More Teachers become millionaires than doctors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can become a millionaire by spending less and investing over time. Doctors have a lot of expenses with schooling and private practice.

Having a 300k salary, but 250k in debt will get you to $1M much faster than making 70k with no debt.

Not if you are paying $150K/yr to a now-divorced teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In millionaire next door book it mentions teachers are mainly female and female teachers are the number one occupation of millionaires wives.

Add in all married female teachers are usually dual income.

Of course they are millionaires

I think this is probably right. Sorting for single status would likely result in a different financial outcome.

I am single and much lower income than teachers. I'm a millionaire. My partners were much flashier with money because they made much more. I didn't even dare to combine finances because how bad they were with finances because of higher income. They didn't have to budget.
Teacher salary is this sweet spot were they can become millionaire because of the retirement contributions and living on less.

Much lower than teachers? Please show the math on how to become a millionaire with a 50k income?

Teachers here make $70k-$146k/yr on the 12-month scale.
7.5% goes into pension. $5-10K per year for 40 years plus compounding interest or equivalent.

PP said much lower. Also teachers didn't make that money 40 years ago, so using 100k as a starting point to calculate saving is incredible disingenuous. Most people with professional jobs should have $1M in 40 years- the catch is that $1M will be worth a lot less with 40 years of inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can become a millionaire by spending less and investing over time. Doctors have a lot of expenses with schooling and private practice.

Having a 300k salary, but 250k in debt will get you to $1M much faster than making 70k with no debt.

Not if you are paying $150K/yr to a now-divorced teacher.

If you've unloaded 125k of debt on that teacher, you have a decent chance

[Anonymous]

Jill Biden is a teacher

[Anonymous]

IF you read the study, attorneys are on the list of top 5 professions of millionaires.

Physicians benefit from a stable career and income. That probably contributes to the lack of incentive to save early and blow income instead.

[Anonymous]

Teachers benefit from starting their careers young compared to other professionals. When you start teaching at 23 or 24, you can make your retirement contributions because at that age you can live quite cheaply. And since teaching is not a profession that encourages an expensive lifestyle (in fact the hours and culture discourage things like going out a lot, being very showy with expensive clothes or other personal items, etc.), it's not that hard to tuck away a significant percent of your income.

Teaching is also a job that rewards seniority and has fairly straightforward stepped increases. Yes, we're talking about moving from 75k to 90k over the course of a decade, so not eye-popping amounts. But that's a meaningful increase that can happen simply by putting in the hours. Teachers who get advanced degrees often see substantial increases even over that -- I know teachers with masters degrees who were making 120k by 30. There's a ceiling on that and they aren't going to go much higher. But do the math here: say you start out at 70k at age 24, and then get an additional via a part-time and summer program that allows you to add the degree without losing any years of income. Say be 30 or 32 your are over 100k, and by 37 you hit your peak earning of 140k. If you work at that amount until age 54 (30 years), you can retire with a substantial pension plus additional retirement savings. Then you can do education consulting or tutoring for another 8 years while also collecting your pension, essentially keeping your income steady while working considerably less in a lower stress role.

By 62 you'll have your pension, considerable savings, likely a paid off home, plus you can now collect Social Security.

I know many two teacher families who are currently living really nice retirements with world travel, kitchen upgrades, plenty of money to spend on grandkids, and expensive hobbies. And they were semi-retired by 55 and fully retired by 65.

I also know a number of Big Law partners who have way more money but are still working stressful, long days into their 60s and feel that they will "never have enough."

The teachers were smarter, no question.

[Anonymous]

Single mom (full time with no financial help) who is also a teacher. Started my career making maybe 30k and now I am up to 100k. When I was young and child free, I tutored on evenings and weekends. I lived well below my means and had roommates for the longest time. I was lucky to have a parent who was financially literate and had me put my money into a Roth/IRA starting at age 16. And I was lucky to have gotten a scholarship to college and then had work fund my masters. It wasn't until I was making 80k that I felt comfortable fulling funding my 403b, prior to that I made small contributions. Around 48ish I became a millionaire. The biggest perk is the pension and I plan on retiring as soon as I can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers benefit from starting their careers young compared to other professionals. When you start teaching at 23 or 24, you can make your retirement contributions because at that age you can live quite cheaply. And since teaching is not a profession that encourages an expensive lifestyle (in fact the hours and culture discourage things like going out a lot, being very showy with expensive clothes or other personal items, etc.), it's not that hard to tuck away a significant percent of your income.

Teaching is also a job that rewards seniority and has fairly straightforward stepped increases. Yes, we're talking about moving from 75k to 90k over the course of a decade, so not eye-popping amounts. But that's a meaningful increase that can happen simply by putting in the hours. Teachers who get advanced degrees often see substantial increases even over that -- I know teachers with masters degrees who were making 120k by 30. There's a ceiling on that and they aren't going to go much higher. But do the math here: say you start out at 70k at age 24, and then get an additional via a part-time and summer program that allows you to add the degree without losing any years of income. Say be 30 or 32 your are over 100k, and by 37 you hit your peak earning of 140k. If you work at that amount until age 54 (30 years), you can retire with a substantial pension plus additional retirement savings. Then you can do education consulting or tutoring for another 8 years while also collecting your pension, essentially keeping your income steady while working considerably less in a lower stress role.

By 62 you'll have your pension, considerable savings, likely a paid off home, plus you can now collect Social Security.

