I better understood now, why I have hard time to switch my job now. I am working at high visibility projects in a very big company: cloud computing, SDN/NFV, etc. I have a master degree in engineering and a MBA from fairly reputable universities. I had my professional engineer licenses in 10+ states before (I have not keep up with annual fee). And, I received 20+ some patents on wireless and devices for my company.

But, I feel I am under used and under paid. The things they want me to do is too easy. My working life is easy for me, and I want to do battle. So, I am training myself with by finishing on 2-3 Coursea classes per year (math, ML, SNA,..), attending workshops and Meetups in the valley. I worked 10-12 per day for many years now.

It works, I have fair knowledge on new areas and hands on development skill now. I get average 2-3 Linkedin head hunter requests per month for link or discussion job opportunities. I turned most of them down, because some of them too narrow scoped and I also do not want to embarrass myself: I gave my links/phone number to some, but they never call me back.

I will be 69 years old in few months. It took me a little efforts to get here.

No problem, I will create my own battle ground. I am not done yet.

A better question might be, "What country do you come from where you don't know how much health insurance in the US costs."

But thank you for the numbers. An extra 9K a year doesn't really sound that much to pay for experience but I guess penny pinching is the order of the day for too many managers.