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Find Out Which 'Friends' Character Would Earn the Most in the Real World, According to Experts

By Mae Harrington O'Neill

Each member of the 'Friends' gang had a varied career, and here's how much they would make in real life.
Each member of the 'Friends' gang had a varied career, and here's how much they would make in real life. / Getty Images/Getty Images

Although Friends went off the air in 2004, the iconic show still brings a smile to people's faces over a decade later. To commemorate the show, StandOut-CV did a fun experiment. Experts asked 3,021 fans where they believe Joey, Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Phoebe and Monica would be today, career wise. They also took the time to figure out how much each character would earn in their respective fields in the real world. Could we be anymore curious?!

Ringing in the highest salary is Joey, whose acting exploits are projected to earn him $61,022 a year. Next comes Doctor Ross, whose career as a paleontologist brings in an estimated $59,023. After that comes fashion designer Rachel, earning $54,563 a year, and then Chandler's writer/editor salary of $47,039 annually. Phoebe comes next, with her career as a musician bringing in an annual salary of $43,604, although the site doesn't mention how her massage therapy business factors in. Surprisingly, Monica would be the least paid character of them all as a head chef, earning an average of $43,165 every year. Thank goodness she has that rent controlled apartment!

As far as where fans think the Friends gang would be today, the answers are pretty great. My favorite is the idea for Joey, who people believe would have expanded his acting career to include his own reality series called Keeping Up With Joey Tribbiani. Fans imagine Monica would have taken the next step in her culinary career by opening up her own restaurant, and her husband Chandler would have continued his passion for writing at a comics magazine. The last season of Friends follows Rachel as she works as an executive for Ralph Lauren, and fans theorize that she would have used her breadth of experience to start her own fashion brand. A Rachel Green fashion line is definitely an idea I could get behind! It's believed Phoebe would have continued her music career, perhaps even becoming a music teacher, while Ross would have spent time writing dinosaur themed children's books.

All these fun opinions and expert predictions are making me crave a flash forward series that shows where they are now! Hopefully, the reunion special will give fans an idea of what the characters would be up to.