Blue collar jobs: Automotive technician, carpenter, electrician, aviation mechanic, plumber, pipefitter, welder, and other skilled trade jobs. High school education is enough. Eg. working for ABC Plumbing. White collar jobs: Software, financial services, product development jobs etc. Need undergraduate or master’s degree. Eg. working for IBM. Depends on your skills & experience level. Some Carpenters & Plumbers make more money than a Software Engineer. Working at McDonald or gas station is usually minimum wage rate...like $6 - $10 per hour...so if you start out in McDonald's in CA, you probably will make $7.50 x 40 hours = $300 per week so 1200.00 a month b4 taxes. After taxes like....$900.00 a month or so. LOL....$190,000 won't even get you a garage in CA...most Nepalis in Northern CA live in the Bay Area in suburbs like Fremont, SanJose, PaloAlto, Oakland, Berkeley, fewer live in downtown San Francisco, Daly City, Stockton, lots of Sherpa community in Sonoma & Napa Valley area...and some in Sacramento. You can forget about buying a house in downtown San Francisco unless you win lottery or you have a really high paying job. For example buying a ok 3 bedroom...15-20 year old house in Fremont will cost you over $700,000 easily. If you are looking for brand new 3 bedroom house in Bay Area....be ready to finance over 1 million....:) If you are looking to buy a house for $190,000, then you need to move to Texas.