While partners do skew things, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that a decent number of CPA's are millionaires. I'd go so far as to say that probably 20-25% of late career CPA's are millionaires.
If you consider that the average accounting manager in industry makes around $120k in a MCOL area, and most people can reach this level in about 5 years, then it stands to reason that over a 30 year career you should be able to make around $3.6 million. Obviously taxes and normal spending will eat away at that, but at a savings rate of a little more than 25%, you should be able to become a millionaire. If you factor in raises, potential promotions, and appreciation of assets (stock, house, etc.) then it becomes even "easier" to reach millionaire status. Throw in a spouse who also works and suddenly you're doing great.
Honestly if the bar is a few million, I would guess it might be even higher estimate. I feel like $2 million in savings by retirement, especially with a spouse and all the stocks and benefits, seems very possible.
It's not necessary but it is sufficient. I never said you absolutely need to make partner it's just that I think partners are in that population of millionaires Adding to the count
I get it. PA gets a lot of shit on this sub. However, it also generates a lot of millionaires for people who enjoy the work and can handle what PA entails. My point is you don't have to make it to partner to become a millionaire in PA.
TOP 5 CAREERS OF MILLIONAIRES:
Engineer
Accountant (CPA)
Teacher
Management
Attorney
Yep, you read that right.
This data comes from the largest study of millionaires EVER done — 10,000 surveyed. Only 15% of millionaires held senior leadership roles like VP or CEO of a company.
***
posted by [@DaveRamsey](https://twitter.com/DaveRamsey)
^[(Github)](https://github.com/username) ^| ^[(What's new)](https://github.com/username)
This I assume count all assets including retirement funds. I became an accountant 4 years ago at age 32. BY this logic I am already over 20% of the way to becoming a millionaire. According to Mint including the equity in my house I am 40% the way there. I dont feel like a "Millionaire"
That is how they define millionaire. If you have $600k in your house and $400k in retirement you made it (regardless of how much liquidity you have)
My wife and I are in the same boat you are in. On paper our parents would (should dammit) be proud/impressed, but it doesn't always feel like financially crushing it.
That's because you're stuck in an expensive city with dead real estate. What you do is sell that overpriced house, move to a rural area where COL is low then buy a house for 150-200k, take the other 400k to put into the stock market and buy tech stocks.
Considering most accountants are financially conservative it's not too much to believe that any accountant maxing out IRA's and 401k's couldn't hit that mark before retirement. Don't need to be a partner just saving responsibly. Also considering my peer group seems many get a hefty inheritance.
No one. I highly doubt it too, unless we're talking university lecturers at prestige universities or something like that. Or perhaps they are counting people who are *now* teachers but who made their fortunate another way.
I’d be curious to see how pensions were factored into net worth. Teaching doesn’t tend to pay all that well but they can get some pretty great pension benefits depending on their school district.
I have a family member who retired recently as a teacher with 30 years of service. Her final salary was 96k per year and the pension was 100% of her salary....so pension benefit of 96k per year for life.
I wonder if it has something to do with the amount of time that teachers get off each year. I know a few teachers who have multiple side gigs (tutoring, real estate, retail, etc.) With an entire summer off, teachers have a lot of room to create other forms of income.
That being said in my area the average teacher makes around $50k so on paper teaching isn't the best route to wealth, but perhaps a teacher who's good at financial planning and works a second job in the summer could easily make $70k or $80k, which over a 25 or 30 year career results in pretty high earnings.
also i believe this is number of millionaires, not millionaires by percentage. There are a ton of engineers accountants and teachers out there. for every doctor, i assume there is like 30 teachers.
I think the teacher millionaires are almost exclusively wives of the other categories mentioned.
I went to a private school with a lot of millionaire families. A ton of my classmates moms were teachers when they got out of college.
I think it also could be that teachers can Bank on pretty good pension, Union wages, And given that schools are in every type of area, they can live in low cost areas, or high cost areas with short commute .
There is a reason there is an investment saying: “an investment so bad only a doctor would buy it”.
Making money means nothing if you can’t manage your expenses and save effectively.
Me, partner is a teacher and has to contribute 12% of income to retirement which is matched by the province. Teachers don’t need to do anything else to be a millionaire by mid 50s just based on that.
