I am in a similar boat as you. I am interested in investing. You should be very careful about the firm that you work for. It is hard to put a number on the average salary. Basically, as you probably already know, you are running your own business so you have to bring in clients.

I interviewed at this one firm that claimed that they would not pay a base salary in the beginning. They said that to help new FAs, they had a "draw system," which is a pool of money, and they would talk to the FA at the beginning of each month and advance them the correct amount of money each month. This seemed really dubious. Also, they said that FAs at their firm are known as self-employed, individual contractors. Therefore, the firm would not pay any benefits. The FA would have to pay their own health benefits but they could be written off as business expense.

As for Edward Jones, they are a typical financial services firm. They offer a pretty typical range of products like investment products (e.g. mutual funds), life insurance and other things. Starting out, you would have to get your required licenses. The licenses have fees and I have interviewed at two financial services firms so far and both make you pay the licensing fees upfront. For the first six weeks or so, you will have to get your licenses. After getting your licenses, you will then have to build up a client base. You will probably have full discretion over how you get clients. For example, you could talk to friends and family. You could also do cold-calling, where you would pick up a phone book and then call random people in the book.

You will have to sell a lot of other products besides investment products as a FA at Edward Jones. If you are interested specifically in investing, I would recommend looking for an investment management firm. You would probably enjoy doing wealth management, which involves managing a portfolio of money for clients. But in any case, if you get an interview at Edward Jones, you should ask about their compensation plans. In the beginning, you won't have any clients so you'll need to have a source of income. Also, you should ask about the licensing fees and how you pay for them. Additionally, you should ask about benefits, i.e. are FAs at their firm recognized as independent contractors or regular employees of the firm. If it is the latter (regular employee), they probably pay benefits.