Am I in a crappy finance job?

[jahovalbless04]

currently employed full time in a car dealership, Melbourne Victoria. Salary of 65k, roughly 9k car allowance and 10% commission on f&i income. My coms have been woeful and other BM’s I work with are saying “ yeah, industry isn’t what it used to be” and just accepting the crappy money. I was out of the finance game during C19 looking for work life balance and came back to this!!

Curious to know, am I just at a shitty dealership or is this the industry these days,

8:30 to 6pm. Monday to Sat with 1 day RDO weekly. Work life balance sucks

Floor plan lender is TFS

For context in coms, I did approx 28 settlements last month and will only see about 3,500 in coms.

 

[jehoshaphat123]

@jahovalbless04 Brother our administrator who is in her first job out of school makes more than you

 

[jahovalbless04]

@jehoshaphat123 I definitely need to get out of this place

 

[soccer2k14]

@jahovalbless04 Look in becoming a mortgage broker. My broker organised my refinance, and earned over $20,000 just from this transaction. Leading and trailing commissions. It’s common to earn 0.6% commissions from the lender.

 

[truevc_3rdostridge]

@soccer2k14 You get 2-4K upfront depending on the size of the loan then 0.01% of the balance over 30 years. If you re-mortgage then he doesn’t get commission anymore.

 

[soccer2k14]

@truevc_3rdostridge On my contract, the broker commission was listed as $16,000 up front. Based on a $3.8 million total lending.

 

[truevc_3rdostridge]

@soccer2k14 Yeah but 3.8 mil lending is extremely rare. Average is 4-800k these days. The trail income is pretty handy though, I know brokers getting paid thousands and they stopped working 7/8 years ago

 

[evnoca]

@jehoshaphat123 More than $100,000?

 

[chunkfunky]

@evnoca Yeah I think people missed the part where op said he earns an additional ~3500 per month.

 

[fairytalesrcute]

@jahovalbless04 I know a BM who submits deals to TFS who grosses 150k per year.

 

[klcjr77]

@fairytalesrcute I knew of one who used to pull in 800k a year. Then again, that was in the days of very dodgy - and now pretty much illegal - insurances, and when they were more or less writing their own interest rates.

 

[jahovalbless04]

@fairytalesrcute I feel like there are still BM’s that still make that type of money, my colleagues seem to think that this is the place to be. Previous employer paid the same as this one too, maybe I’m just not asking for enough during interviews

 

[guitarhero1000]

@jahovalbless04 I started at a car dealership in the UK where the money is also bad. One day off a week, working every weekend. They try to make it sound better by saying your commission based so if you sell more you make more but in reality it’s just not the case. I got out and got myself an apprenticeship and never looked back. Now I’ve moved to Australia with my trade. Definitely get yourself into something else.

 

[jahovalbless04]

@guitarhero1000 Thanks for the reply, definitely moving out of the dealership will be a good first step I think!

 

[guitarhero1000]

@jahovalbless04 One of my close friends still works in sales. He works for a large engineering company selling earthmoving equipment but started out with car dealerships. He seems to do quite well for himself and enjoys the work. It shows there are good sales jobs out there, maybe just in different industries.

 

[evnoca]

@jahovalbless04 You're earning over $120,000 Total Remuneration.

The money is not as bad as some people are suggesting here, considering you don't have a degree. They are also probably thinking you mean 10% commission on your base wage of $65k, rather than 10% on earnings for the company. Very different amounts and you may want to clarify this in your OP.

For context, the average BM salary back around 2010 - 2020 when I was in and out of BM roles was around $45k - 50k + comms of about the same amount.

10% commission isn't too bad. If you're earning near $100k gross after commissions at the EOFY you're doing well.

On the other hand, I would never work in such a soul destroying place again, even if it paid 200k.

The biggest problem I have with it is that you only get paid your base salary when you take time off and you're not making your finance target if you have even one weekend off for the month, so if you want to go away for a long weekend, it's going to cost you half of your monthly income in comms.

It's also way too many hours and late nights. I remember staying back to receipt deposits or bank cheques past 7pm regularly because inconsiderate wankers would grace the dealership 15 minutes before close.

I got out pretty young and was able to move into a corporate role but it's very difficult to do as many companies don't view dealership experience as overly relevant for most roles.

You may need to take a small pay cut to make the jump but I'd highly recommend doing it ASAP.

Good luck.

 

[limaraph]

@evnoca Everyone is dramatic lol. Also yeah, they’d earn more in Sydney where most of you wankers are from, big surprise

 

[evnoca]

@limaraph Where did location come into this and why are you so angry?

 

[timjenmatmom]

@jahovalbless04 So are you on $116K if I read that correctly?

65K base + 9K + $3500 monthly

 

[jahovalbless04]

@timjenmatmom Yep bout that