Profile For TK

Thank you everyone for the thoughtful responses! I am still mulling my decisions. This has certainly given me more to think about.

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the forums. I have spent the past few days reading tons of posts and Brett's book to get a better idea of what life as a truck driver would be like. Trucking Truth has been an invaluable asset and I am very grateful for the kind, knowledgeable people who post here (MUCH more constructive than any other forum I've ever visited - on ANY topic!) I have been accepted into one the the major company's truck driving school programs, but before I make the commitment I would love to get some personal advice that may/may not be unique to my situation. I am also currently interviewing for other jobs more related to my degree. So first a little background on myself:

I am a recent college graduate with a degree in Finance. My ultimate career goals involve starting my own business in a field unrelated to trucking. However, I have debts from college to pay first, and over the next 2-3 years plan to work hard to pay those and save a decent amount of money to put into my startup. So my SHORT TERM goal is to work very hard for a few years then leave whatever job it is I have..

With this in mind, I was a student transit bus operator in college (Class B) and enjoyed my full-time job driving buses. While I know it is completely different from trucking, I have found that I enjoy 8+ hours behind a wheel. I also have zero family obligations, and don't plan on having any for the next 5 years or so. I also thoroughly enjoy traveling, and keeping my own company. These are the personality traits that have led me to look into trucking.

Other facts: I am located in Central Texas. Most thoughtful responses include qualifiers about getting "burned out" if you try and run too hard. I have no family that will miss me if I am away for long stretches (except parents lol), and I am not worried about sustaining a 10+ year trucking career. However, I do like the idea of once I have my Class A it is mine to keep, and trucking seems like an easy enough industry to bounce back into after a 5 year absence if my business doesn't quite work out.

MY QUESTIONS TO THE WISE:

1) Salary - What could one reasonably hope to make in their first 2 years? Not worrying about burn out or home time. Or put another way, how likely is it to have the potential to average $45,000 first year and $55,000 second year or more? Most conservative estimates put first year in the $35,000 range. This would just be too low for what I am looking for unfortunately. *mentioned figures are BEFORE tax. GROSS income*

2) Which type of freight/company would be best to leverage my willingness to work my tail off? I see Prime has a high CPM for beginners, but are there maybe other companies with lower CPM, that if I put in the hours, could make more due to less waiting time, longer hauls, etc.?

I know what I am asking for is all rather hypothetical, but mainly what I'm trying to gauge is if the answers are "yeah, you could make that much, but you'll be miserable in doing it!" or if it's more of "what you're asking for just isn't realistic, don't get your hopes up and I would try something else if I was you, you'll be disappointed if you set your earning expectations that high"

Sorry for the long post, but any advice is welcome! Thanks!