How do you make money? Ask most people that question, and you’ll get the answer “With a well-paid job.” So how do you get a well-paid job? Ask that and you’ll be told, “With a good education.”

Not necessarily. While many of us may continue to think that you need to be a doctor, a lawyer or an entrepreneur who catches a lucky break in order to be bringing home a major pay packet, the fact is you don’t.

There are plenty of jobs out there that break the monotony of being stuck behind a desk from 9-5 and just require the ability to work hard. They certainly aren’t dull, either.

Here are five odd jobs that you never knew paid so well.

Dump truck driver

Operating heavy machinery is a big responsibility, not to mention hard work. That means it pays particularly well. You can expect to earn around $84,000 as a median yearly salary although this can easily jump past the $100,000 mark if you end up working out at a mine. Depending on what state you’re in, after paying the income tax, you could still have enough left over to maintain a household. If you’d like to see exactly how much you’d have in a job like this, try a paycheck calculator for Colorado or whichever state you’re working in. This would help you maintain a strict budget, and might even give you room to have money left over that you could invest.

Cattle Station Manager

It might be lonely in the outback with very few people and plenty of cattle, but that is more than made up for by the pay packet of a cattle station manager who can take home around $90,000 a year as a starting salary. The next level down are the overseers who make up to $70,000 while a head stockman can expect to get $55,000. You’ll enjoy some pretty amazing food, as well.

Croupier

Did you know that in 2010, the three most popular tourist attractions in Australia were casinos? In a list of the worlds top 100 tourist attractions, Crown Casino in Melbourne appears as the countries most visited having attracted 10.9m people. It’s little wonder then croupier’s are so well paid. Salaries for dealing out the cards start at $40,000 a year and rise to $65,000 for senior positions. That’s without taking into account any sizable tips from lucky punters as well.

Sommelier

This one combines the sort of wage we all dream of seeing listed on Salarieshub.Com with something even more fun than making money – eating and drinking. You are probably wonder what is a sommelier? A sommelier specialises in matching wine with food. Essentially, you are getting paid to eat food and drink and wine with the end result of being able to offer a recommendation which pairs a good drop with a fine steak. The median salary for a sommelier in Australia is around $50,000 but work your way up the ladder and you could earn up to $150,000. Not to mention all that food and wine.

Underground diamond driller

Don’t get too excited, this doesn’t actually involve drilling for diamonds. No, you’ll be carrying out exploratory drilling to probe known ore deposits. The shifts are long and hard and you’ll be away from home for a long time but the pay – ranging from $100,000 to $180,000 – should more than make up for it.

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