I understand that any/ most professions that are financially fulfilling require hard work & dedication and the only place you start at the top is digging a hole. I'm not trying to avoid the necessary time & energy needed to become a successful and competent appraiser, as everything I've accomplished in my life never happened overnight. From the outside looking in & comparing to a traditional corporate america 9-5, it seems as appraisers have the potential to earn as much as the time & energy they'll willing to invest. They have the ability to spend more time out the traditional office and in their home office or in the field. They have the ability to accept as much work as they can handle and reject work when they desire not to. They can schedule their day/ work around whats best for them, they see their families more, etc. Also, Im 29 years old and 5 years is not an awful lot of time to push toward a career that has the potential to earn 60,70-100k will also having the ability to make decent money along the processwoohoo. Comparing to going back to school to attain an MBA where I may be able to land a job/ career earning 50/60k year salary with a limited income "potential" and have to answer to someone every day or under lay-off/ fire potential for the next 20 yearsm2:. Visioning myself 5-10 years from now taking on the course of becoming a certified general appraiser versus going back to school getting a MBA and landing a corp position seems like I would thank myself for the appraiser path, as anything worth having is going to be hard work and dedication. What are some the pros and cons of the appraiser path/ career when you identify them compared traditional salaried careers. Do you regret the path you choose? For some odd reason I look at interviews of appraisers on youtube and none seem to have a overly stressed lives and seem fairly happy