56-years-young, married, one 29-year-old beautiful son...
Posted By: MTness on 2006-03-09
In Reply to: Poll: Age/Sex of current MTs - MT student
... and going to school to get into law someday - age is not a concern, it's a blessing!
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I was 18--so very, very young! Still married though after 31 years!
I was married at 21, been happily married for 18 years now.
Have 2 teens, 16 and 13. Love my soul mate!
At least you have beautiful weather most of the year. nm
nm
why are they getting married this year (sm)
 and having their "fairy tale wedding" next year? Why not just wait and do the whole marriage thing next year, but have an engagement party this year?
I know it's probably personal but hey, you brought it up!
Been Married 5 year today.....
and I got married the day before I turned 21. It doesn't feel like 5 years, though. It seems like just yesterday. I was young then and didn't have a clue as to what I was getting myself into, but I don't regret it. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME!
Married to a meatcutter. Last year I
made more, but he didn't mind and neither did I. We actually run about the same in take-home pay now. Don't have a lot of money, but got each other, 2 kids, 1 son-in-law and a dog. 
My daughter got married a year ago and
she, too, wanted something different. She had a small reception (about 75). Instead of having a "traditional" cake, she opted for a cupcake tree, which we did ourselves. We simply stacked cupcakes on tiered platters that were decorated with beaded pearls and tiny day lilies that we found at Hobby Lobby. It was very unique and so pretty. This might not be anything you would be interested, but thought I would pass it along anyway. BTW, congratulations on your coming wedding!
When my daughter got married last year,
a lot the pictures were taken before the ceremony, but some were taken between the ceremony and the reception. During that time, the servers for the reception got the final things ready and the guests graciously waited on the bride and groom to begin the reception that was, after all, in their honor.
My daughter got married a year ago and didn't wear
a veil. She chose a tiara instead.
My four beautiful granddaugters from two years ago...hmmm, need to get an updated picture (nm)
..
married at 27; am still, 23 years later.
x
Married at 19, same man for 23 years
18 and still married 27 years later. nm
24 - married 8 years on 08-09
nm
24, married 26 years now.
He was 27. We only dated 7 months. Although both knew what we wanted, and did not hesitate, I would recommend a longer dating period. We went into it with the idea that divorce was not an option. I know that everyone's situation is different. My brother and sister are each on their fourth go around. But people just don't think about marriage in the same way that they used to.
24, will be married 18 years on 10/3/05. nm
nm
After being married for almost 19 years....its even better!
 My husband and I have been married for almost 19 years and our sex is better now than it ever has been and there is no downloaded porn involved. 4 times a week after being married for almost 19 years is a good thing. But for the others remember its not the quantity but the quality that should count.
What makes you think that your love life has to fizzle just because you are married so long?????
Married almost 20 years
My first gut reaction would be NO, but it would depend on the circumstances. I think I would have a very hard time trusting him again and forget about the STDs that could be involved. OMG. So, I guess. I might be able to forgive him but the marriage would probably be over.
19 on wedding day, still married 16 years later.
18, will be married 26 years in 2 weeks.
I also don't recommend 18 yo's get married these days. They are JUST TOO YOUNG. MY HOW MY MIND HAS WARPED over the years.
28 and will be married 6 years on the 22nd
18, be married 15 years in 13 days
      
21 and married for 20 years and two days.
nm
20 and still married with 3 boys, 25 years later nm
//
P.S. They were married for 12 years and she was about 38 when she got pregnant -
x
Married fo 7 1/2 years and loving it!
I really love being married, have a wonderful husband. Best of luck to you and your fiance. Take it one day at a time and enjoy it!!
Not a problem. I have been married 19 years and
my maiden name is on my Social Security card as my middle name, but I NEVER use my maiden name and use my middle name instead.
I've never had a problem with my taxes.
Young female pop singer, popular a few years ago singing about a sk8terboy and a ballet girl
s
39yo female, married, 3 kids, MT for 20 years. NM
.
Yes - Elton John just got married to a "Man" whom he has been with for many, many years.
I don't understand why you're shocked! He has been openly "gay" for upteen years & they have lived together for said upteen years! If you knew anything about Elton John, you wouldn't be "shocked." Where have you been ??
EXACTLY describes my hubby. Will be married 11 years in September :-) nm
.
