what you propose seems to be underhanded- whether it is or not I would not want to be any part of that scheme. I think where you live has a lot to do with whether you have to get tax ID number or not. Better to be on the up and up than spending some time behind bars.
When I found out about retirement money
they were so KIND to tell me I could start drawing out my money 2 months ahead of my full retirement in January- ha- they tried to make it sound nice- you would get 2 checks for January- having said that I just thought to myself- no I will just wait until FULL because 2 months ahead of time reduces then my total monthly income for as long as I might draw- thanks but no thanks- I want my full retirement money, don’t want 1 single dime to have to be paid back.
Why take early retirement before you find out
x
Government retirement program has changed.
It is now the same as Medicare, with a 401K added.
Question for you Statutory Employees about retirement?
Any of you who work as an SE, have you ever looked in to an SEP IRA or an individual 401K for funding a retirement plan?  I  was just wondering if this is allowed, since the income is considered self employment income, but I have searched on the Internet and can't find anything to tell how the laws specifically apply to SE's.  I know if I was an IC there would be no question.  I already have a Roth IRA but the limit for that or a regular IRA is $4000 a year and that is not enough IMO for retirement, would love to be able to save some of my SE income tax-deferred.  I'm going to ask my accountant about it but figured out of courtesy I would wait til after the tax filing season winds down.  Just curious if any of you could help out in the meantime??  TIA.
What kind of retirement tells you how much you can earn?
I will start drawing from a pension plan this April - I have absolutely nothing saying I can or cannot make X amount of dollars a month. How did you get a retirement that tells you what you can make? This sounds strange to me.
I had exactly the same benefits, pay, and retirement plan when I was single as I do now, married. sm
So, your post doesn't make sense. Benefits aren't withheld from singles and offered only to marrieds.
my full retirement age is 67 according to my estimated benefits paper - nm
x
my dad just retired at full retirement age, and there is a limit on income for the first 2 years tha
x
Decent MT job
Good luck in finding one any more. I have checked on several and they are all as bad as or even worse than MQ. That's why for the time being, I am staying with them. Everybody wants us to work for peanuts nowadays, thinks we can just jump from one account to another with 100% QA, understanding totally strange doctors who don't speak English, etc. The people in charge don't have a clue just how difficult this job really is. I wish I could retire!
I was responding actually to DECENT MT
...rather than EXCELLENT MT.

:)

Nice attide, though.

I don't know companies that charge 18 to 20 CPL!!! The most I've heard of is 13. Who charges 18-20 CPL, please? And who are they sleeping with??? :)

I lie... I forgot that in mentioning sleeping with..... There was a surgical group whose director's wife started a service and charged her husband and his partners 18 CPL.

They now offshore to India, however.
Where is there a decent company???
I would like to know exactly WHERE to apply to a decent company that is not the same as or worse than MQ? I have checked into several and they all leave a lot to be desired. I have lots of experience, have 99% QA reports, and would like to be paid for it. I have not found anybody who is willing to pay me any more than I am making at MQ, plus they have a lot of rules about strict schedules, etc. that were a lot worse than MQ. I would love to quit MQ, but where is there a better place???? Let's hear some POSITIVE answers for a change----.
How does asking someone which companies are decent

equate into having them do your resume and work for you?  That's a stretch.  Word of mouth is all we have here because the people doing the hiring are naturally going to make their company sound like the best one out there.


Personally, I am sick and tired of searching for a decent MT job.  I've been looking for over month now with no luck.  It's not for lack of experience or effort.  I'm not unqualified or a lousy worker either.  I get really tired of being put on the most difficult accounts right off the bat or being bounced from one account to another for coverage.  I want a decent platform that doesn't require you to jump to four different places just to find the header demographics information.  Time is money.  It's gotten to the point that I don't even know what I want any more.  Everyone wants full-time, odd shifts, Tu-Sa, or a C-phone.  I've seriously been thinking about going back to selling stuff on ebay because I'm so frustrated.  I give up.


