Can you get rich by working for someone else? Here are the 15 Jobs where you can earn your millions!
Billionaire is the new millionaire, so how difficult is it today to become a millionaire? Shouldn’t be that hard should it?
Unlike in the past when you had to build and established business, to have hundreds of employees and massive sales, these days you can get to 7 figures just by having a better paying job.
With this idea in mind we dug around to find which are your best bets at getting paid the big bucks.
Something interesting we’ve found while putting together this video, is that specific specializations of the well-known high paying jobs, now pay even better than before AND there are a couple of new jobs that were not available in the past that are quite lucrative.
Although we have an international audience, we based on research on the United States, just to keep all these jobs on the same scale, the numbers might dramatically differ in your geography. Just keep that in mind as we move forward.
As always, here’s the video version if you feel like watching this piece:
Here are 15 Jobs that can make you a Millionaire
Number 1: Plastic Surgeon & Specialized Doctors
Salary of plastic surgeons: $250,000 and up.
Highest paid doctors: radiologists, cardiologist and orthopedic surgeons: Average $400,000 per year
As you’d expect, Neurosurgeons, the brain doctors, also get paid close to $400,000 per year.
So why mention plastic surgeons before them?
Because it’s a lot more lucrative and profitable these days. Plastic surgery is everywhere. More than 16 Billion dollars were spent on adjustments last year and it’s growing year by year, especially in the age of social media.
It’s one of those specializations that it’s easiest to get in to from the medical field and you bet that clients keep on coming.
Number 2: Corporate Lawyer
Salary: $200,000 and up.
If you’re good, you can be a millionaire 5 years into your corporate job. All you need is to be productive for the corporation you work for.
Out of all the specializations here are the 3 most lucrative: Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Property & patent lawyers.
Basically, you need to be a lawyer for a large financial or tech company. The higher the value you can bring to them or save them from having to pay, the higher your salary.
In big cases it’s not uncommon to get a single payout over 1 million if the case is won.
Number 3: Architect
Average salary: $100,000
Good architects earn over $250,000 per year
Real-estate is booming, always has, always will, with bigger and bigger projects undertaken by developers, companies and even cities.
A single big project can earn you that 7 figure income you’re looking for, but unless you’re already established in the marketplace, you’re unlikely to get it.
As with most of the jobs mentioned on this list, because the reward is so big, the competition at the top is fierce.
Number 4: Pilots & Air Traffic Control
Average salary: $100,000
Average time to $1 Million: Less than 10 years
Pilots still get paid good money in an age where they no longer have to do that much.
A good pilot earns on average in excess of $300 per hour while an low paying pilot brings home over $200.
The big surprise for us was Air traffic controllers, who earn even more than pilots at an average of 130,000 per year and out of everything on this list, it’s probably the second easiest to get into.
Number 5: Cyber Security
Application Security Engineer: $250,000 per year
Everybody else: around $100,000 per year
We’re living in the most connected time in history, everything about you that makes you, you is online; which means, there’s a lot of money to be taken out of the system.
Last year, the personal data of over 140 million americans was stolen from a credit score company called Equifax. Names, addresses, social security numbers, banking information, everything you would need to steal someone’s identity.
Big tech companies would not recover after a breach like that so they’re paying really good money to anyone who can bulletproof their tech.
The same goes with big pharma companies as well as anything that has to do with intellectual property, patents, research & development. A hack could cost the company billions.
Even at an individual level it’s never been more important than now to protect your information.
We’ve seen world-wide debates about how much info companies like Google & Facebook have on you and how easy it is to manipulate public opinion.
Hackers rely on easy targets, especially if you’re traveling a lot, everything you do online can be monitored and stolen; that’s why we had to do something about it. We reached out to the company we personally use, NordVPN and negotiated the best deal for personal cyber security you can get right now. You can get 3 years of internet security at less than the price of one if you go to alux.com/vpn
When you sign up with the code ALUX you even get a month free to test out how easy it is to use. Start taking digital security seriously and anonymize your data and location when browsing the internet.
Number 6: Marketing managers
Average salary: $150,000
Chief Marketing Officer: Over $250,000
Everywhere you look you see billboards and advertising. We live in such a crowded advertising time that it’s harder and harder to stand out.
A great marketing executive can make or break a great company. Just look at the rise of Old Spice. The company raised from the ashes through a smart marketing campaign. A 75 year old company, more than doubles sales in a single year.
But marketing isn’t all just about advertising, it’s about the way the product is designed, the way people perceive it, the way it fits in the market and how it differentiates from the competitors.
A typical Marketing director for companies like pepsi or coke earn ballpark of 250,000 dollars per year.
Number 7: High-End Sales
Average salary: $200,000
If you can sell, you’ll do great anywhere. A good salesperson will always find work, but this is not about that. It’s about those who are really good at what they do and they choose to move towards high ticket items.
