I went to school full-time for a year at a cost of a few thousand dollars.

We lived on hot dogs and mac and cheese for most of that time.

My husband was pissed at me for going back to school to better myself because I didn't get his permission first.

Second semester, I took on a part-time job nights and weekends at a hospital to help make ends meet. My husband got more pissed because I wasn't spending time with him.

Then I had to work for YEARS under supervisors who'd been doing transcription since the day of the typewriter and carbon paper and didn't want to hear anything from someone right out of school.

Then I answered an ad for a company out of Florida and started working from home, but it was awful because you still had to work regular hours and if you didn't get all the work done that you needed by the end of your shift, tough. And if you made any mistakes, your pay was docked. If you typed what the doctor said and they were wrong, you got docked. If the doctor said something wrong and you typed the correct thing, your pay was docked because you didn't type what the doctor said.

Then I took an independent contractor position. I get a paycheck. That's it. I pay double the taxes of an employee position. No health, dental, or vision insurance. No sick days or vacation days. If a holiday falls on a day that I'm scheduled to work, I work. People don't stop dying and getting sick on Christmas. If I want to schedule vacation, I have to earn up the money ahead of time to cover the time off (remember, no vacation pay) and hope that no financial emergies pop up in the meantime to drain the vacation funds.

And you're lucky if you can get a position now without being certified, which means more studying and test fees, and keeping up your certification means ongoing education or else retesting every five years.

Just because I work from home NOW, doesn't mean that's where I or anyone else in this field started. Please, people, stop asking me what it takes to do what I do. I'm going to stop answering PMs about the topic.