Oh my.. we have a lot in common.. We got married there 5 years ago. We LOVE to eat at the Bellagio a
in March for Nascar, which we go to every year..and then normally we go in the Fall because the summers are too stinking hot. If you are familiar with Laughlin, we just bought a lot to build a house across the river in Bullhead City. We love Laughlin too..We'll be able to see the whole casino skyline from our house..Thank goodness we wont be there FT for a while though..summers get like 120 degrees there.
Don't complain! I spent years married to the coldest fish around....
nm
19 years old...married 26 years. nm
n
48-years-young, single, 3 kids, 9 girl, 12 boy, 15 girl nm
X
35 years this year, hmmmmm
My income?
Me 2, 15-20 years ago I was making about $70,000 a year
Now it seems, I'm just scraping by, juggling the utility bills and paying whichever one has sent me the 24-hour disconnect notice this month; it's become a grim miserable job compared to what it was. I'm nearing retirement age, but I doubt retirement is going to be in my future for a very long time.
The single worst thing that ever happened to us was going from the gross line count to the character count, and not adjusting the line rate upward to parity -- not to mention the adjustments that should have been made to accommodate all the extra time spent struggling to make sense of huge increase in ESL dictations that has occurred over the last 15 years, and of course there should have been COLAs as well, which we all know has not happened.
In the 1980s, with the advent of powerful and affordable PCs, free lance transcription became much more common. So if you were experienced, disciplined and organized, you could be much better off economically by working for yourself -- although there were definitely advantages to working in-hospital. There were great benefits and the salary was indeed enough to support a small family (albeit very modestly.)
For a number of years during that time, many of us worked part time in the hospital for benefits, but made our real money at home.
But in my case, the time came when it just made no economic sense to work in-housel, I was better buying off buying private insurance for major medical care, tax-deferred annuities, and self-insuring the little stuff.
I would just pick up tapes from the hospital every morning, and drop off the work (which I printed out) from the day before.
I usually had 24 hours to transcribe tapes which I did during school hours, when things were peaceful and quiet.
I transcribed a couple thousand GROSS lines day. Every single character line counted, so by taking advantage of headers/footers, creative macros, word expansions, etc., I really boosted my productivity far beyond to what I could do in-house on the self-correcting Selectric, Wang or Mag Card, or whatever 10-years behind technology was currently being used, plus all the office distractions and politics, and I definitely did not to have to work 24/7 to earn a good living. (Oh how I loved WP5.1!)
In fact, 2000 gross lines a day, 5 days a week at 10 cents a line (courier 10-pitch font, one-inch margins) was very very do-able for an experienced productive acute-care MT, provided she had good equipment, good reference books, and stayed focused. It would take about 5-6 hours a day to get that amount of work done. So figure the math out for yourselves, that's just a tad under $50,000 a year, certainly not a high standard of living in those days but adequate when it meant you could stay home and be actually be a full time parent when your children were home from school, and very comfortable, if you were married with a working spouse, or had rerliable child support, or social security for your children (if you were widowed.)
If you chose to work some weekends and evenings, it was not that all that difficult to hit that $75,000 a year mark, which I did for a couple of years so I was able to pay the tuition at a good boarding school -- and cruelly thwarted my teen-aged son's only ambition in life, which was to become a high school drop-out.
Things have gotten bad, no doubt about that, and the worst part of it is, is that most of the big MTSOs are still charging the hospitals as much as we used to earn, and sometimes even more, but the MT is no longer earning it, and often can't get enough work to meet the line counts required by the MTSOs for benefits (although the cost of those benefits are reflected in the cost charged to the hospital.)
I don't know what the answer is, as the electronic immigrant is such a huge threat.
It's pretty darn awful, and I feel very very bad for those of you starting out in this field, and I do hope things change for you (and that someday soon I can retire.)
And the point that the person made is that that she was worth $75,000 a year, not necessarily that she was getting it or could get it, and I absolutely agree with her. This is a hard tough job if it's done right -- it's mentally tiring, it's hard on your back, your hands, your neck (and your behind.)
It requires a lot of time -- it requires focus, you must stay alert, and must give 100% of your attention to what you are doing 100% of the time, it takes education and brains -- and now a word of truth which my 35+ years experience gives me the right to say aloud -- it's not fulfilling, wonderful, lovable and enjoyable, it's often as repetitious and tedious as an assembly line but infinitely more frustrating.