Why bother selling cars in a dealership when you could be selling property in Monaco? The % might be smaller, but the pie is definitely bigger.
In order to keep things accessible, we will not look at the fringe cases, but focus on the top 20%.
Here’s how much you can earn if you know what you’re doing:
Real estate sales: Over $250,000 per year
Pharmaceutical sales: Over $200,000 per year
Software sales: Over $150,000 per year
A while back we did a video called: 15 Skills That Pay Off Forever which you can check out below! Master 2 or 3 of that list and you should be well off.
Number 8: Software Developer
Average salary: $150,000
Stock on the company
We feel like the age of startups has cooled down a bit. Just a few years ago everywhere you looked someone was starting a company, they’ve all failed and got back to working corporate jobs now.
But that period put the emphasis of just how valuable someone who can make things happen actually is, after all, Jobs wouldn’t have been Jobs without Wozniak.
Software developers have a unique advantage where they can ask for a percentage of the company in exchange for their services. If the company does well, the developer gets rich in the process.
Number 9: Petroleum Engineer
Salary: $200,000
Other petroleum Jobs pay over $100,000 per year
If there’s money to be made then definitely the pay is great. Just mention Oil and you can feel the US getting distracted.
So what is a petroleum engineer anyway? They’re the person in charge of developing the plan of drilling in oil and gas fields, they’re also trying to figure out new ways of getting all that valuable stuff out of the ground.
Although oil and gas pay really well, they come with one of the highest mortality rates in the world, so it pays better to be one of the smart people sitting on shore, just watch deepwater horizon and you’ll get what we’re talking about.
Number 10: YouTuber & New-Media Personality
Average salary: Peanuts
Best of the best: Over $5 Million per year
Time to first Million: 2 to 10 years
Well would you look at that?! Yes, new media personalities are cashing in big these days, but it comes with a caveat.
The barrier to entry is almost non. It’s actually free to start so there’s a lot of people trying to get any bit of pie. That’s why it doesn’t even make sense to calculate the average earning of your average youtuber, because they don’t earn almost anything.
The big plays are at the very top. The few people who have the most eyeballs on them get to leverage their platforms for financial gain.
The most profitable channel straight off of advertising is probably
Ryan’s Toy Reviews earning an excess of 20 million dollars per year. A child unboxing toys.
Followed by Dude Perfect: with earnings also in the 20 million range.
The currently most subscribed channel on YouTube, Pewdiepie is bringing in north of 15 million.
But it’s not all just youtube: Ninja and Shroud are crushing the twitch game. Ninja made close to 10 million last year.
Joe Rogan has a massively popular podcast that’s earning him in the millions and the likes of Kylie Jenner and Jeffree Star have leveraged social media to build massive businesses.
Number 11: Professional Athlete
Average salary: $2.5 Million
Average career lifetime: 5 Years
There’s never been a better time in history to be a professional athlete than it is today. The only issue is, you need to perform, consistently, over the longest period of time possible and then figure out a way to not go broke afterwards.
Let’s have a look at the best of the best
In the NBA:
Lebron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant: earn between 30-40 Million per year
In the NFL:
Aaron Rodgers: $67 Million
Aaron Donald:$ 40 Million
Tom Brady: $15 Million
In Soccer -or Football, how everybody else is calling it- :
Messi: $84 Million salary
Cristiano Ronaldo: $61 Million salary
Neymar: $73 Million
Last Sunday we published a very valuable video called: 15 Ways Rich people Go Broke which you can check out below.
In it, we explain how despite earning this much money, 80% of NBA players file for bankruptcy in the first 5 years after retirement. More than half of all professional athletes end up broke.
Number 12: Professional Entertainer: Actors, Music, TV & More
Salary: From $250,000 to Over 10 Million per year
Where do we even begin with this one?!
Well, it pays a lot of money to be a celebrity, a singer, movie star, tv show host or actor and the list goes on.
This time, we’ll just pick some random celebrities and let you know how much money they earn
Ellen: 80 Million per year
Dr Phil: 79 Million per year
Jimmy Kimmel: 15 Million per year
Conan: 12 Million per year
Judge Judy: $47 Million per year
Kim Kardashian: $1 Million per episode
Cast of Game of Thrones, Big Bang Theory or Modern Family: $1 Million per episode
Stranger things kids: $250,000 per episode
Movies:
Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman took home $2 million for Black Panther
Brie Larson – Captain marvel – got paid $5 Million
Scarlet Johanson is about to get paid $15 Million for a Black Widow movie
And the likes of Robert Downey Jr. are earning over $35 million
But it wasn’t always like this. For the first Iron Man, he got paid only 500,000 dollars. Loki from the first avengers got paid only 160,000 dollars and Ant man was paid only 300,000 dollars to start in the first movie and the competition is fierce
As for singers:
Bruno Mars: 100 Million per year
Drake: 40 Million per year
G-Eazy: 2 Million per year
Cash me outside girl:1 Million per year
To be honest, we believe that the entire industry is moving towards new media and content as an industry is getting morphed into something new.
