Conductor, Pacific Symphony, Orange County, Calif.

Bankrate: Have you been saving for your kids to go to college?

Carl St. Clair: Oh yeah. I'm astonished at the costs. I'm totally amazed, especially with people going to music school. With musicians, there's no guarantee of making a living. There are a lot more variables to the job. And, there's the pay level. It's very competitive. For a principal trumpet opening, maybe at our level there's one or two openings every few years. Don't forget, when the philharmonic was in its infancy, they also didn't pay a living wage. People would take side jobs in pit orchestras under false names because they didn't want people to know they were playing there.