CCIE Pros #1

Related to yesterdays post I'd like to think out loud about the first pro of getting a CCIE. Moolah, deniros, cash. In this area a fairly experienced lan admin/network engineer type will make $60-80k/year. However a lead engineer or project manager with a CCIE could easily hit 6 digits. This is a huge draw for me since one of my personal goals has always been to make $100k/year without being a "manager". I am pretty comfortable with my personality and I know a management type position is not for me. It's actually a pet peeve of mine when management types talk about changing personality. Anyway, I've got to work 40 hours a week making $40k or $100k. Why not get the latter. This would also help with my goal of cutting to part time when I am 45 for 2 reasons. One is that the last two jobs I've had have greatly increased my salary yet I haven't increased my spending at all. The extra went to my 401k which is now maxed out every year. Secondly, unlike run of the mill engineers a CCIE can easily work part time for the same hourly rates that a full time one can. So instead of 20 hours per week@ $10-20/hr I could do 20 hours per week @ $50/hr. Win/Win.