That would be the decent thing to do
deleting posts where it is mentioned. It seems very juvenile and shady for them to just delete the posts without any sort of response.  If you take a stance on something, you should be willing to truly stand behind your decision.  They are acting like they are ashamed of the position they have decided to take on this matter.
That's a decent salary.
.
Then, I would say 9 cpl to 10 cpl would be a decent offer.
Go for it! 
Decent money is out there
Most of you know me from this board and I just want to share this with you guys.  One of my gals that I met through a nephew's baseball team -- he and her son played together and we go to the same church.  She had two terms  of medical terminology/some transcription underneath her belt, many years in the law field as a paralegal, etc.   She wanted to work at home, make some extra money, etc.  I took her in and started her on my psych accounts and the onto some IM accounts.  She got the psych accounts quite well but had trouble with the IM.  We butted heads several times over scheduling, etc.  She did not understand the 24 TAT and so on.  But we perservered together.  She finally got a job in an attorney's office part-time doing some medical review, etc. and quit me.   On good terms.  Then last November I helped her land a GYN account that we started off together and I just handed off to her as it was not worth my while to drive 25 miles for what dictation was there.   It was my business name and years in experience that landed the job.  She took it over and tonight she informed me that she is so glad that I kept at her and perservered with her as she is now making $42 to $45 an hour typing for them.  She is like me charges only .12 cpl but because of auto corrects, macro's and shortcuts that I helped her with, she is making good money.  If fact in Sept when they add another doctor she is going to quit her legal job completely because she makes more with this account with less hours or if she keeps the legal job she is going to do what I did and mentor and help someone else break into the field.  Again these are tape accounts, with pick up and delivery and the little accounts no one else wants but they provide us with a good living. Again, I don't look at the cpl but at my hourly rate and that is what keeps me happpy.  She just wanted to thank me for helping her out and I am really happy for her.   Yea we spoil our accounts but they reciprocate with decent money.  So for those that want your own accounts, keep at it, takes time and patience but you can get there.  I had most profitable year ever this year and less hours. 
decent money
Better than I would make at a 40 hour week clerical job in my area. Much better. I don't have benefits, but I don't need them because my husband has great benefits with his job. I DO get quarterly bonuses though that are more than my yearly bonus at my previous office job. No, I won't get rich doing this. And yes, I put in a lot of hours. I work hard. I research. I have invested in good reference materials. And I love my job.
What exactly do you consider *decent* money, (sm)
and what part of the country do you live/work in? What's "decent" pay in rural Kentucky or Iowa is food-stamp time in Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego or New York, just to name a few.
in bed, and have a husband with a decent job
.
No decent MTs just excuse to keep pay low. Pay
c
I had some decent Americans,
some decent nurses, and then started getting probably the worst dictator on my account. Is 15 blanks a problem? :o}


Is a decent MT job too much to ask for these days!?!?!?

is it too much to ask for a decent job as an MT anymore?  i am so fed up with the big services and how they take you for granted, ignore your requests for help, clunky, time-consuming, line-stealing platforms that i could just scream! (please excuse my lack of punctuation and any type-o's, this is a forum and i just really don't care right now!!!)


i am so sick of sitting at my computer all day long to only get out 500 lines a day and it's not my lack of committment, lack of focus, or any of the like....it's the out-dated, stupid "platforms" we are expected to type in and now they are even setting it up where we're typing in little boxes and not hitting return to go from section to section, i'm sure in an effort to reduce payable characters. 


I am just at my wits end.  i have been applying for jobs that are not in the field of MT for the last two years and cannot get any replies to jobs besides "work at home" scams and the like. 


ANYONE ELSE FEEL ME OUT THERE????