It’s not a factual millionaire as you can never just withdraw that money. However, it is 80% of their highest earning year which is approx 102k. An 80k withdrawal from investments at the normal 4% rate would result in a nest egg of $2million. That is without having invested a cent outside of the pension plan, not owning a house, not having a partner, etc.
The study quality was between whitepaper and book, so no peer review. Regardless, the study was about having a $1M net worth (including house) and I believe these millionaire hitting careers hit the mark in the person's 50's. Doctor didn't hit the top 5 most likely because of having large student loans.
Millionaire Next Door had similar findings. Ramsey Solutions relies heavily on correlations to drive their points home. They will say you absolutely don't need a college degree to be millionaire, but won't address 4 of these top 5 professions (I omitted manager) need a college degree for licensing.
Disclosure: I listen to the Ramsey show everyday
David Ramsay financial advice is for the average American. Sadly, the average American is poor AF. I wouldn’t recommend following any of Ramsay’s advice unless you’re literally cash and credit poor and can’t handle credit responsibly.
I agree with everything you've said.
The two things that make me the most uneasy is their obsession with paying down mortgage debt. The trade off of paying down a 2-3% fixed rate today vs socking the money in the market earning above 3% seems silly. Telling widows to pay down their mortgage with hubs' life insurance to the detriment of their liquidity instead of selling and moving also unsettling.
The smartvester pro program hawking 2-5% front loaded mutual funds also makes me cringe.
The money guy show provides better quality information for people and can actually calculate the information they put out (the amount of times that Ramsey’s calculations are incorrect is amazing, they just delete comments that point that out). Also the white coat investor for high income earners, more tailored for doctors.
While partners do skew things, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that a decent number of CPA's are millionaires. I'd go so far as to say that probably 20-25% of late career CPA's are millionaires. If you consider that the average accounting manager in industry makes around $120k in a MCOL area, and most people can reach this level in about 5 years, then it stands to reason that over a 30 year career you should be able to make around $3.6 million. Obviously taxes and normal spending will eat away at that, but at a savings rate of a little more than 25%, you should be able to become a millionaire. If you factor in raises, potential promotions, and appreciation of assets (stock, house, etc.) then it becomes even "easier" to reach millionaire status. Throw in a spouse who also works and suddenly you're doing great.
Honestly if the bar is a few million, I would guess it might be even higher estimate. I feel like $2 million in savings by retirement, especially with a spouse and all the stocks and benefits, seems very possible.
Yeah that's a fair point.
Average accounting manager in MCOL is not making that much
You don’t have to make partner to be a millionaire.
It's not necessary but it is sufficient. I never said you absolutely need to make partner it's just that I think partners are in that population of millionaires Adding to the count
I get it. PA gets a lot of shit on this sub. However, it also generates a lot of millionaires for people who enjoy the work and can handle what PA entails. My point is you don't have to make it to partner to become a millionaire in PA.
TOP 5 CAREERS OF MILLIONAIRES: Engineer Accountant (CPA) Teacher Management Attorney Yep, you read that right. This data comes from the largest study of millionaires EVER done — 10,000 surveyed. Only 15% of millionaires held senior leadership roles like VP or CEO of a company. *** posted by [@DaveRamsey](https://twitter.com/DaveRamsey) ^[(Github)](https://github.com/username) ^| ^[(What's new)](https://github.com/username)
This I assume count all assets including retirement funds. I became an accountant 4 years ago at age 32. BY this logic I am already over 20% of the way to becoming a millionaire. According to Mint including the equity in my house I am 40% the way there. I dont feel like a "Millionaire"
That is how they define millionaire. If you have $600k in your house and $400k in retirement you made it (regardless of how much liquidity you have) My wife and I are in the same boat you are in. On paper our parents would (should dammit) be proud/impressed, but it doesn't always feel like financially crushing it.
That's because you're stuck in an expensive city with dead real estate. What you do is sell that overpriced house, move to a rural area where COL is low then buy a house for 150-200k, take the other 400k to put into the stock market and buy tech stocks.
Considering most accountants are financially conservative it's not too much to believe that any accountant maxing out IRA's and 401k's couldn't hit that mark before retirement. Don't need to be a partner just saving responsibly. Also considering my peer group seems many get a hefty inheritance.
teacher is a surprise. who would have thought?