Ok then, let’s talk about rich people:
Number 13: Investment Banker
Average Salary: $200,000
Managing Director: At least $1,000,000 per year
The pay in this sector is not in the raw salary, but in the yearly bonus you get, sometimes larger than the salary itself.
Money and money management is probably the most straightforward way to getting rich.
Investment bankers help companies and governments with their financing needs. It’s more of a systematic approach to financial backings with big numbers on the table.
Just to give you a glimpse into the kind of salaries the best investment bankers earn per year:
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase — $28.2 million per year
James Gorman, Morgan Stanley — $22.5 million per year
Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs — $22.3 million per year
Number 14: Hedge Fund manager
Average salary: $2.4 Million
Best of the best: Over $1 Billion per year
If you thought the investment bankers get paid a lot, you’re in for a treat. Out of every job position on this list, the highest yearly earnings are in the hedge fund business.
A hedge fund is basically rich people coming together and pooling their money. This money gets aggressively invested by a company called a hedge fund with the purpose of getting big returns for the investors.
For example: the biggest hedge fund in the world is Bridgewater Associates with over 130 billion dollars under management.
These type of funds are reserved exclusively for the rich, because normal people don’t have the minimum necessary capital to play ball. When the fund makes you money, they get a percentage of it and a performance fee.
So how much money does a hedge fund manager make per year?
Ray Dalio, the manager for Bridgewater Associates, took home a little over 1 billion dollars last year.
Ken Griffin, manager of Citadel, a 30 billion dollar fund, took home 870 million
While Israel Englander from Millennium management, only paid himself 500 million.
It is at this point that you realize just how much money is out there in the world. These people are earning hundreds of millions every year. If you want to learn more about this fascinating world and how to build this kind of wealth, we recommend you pick up PRINCIPLES by Ray Dalio – the man who pays himself 1 billion per year to keep doing what he’s doing. If you go to Alux.com/freebook and sign up, you can get the audiobook for free thanks to our friends at Audible.
Number 15: Business Owner
Average salary: $75,000 per year
You didn’t expect that did you? Yep, that’s how much you’re gonna earn if you’re the 1 in 10 who’s business manages to survive.
The difference is that, in this case you are in charge of how much you earn, based on the volume of work, your ability to innovate, adapt and sell.
The better you understand the market and your own business, the smarter the choices you can make.
Every business is one step away from massive success as well as one step away from failure, knowing in which direction to take it, that’s the million dollar question.
For business owners, we’re not gonna do a list, you all know how much the likes of Elon or Jeff Bezos are earning.
What we want you to remember is that not everybody can perform at the level of the people we’ve mentioned throughout this piece, but if you’re smart, discipline and pick a smart industry, you might do well for yourself.
If you were to pick a job from this list, which one would you pick and why? We’re really curious to see what you guys think!
FAQs
What job creates the most millionaires? ›
The top five careers for millionaires include engineer, accountant, teacher, management and attorney.
What job is best to become rich? ›- Doctor. Average salary: $189,760. ...
- Surgeon. Average salary: $352,220. ...
- Investment Banker. Average salary: $130,230. ...
- Corporate Executive. Average salary: $173,320. ...
- Petroleum Engineer. Average salary: $147,520. ...
- Psychiatrist. Average salary: $181,880. ...
- Data Scientist. ...
- Research & Development Manager.
- Chief executive officer.
- Property developer.
- Engineer.
- Solicitor.
- Entrepreneur.
- Accountant.
- Insurance broker.
- Estate agent.
The top 1% of earners, then, make almost nine times the median income in the U.S. The people who earn enough to meet this threshold work in a range of industries and include doctors, lawyers, business owners and executives—but this also varies regionally.
How can I be a millionaire in 5 years? ›- Step 1: Create a Wealth-Building Plan. ...
- Step 2: Take Advantage of Employer Contributions. ...
- Step 3: Ask for a Raise. ...
- Step 4: Save a Significant Portion of Your Earnings. ...
- Step 5: Develop Multiple Income Streams. ...
- Step 6: Eliminate Debt.
- Investment banker. There's plenty of confusion about what investment bankers actually do. ...
- Author. ...
- Athlete. ...
- Entrepreneur. ...
- Lawyer. ...
- Real estate developer. ...
- Surgeon. ...
- Inventor.
- Data Scientist.
- Product Manager.
- Cloud Architect.