Try 80% ESL with the other 20% on ASR; any decent doctor is on ASR at 1/2 the pay....nm
xxxx
What are you talking about when you say decent?
Would be hard to say, according to what you are used to making. What have you come up with in your calculations?
It's pretty decent

Especially if your account is a tough one with ESLs, etc.  150 lph is nothing to sneeze at.  As to getting faster, it's all about your expanders.  If you have the same doctors at all, create templates as much as possible for them.  Save their phrases, etc.  If you type headings for reports, save the headings with the formatting, etc as a macro so you just have to hit one or two keys to bring it up.  If templates, don't work, then really concentrate on your regular typing expanders.  Any multi word phrase that you use more than once needs to have an Expander or an abbreviation.   Any word that is longer than four characters has an abbreviation for me - or at least I'm working towards that.   Really work on getting to the point where you don't type any word out in full.  That's the hard part.  Sometimes it seems like it's faster to just type and not figure out what the expansion is for that word, but it pays off in the long run.  The other thing that helps me is to put mistakes in that I routinely type, i.e., teh = the, taht = that.  I have found that doing that has made a huge difference - I'm not stopping to correct those automatically any more.  Pretty much any typo goes into the library with the correct word attached.


You'll get there.  Good luck.


Neither...just a lucky girl with a decent job for once...sm
Have only been at this for about a year now and have found that most of these companies SUCK!!! They dont care about you, they use you and then get rid of you, and they are the rudest group of people I have ever been around...Not one of THEM are you???? Sounds like it.
DECENT BENEFITS/PTO/HOLIDAYPAY
what company are you with that you would get paid downtime, paid pto/vacation/holidays AND decent insurance, need to know that company's name please
You are a decent woman, and that was well written.
I do also think that the moderator needs to ban the person who has been so inflammatory here so many times, particularly on the subject of motherhood. There's no need for responses such as hers to be allowed when we all just want a forum to chat and, hopefully, be supportive to each other. I'm off to watch Lost now, my one great indulgence :)
You can't be a decent MT without the right schooling! I don't care what you say.

Why would any decent MT waste their time with MQ

Don't be fooled by their latest spins. If it didn't benefit them, they wouldn't be doing it.   The only ones with a good deal at MQ are the suits. They should be eating some of the slop they feed MTs.


How long to make decent $$$??

This may seem like a stupid question to all of you "veterans" out there, but how long until a "newbie" can expect to make a decent wage in this business?  I have only been employed for about 5 mos, so I am trying to cut myself some slack, but minimum wage is hard to swallow.  I do reports from a pool of doctors so I can't seem to utilize the full benefits of expanders, and on my best day, I can type about 110-125 lph.  Again, I know I just started, but I can't keep making this kind of wage forever.  Are there tricks I am missing?  Any insight would really be appreciated!!  Thanks in advance!! 


How many jobs do we take until we might be treated decent


I am on my third in a year


MediSpell is decent and only costs around
It was about $10-$20 when I first got it, but I'm sure it's gone up since then. There's a free trial (or at least there was) and you can compare it to others. Not sure what Dorland's is like so I can't tell you comparison, but I've found MediSpell to be a decent medical spellchecker at a reasonable price for starting out. You can add to it, of course, too, but I don't think they ever issue updates like new drug names, tec. so you might want to invest in a more thorough one later on.
They also do not pay mentors decent money
so no one I know would never work for them. Companies like that do not need to be around.
I am, but not because of pay. I make decent money, more than I would

make in most fields today that don't require a degree or experience.   I'm just burned out with the monotony of it.  Type, type, type and then type some more because the account is behind and others aren't pulling their weight, so type, type, type, go to bed without spending time with family, exhausted, kitchen not cleaned up, and get up the next day and do the same thing all over again.  You have no control over your paycheck because you are paid by production.  If you have one of those days where you get the worst dictators or the sound quality is really bad you don't make your lines.  If you don't feel well you don't make your lines.   


I've done this nearly 20 years, about 19 more than I ever thought I would, but I'm tired, I don't enjoy my job, and I want to do something different.  My problem is that I need to be home 5 more years and I don't know what I can do and make the money I need to make. 


 


VR decent but long way to go before replaces MT
I was present at a demo of Dictaphone's/Nuance Enterprise and HDI's VR systems. While both were fairly decent, Enterprise even took on one motormouth Ortho at about 50% accuracy, we were told the systems would never replace live people. The hospital I work for is now looking at Enterprise in the next fiscal budget.