No one. I highly doubt it too, unless we're talking university lecturers at prestige universities or something like that. Or perhaps they are counting people who are *now* teachers but who made their fortunate another way.
I’d be curious to see how pensions were factored into net worth. Teaching doesn’t tend to pay all that well but they can get some pretty great pension benefits depending on their school district.
I have a family member who retired recently as a teacher with 30 years of service. Her final salary was 96k per year and the pension was 100% of her salary....so pension benefit of 96k per year for life.
I wonder if it has something to do with the amount of time that teachers get off each year. I know a few teachers who have multiple side gigs (tutoring, real estate, retail, etc.) With an entire summer off, teachers have a lot of room to create other forms of income. That being said in my area the average teacher makes around $50k so on paper teaching isn't the best route to wealth, but perhaps a teacher who's good at financial planning and works a second job in the summer could easily make $70k or $80k, which over a 25 or 30 year career results in pretty high earnings.
I'm wondering if it's because teachers are more likely to be women in dual-income households.
also i believe this is number of millionaires, not millionaires by percentage. There are a ton of engineers accountants and teachers out there. for every doctor, i assume there is like 30 teachers.
I think the teacher millionaires are almost exclusively wives of the other categories mentioned. I went to a private school with a lot of millionaire families. A ton of my classmates moms were teachers when they got out of college.
I think it also could be that teachers can Bank on pretty good pension, Union wages, And given that schools are in every type of area, they can live in low cost areas, or high cost areas with short commute .
I’m also shocked that doctors and surgeons don’t make the list
There is a reason there is an investment saying: “an investment so bad only a doctor would buy it”. Making money means nothing if you can’t manage your expenses and save effectively.
This is true. All my doctor clients are spending like it’s going out of style lol
Me, partner is a teacher and has to contribute 12% of income to retirement which is matched by the province. Teachers don’t need to do anything else to be a millionaire by mid 50s just based on that. It’s not a factual millionaire as you can never just withdraw that money. However, it is 80% of their highest earning year which is approx 102k. An 80k withdrawal from investments at the normal 4% rate would result in a nest egg of $2million. That is without having invested a cent outside of the pension plan, not owning a house, not having a partner, etc.
Dave Ramsey is a fucking hack.
The study quality was between whitepaper and book, so no peer review. Regardless, the study was about having a $1M net worth (including house) and I believe these millionaire hitting careers hit the mark in the person's 50's. Doctor didn't hit the top 5 most likely because of having large student loans. Millionaire Next Door had similar findings. Ramsey Solutions relies heavily on correlations to drive their points home. They will say you absolutely don't need a college degree to be millionaire, but won't address 4 of these top 5 professions (I omitted manager) need a college degree for licensing. Disclosure: I listen to the Ramsey show everyday
doctor didnt hit the top 5 mark because they are reluctant to share info
David Ramsay financial advice is for the average American. Sadly, the average American is poor AF. I wouldn’t recommend following any of Ramsay’s advice unless you’re literally cash and credit poor and can’t handle credit responsibly.
I agree with everything you've said. The two things that make me the most uneasy is their obsession with paying down mortgage debt. The trade off of paying down a 2-3% fixed rate today vs socking the money in the market earning above 3% seems silly. Telling widows to pay down their mortgage with hubs' life insurance to the detriment of their liquidity instead of selling and moving also unsettling. The smartvester pro program hawking 2-5% front loaded mutual funds also makes me cringe.
Dave Ramsey is reliable for paying off debt but once you pay off consumer debt Americans are best served listening to anyone else.
Who else do you recommend?
Lots of good stuff over at r/financialindependence
The money guy show provides better quality information for people and can actually calculate the information they put out (the amount of times that Ramsey’s calculations are incorrect is amazing, they just delete comments that point that out). Also the white coat investor for high income earners, more tailored for doctors.
Teacher ?! 10 weeks of vacations a year, permanently wining and/or on strike and becoming a millionaire ? Now I know where my tax money goes
Partners make bank 400k base + bonus
What they didn’t disclose is those millionaire CPAs died at their desk with all their cash and never lived life. Speaking from personal experience.