PS: I recall one of my colleagues from those early years of my career, now gone from this earth, telling me that the 1960s were really the "fat" years, that things actually began to decline salary-wise, in real dollars, in the 1970s.
The last 4 years I have averaged $48,000 to $54,000 a year
I have been in the business for 12 years, work roughly 8 hours daily, and make a decent living doing this. Paid by the line at 13 cpl. I have rougly 75% ESL and do H&P, consults, DS and OPs (the basic 4).
1 hurricane in 30 years or every year. I'd take Texas :)
Just kidding with u but I have been to Florida..... Talk about illegals! woweee. Not saying all over, just where I have been. See...... generalizations help no one. If you don't live there, you do not know so please consider your response. And, yes I was actually raised in Pasadena/Houston TX area and NO WAY would I want to live there again. :)
Actually I remember hearing this years ago, only it was the year 2000.
It is not only for physicians. Medicare and the insurance companies have been pushing for this for years. They want to be able to just log in and get the information they need without having to send a request for it.
My goal every year is $52k, which I have done for the past 2 years working sm
for Keystrokes. I do radiology only, I should mention. I took the amount I wanted (actually needed) to make in a year, divided it by 52 weeks, divided it by 5 days, came up with $1000 per week or $200 per day. I divided that by 8 hours and by my report rate ($1.25). I know that I need to transcribe 20 reports per hour on average. I keep a tally. Some days, it takes me longer to do than others, but I sit down and do my 8 hours every single day. I use my Expander a LOT (literally for all but a few words). I am on one account, so I know those doctors inside and out. If I am short at the end of the week, I ask if there is work available on the weekend for me to do. The most I end up with 2 hours to make up what might have been short during the week.
At $40k, you would need to make $153.85 per day, or $19.23 per hour. At $0.07, you need to type 275 lines per hour, or 2200 for the day. This should be very easy to get with using an expander and sitting down with a set schedule.
It takes a while to get used to making sure you hit your internal quota every day. I have to think of it daily and make it up on Saturday or Sunday so that I never start a week behind my personal goal.
I also take an incentives that are handed out (for instance if they are asking for help in a backlog situation at increased rate) and work at least a partial shift on holidays. If I am ahead at the end of the week, I carry it to the next week and know that I have some lines in my internal quota bank.
I know this sounds weird, but it works for me. I have helped a few others to get to their goals as well, and this seems to work for them too.
I would also look for something that is more in the 0.08 to 0.09 per line range. Ask your lead for production tips. Ask other transcriptionists. It is very possible for us to make good money, we just have to focus on our goals.
I have a sales background, which involved sales quotas. This is easier as I am in control of my daily production, not on someone else's decisions.
Good luck!
Very busy - just did my total for the month. This is the best year I've had in my 25 years of MT!
No complaints whatsoever! Hope the rest of my fellow MTs experience a prosperous remainder of the year!
I meant hospital for 8 years (not months)...going on 15th year.
x
don't do annual but do big trips every few years. Last year went to Africa including safari
spent 18 days - one day traveling there, (stopping in for a day in London), then two weeks working at an orphanage and girls vocational school, safari on the weekend, then two days of travel back. Whew!
I thought they can only audit you or send you a tax bill 2 years prior. It is now 2006 - the 2 year
I may be wrong here - maybe it is 3 years, but I thought the law changed and it was 2 years. Check into it.
never too young
I don't think you are ever too young to be worried about retirement! I wish I had worried about it sooner... you cannot expect a retirement check from any company, but you can do something about it yourself. Go to your local financial institutions and start your own retirement fund - just contribute a certain percentage of your check each time you are paid and no matter how many times you change jobs, keep doing it. It is there for you - you don't lose it just because you change jobs. But you are right to be worrying about your future - more of us should be doing that!
ah, to be so young...
...as to have never used tapes -- what a lovely feeling that must be!
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!
HEY YUCK - YOU ARE AS BEAUTIFUL AS IT GETS! LOVE YA MAN!
that is beautiful, thank you....
I am going to email this to my best friend who lost her mother a few years ago. This time of year is always hard for her, as is her mother's birthday. Thank you!!
Beautiful here!
Not to brag - but it is mid 80's, blue skies with little puffy clouds and a nice breeze. Of course, we are in the Pacific NW. Love it here - this is why we left the valley!
Beautiful!
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