Planning for the money

One possibility... find work abroad. You should be able to make twice the salary for similar work, often tax-free, sometimes with housing, plane tickets, and/or a car and other goodies thrown in. I left the low-pay planning grind in the USA behind in 1995 to work in the Arabian Gulf and never regretted it for a moment. Initially, it can be tough to get your foot in the door, but once you do, you'll make a lot more money straight away, enjoy greater job satisfaction, much longer vacation time, and have the opportunity for travel to exotic places which you'll never ever get wasting away your life in some dreary municipal planning office writing wonky environmental impact reports, decipherable only by other planners, and which (almost) nobody will ever read anyway.

You'll experience similar limitations at private sector consulting firms minus the job security municipal jobs offer. (Here in California, CEQA has spun off a whole cottage industry of environmental-impact consultants, but for rank-and-file staff at these CEQA mills, the work is repetitive and uninspiring). Consulting firms typically operate on very thin profit margins, moreover, and lay off staff the moment the work load drops.

One more point regarding municipal planning agencies... the top jobs sometimes pay well, especially in large cities, but often go to the politically-connected (or politically conniving), who often as not, are lawyers, not planners. (Sometimes, like here in SF, these jobs just go to friends of the Mayor, whatever their qualifications).

As for real estate development or anything related to real estate, the potential for money is there, but only if you have entrepeneurial skills which, IMO, are part of one's DNA and can't be learned from university courses nor from weekend how-to-get-rich seminars.

Have a nice day and good luck...

First of all, I am very disappointed that you want to compromise your standards and exploit your experience for the sake of the almighty dollar. Planners do go into the profession to make a ton of money. However, I think I know what your intentions are. I would rephrase your question to read: how to EARN the HIGHEST financial compensation for my planning services?

To answer your question, you can either make partner in a development firm/consulting firm or go into business for yourself. The only way you will ever make the most money is if you are at the top of the food chain. In my experience, planning consulting firms, due to the services they provide, do not earn profits as high as architectural or consulting firms. Rank and file at several development companies sometimes make more than the owners of planning consulting firms, especially smaller consultants, so the playing field is not always even.

If you are looking stictly in terms of financial compensation, you will have to go way above and beyond a typical 40-50 hour week. If you are in business for yourself, try 70-80 hours a week to get the ball rolling. If you an owner of a firm, you might be lucky if you get less than 50-60 hours a week.

The other option is to earn a PhD in planning and make tenure in a top planning school as a planning professor.

Hope this helps-

nrschmid

If you are serious about what you said, you may not only to be able to increase your future earnings, but also have a more positive impact than you think. Think about this - planners create rules and bureaucracies, but developers actually create places that you like/dislike. But, you could focus on those that build what you enjoy. Brush up on finance if you are lacking there. Otherwise, it sounds like you have a basis for getting into development.