TopDollar

I've never really found it to be a rude question. Especially in the context here where OP is profiling the earning potential of an industry he/she is interested in.
 
People just tend to be sensitive about the topic. Either feeling embarrassed they don't make enough, or condescending to people who make more. My coworkers and I openly discuss wages, although we all are making similar amounts in addition to our salaries being completely public information. I just don't necessarily discuss it with friends or family since there's a decent between the numbers. Not shy about it though.
 
Probably not as much as you might think. I expect the majority of revenue goes right back into the company. I would expect enough to be comfortable. However there is a huge opportunity cost when it comes to time commitments. "Work" never really stops like a 9-5, 40 hour a week job does. Based on LMG job postings (which you can lookup), employees seem to be paid competitively with the industry, including some extended health benefits.

I've never really found it to be a rude question. Especially in the context here where OP is profiling the earning potential of an industry he/she is interested in.
 
People just tend to be sensitive about the topic. Either feeling embarrassed they don't make enough, or condescending to people who make more. My coworkers and I openly discuss wages, although we all are making similar amounts in addition to our salaries being completely public information. I just don't necessarily discuss it with friends or family since there's a decent between the numbers. Not shy about it though.
 
Probably not as much as you might think. I expect the majority of revenue goes right back into the company. I would expect enough to be comfortable. However there is a huge opportunity cost when it comes to time commitments. "Work" never really stops like a 9-5, 40 hour a week job does. Based on LMG job postings (which you can lookup), employees seem to be paid competitively with the industry, including some extended health benefits.

Probably not. I arguably should have waited, but I only bought the 2080 a few weeks ago. This is my first big upgrade since 2012, so I try not to worry about the next big thing coming in a few months since I know that whatever I buy will still last me 5+ years.

A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.

A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.

A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.

A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.

A nice upgrade that complements my RTX 2080SC well.

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

It has definitely provided some new life to my aging i5-3570k build. I'm likely going to upgrade to a Ryzen 3900XT though soon enough. 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

It has definitely provided some new life to my aging i5-3570k build. I'm likely going to upgrade to a Ryzen 3900XT though soon enough. 

It has definitely provided some new life to my aging i5-3570k build. I'm likely going to upgrade to a Ryzen 3900XT though soon enough. 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

Upgrading from my old GTX 970s. Thought about getting a 2080 TI, but an extra $400 didn't seem worth it.
 

I'm most definitely a gas man myself (or maybe I'm just a gassy man?). Unfortunately the apartment I just moved into only has electric, but it will do I suppose.
 
I've only recently become interested in cooking and, not going to lie, I've learned the majority of my cooking knowledge from Binging with Babish. My girlfriend and I have also been using a lot of Chrissy Teigen recipes; most all of which have been fantastic. 

I'm a mechanical engineer in the naval/marine industry. There are certainly job opportunities out there for mechanical engineers in consumer electronics, although they might be harder to find than computer science or electrical, computer, and software engineering jobs. I do know however that a handful of Aero/Mechanical engineers from my graduating class got jobs at Global Foundries.
 
My best advice is to start gaining professional engineering experience now by applying for all the summer internships or semester long coops you can. Not only will doing that make it significantly easier to get a job right out of college, but it will also help you figure out what you like to do. I have a feeling a lot of mechanical engineering jobs in the consumer electronics industry are related to manufacturing processes.

Trades are certainly a fine career choice. There's good demand for skilled tradesman and you can certainly make as much if not more than your average college degree holder. The downside is making that much in a trade requires putting in many extra hours per week of work. An opportunity cost that some don't find worth it.
 
For example, a typical journeyman with 5 years experience in trade might make $25/hr ($52,000 annual salary based on a typical 40 hour work week) with a 1.5x overtime rate of $37.50/hr. If the journeyman wants to make $100k per year (not unrealistic in certain industries), then they would need to put in an additional 1,280 hours of overtime per year (($100,000 - $52,000) / $37.50/hr = 1,280hr) or a total of 3,360 hours per year.
 
An engineer with the same 5 years of experience in industry might make $80,000 base salary per year and work 40 hour work weeks; resulting in a total of 2,080 hours per year worked (true for my job, some companies have engineers salaried and expect more than 40 hours per week). The engineer might make 20% less than the journeyman, but they also spent 38% less time working than the journeyman did. For some, this benefit is well worth it. Sometimes you even get the best of both worlds where there is overtime available for the engineer as well.
 
Increased risk of occupational health related issues is also an opportunity cost of working in trades, but that one is probably pretty self explanatory. In short, don't disregard trades as being a bad career choice, but understand the downsides of that type of work as well.

There isn't really any sort of difficult math involved with flying. Some simple stuff like weight & moment calculations, linear interpolation to determine aircraft performance, calculating ground speed and magnetic heading based on the winds, etc. For example, on my private pilot checkride, the examiner had me calculate our ground speed while in the air without using the GPS. I would expect that's the type of things they mean when referring to "industrial math".

Engineering is how I make all my money...Flying airplanes is how I spend all my money. Spent around $20,000 on flying in 2018...

I'm an engineer myself (in the marine industry). I would very much recommend finishing the degree. Mostly for the reasons you laid out. Even if you like what you're doing now, the degree gives you much more flexibility in the future.
 
Having the existing experience in a technical industry will certainly help. Getting additional experience each summer either with the company you currently work at, or at different companies, will be very beneficial as well. I've done some recruiting and interviewing for entry level engineering positions. Getting industry experience throughout college is one of the things that pops out to me on a resume.
 
I'm guessing the majority of your pay comes from overtime? Entry level mechanical engineering jobs are around the $50-$70k per year range. A lot of office jobs being salaried positions. Mid career can certainly be in the 6 figure range, however a lot of these jobs are supervisory instead of being technical. Positions with hourly pay and true overtime are certainly available (mine is one for example).

Bose A20 aviation headset in celebration of my first solo