If you work with electric utilities or various regulatory entities (the wholesale power industry is pretty large) you'd be making well north of $100k as an indi

If you work with electric utilities or various regulatory entities (the wholesale power industry is pretty large) you'd be making well north of $100k as an individual contributor (engineer, technical analyst, software engineer, operator, economist... etc) if you have about 8 or more years of experience. If you live in any of the southern states, a house is easily findable in the $180-$250k range. That's better than having to buy a $1.5M home on a $300k budget. You can expect to work around 40 hours per week with some occasional rough patches depending on the job.