I know many two teacher families who are currently living really nice retirements with world travel, kitchen upgrades, plenty of money to spend on grandkids, and expensive hobbies. And they were semi-retired by 55 and fully retired by 65.

I also know a number of Big Law partners who have way more money but are still working stressful, long days into their 60s and feel that they will "never have enough."

The teachers were smarter, no question.

Where?!

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY24-teacher-195-day.pdf
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf
https://btu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Salaries-Traditional-Teacher-Salaries.pdf

Supposing the teacher started at 22 with a master's degree and got a step increase every year (basically impossible), at 30 they'd be at $78k in fairfax, $88k in DC, and $108k in Boston (MA is regarded as paying their teachers the highest salaries in the country). You can coach a sport for a $3k per season or proctor SATs on a Saturday and get $150 for 5 hours of work, but you aren't making an extra $25-50k to make up the difference. And that's in 2023/24, no way anyone was making $130k years ago.

Teaching is a secondary income in the majority of households--that's the only reason why they show up as wealthy.

--Former teacher who couldn't make ends meet as a single parent teacher and jumped ship to corporate work, because there was such stagnant salary growth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers benefit from starting their careers young compared to other professionals. When you start teaching at 23 or 24, you can make your retirement contributions because at that age you can live quite cheaply. And since teaching is not a profession that encourages an expensive lifestyle (in fact the hours and culture discourage things like going out a lot, being very showy with expensive clothes or other personal items, etc.), it's not that hard to tuck away a significant percent of your income.

Teaching is also a job that rewards seniority and has fairly straightforward stepped increases. Yes, we're talking about moving from 75k to 90k over the course of a decade, so not eye-popping amounts. But that's a meaningful increase that can happen simply by putting in the hours. Teachers who get advanced degrees often see substantial increases even over that -- I know teachers with masters degrees who were making 120k by 30. There's a ceiling on that and they aren't going to go much higher. But do the math here: say you start out at 70k at age 24, and then get an additional via a part-time and summer program that allows you to add the degree without losing any years of income. Say be 30 or 32 your are over 100k, and by 37 you hit your peak earning of 140k. If you work at that amount until age 54 (30 years), you can retire with a substantial pension plus additional retirement savings. Then you can do education consulting or tutoring for another 8 years while also collecting your pension, essentially keeping your income steady while working considerably less in a lower stress role.

By 62 you'll have your pension, considerable savings, likely a paid off home, plus you can now collect Social Security.

I know many two teacher families who are currently living really nice retirements with world travel, kitchen upgrades, plenty of money to spend on grandkids, and expensive hobbies. And they were semi-retired by 55 and fully retired by 65.

I also know a number of Big Law partners who have way more money but are still working stressful, long days into their 60s and feel that they will "never have enough."

The teachers were smarter, no question.

Where?!

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY24-teacher-195-day.pdf
https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/WTU%20FY20-FY23.pdf
https://btu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Salaries-Traditional-Teacher-Salaries.pdf

Supposing the teacher started at 22 with a master's degree and got a step increase every year (basically impossible), at 30 they'd be at $78k in fairfax, $88k in DC, and $108k in Boston (MA is regarded as paying their teachers the highest salaries in the country). You can coach a sport for a $3k per season or proctor SATs on a Saturday and get $150 for 5 hours of work, but you aren't making an extra $25-50k to make up the difference. And that's in 2023/24, no way anyone was making $130k years ago.

Teaching is a secondary income in the majority of households--that's the only reason why they show up as wealthy.

--Former teacher who couldn't make ends meet as a single parent teacher and jumped ship to corporate work, because there was such stagnant salary growth

Sorry, $120k. Same story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Single mom (full time with no financial help) who is also a teacher. Started my career making maybe 30k and now I am up to 100k. When I was young and child free, I tutored on evenings and weekends. I lived well below my means and had roommates for the longest time. I was lucky to have a parent who was financially literate and had me put my money into a Roth/IRA starting at age 16. And I was lucky to have gotten a scholarship to college and then had work fund my masters. It wasn't until I was making 80k that I felt comfortable fulling funding my 403b, prior to that I made small contributions. Around 48ish I became a millionaire. The biggest perk is the pension and I plan on retiring as soon as I can.

How many kids? Did your ex pay child support? What about sending the kids to college? I’m a single mom who is also a teacher. My ex doesn’t pay anything since both kids are over 18. They cost more now in college than they ever had so it’s ironic that I’m having to pay it all. I stopped my 403b contributions and took up a 2nd job.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here and almost a millionaire. In my case, it’s being married and having IRAs and other accounts grow that have gotten us close to a million. Having a million these days isn’t what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

There are about 4 million teachers and 1 million physicians in the United States.

Teachers start earning young and physicians start earning late.

So teachers win out because it is a numbers game in part and also because they start young.

What is more striking about that article is that accountants are the most likely to become millionaires. Makes sense - that career has a lower barrier to entry than physicians do, plus their job is to keep track of money.

[Anonymous]

Aren't all 40-something with a college degree, millionaires these days?

I certainly hope so. Because 1M won't get you very far anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Aren't all 40-something with a college degree, millionaires these days?

I certainly hope so. Because 1M won't get you very far anyway.

Showing your privilege, you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doctors are notoriously bad with money. The few who do well, do very well.

This. They are the reason for the saying "one house, one spouse" as a financial strategy.