- Full Stack Developer.
- Big Data Engineer.
- DevOps Engineer.
- Blockchain Developer.
- Mobile Application Developer.
1. Banking and finance. More ultrawealthy people work in banking and finance than any other industry, according to Wealth-X. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is among the 19.8% of wealthy people worth over $5 million who made their money in the financial sector.
How can I make 500k a year? ›- Actor/Actress.
- Physician/Surgeon.
- Chief Executive Officer.
- Author.
- Investment Banker.
- Lawyer.
- Entrepreneur.
- Engineering Manager.
- Stay Away From Debt.
- Invest Early and Consistently.
- Make Savings a Priority.
- Increase Your Income to Reach Your Goal Faster.
- Cut Unnecessary Expenses.
- Keep Your Millionaire Goal Front and Center.
- Work With an Investing Professional.
- Put Your Plan on Repeat.
What is the highest paid job? ›
The highest-paying job in the world, in a traditional sense, holds the number one spot in this article: anesthesiologist. They are also the only job listed above $300,000 a year.
How can I make 300k a year? ›- Radiologist. ...
- Chief executive officer (CEO) ...
- Chief financial officer (CFO) ...
- Principal software architect. ...
- Obstetrics and gynecology physician. ...
- Emergency medicine physician. ...
- Psychiatrist. ...
- Physician.
According to this data, banking and finance professionals were far and away the most likely to become millionaires, and it doesn't seem surprising. After all, not only do jobs in that industry tend to pay well, but people who do them will naturally have an advantage in terms of knowledge and understanding.
How do people get rich in 2022? ›- Invest in yourself. Investing in yourself is your first step on how to get rich. ...
- Avoid debt. ...
- Eliminate living expenses. ...
- Develop property. ...
- Save money for retirement. ...
- Start your own business. ...
- Start a side hustle. ...
- Build a portfolio of stocks and shares.
By age 25, you should have saved at least 0.5X your annual expenses. The more the better. In other words, if you spend $50,000 a year, you should have about $25,000 in savings. If you spend $100,000 a year, you should have at least $50,000 in savings.
Who is the youngest billionaire? ›As a kid, Alexandr Wang was a math whiz who liked participating in national math and coding competitions. At 25, he is the world's youngest self-made billionaire and his company uses artificial intelligence to analyse how much damage Russian bombs are causing in Ukraine.
How do most millionaires make their money? ›For more than 200 years, investing in real estate has been the most popular investment for millionaires to keep their money. During all these years, real estate investments have been the primary way millionaires have had of making and keeping their wealth.
How many hours rich people work? ›The typical millionaire works around 60 hours each week, which equates to a ten-hour, six-day workday. Bear in mind that a 10-hour, six-day workweek is the very minimum for a self-made billionaire. According to several prominent billionaires, aspiring entrepreneurs should work 70- to 80-hour workweeks.
What did most billionaires study? ›Many of the world's billionaires get both a bachelor's and MBA before achieving their success. The common major is engineering or business administration. Becoming a billionaire takes hard work and dedication.
Is 1m a year good? ›Have you ever wondered who makes a million dollars a year? Making a million dollars a year or more puts you in the top 0.1% of income earners in the world. A top 1% income is over $500,000 today in America. With such an income, you should eventually have at least a top 1% net worth of over $11 million per person.
How can I make 1000 a day? ›
- Deliver food with DoorDash.
- Dog sit and dog walk with Rover.
- Do projects on HomeAdvisor.
- Resell on eBay.
- Sell your own products on Etsy.
- Start freelance writing for blogs.
- Create an online course.
- Build a podcast following.
Making the top 1%, or $380,000 in income per year, is easier than being one of the 236,883 people earning $1,000,000 or more a year. However, 236,883 is still a lot of people, earning a lot of money.
How can I get rich in 10 years? ›- Have Multiple Income Streams. ...
- Save as Much as You Possibly Can. ...
- Make Savings Automatic. ...
- Keep Debt to a Minimum. ...
- Don't Fall Victim to 'Shiny Ball Syndrome' ...
- Keep Cash in Interest-Bearing Accounts. ...
- Invest Your Raises.
1. Military. All military roles have their difficulties, but challenging roles such as a marine and mercenary are among the hardest in the world. These positions require soldiers to put their lives at risk on a daily basis.
What is the hardest work? ›Nurses were deemed to have the hardest job in the country, followed by doctors, paramedics – and police officers. Other jobs people in Britain believe are harder than any others include farmers, prison wardens and social workers.
What is the best job for a lazy person? ›- Survey Taker. There are tons of online sites looking to hire people to take surveys for money. ...
- Online Shopper. ...
- Line Stand-In. ...
- Rideshare Driver. ...
- Librarian. ...
- Food Taster. ...
- Professional Cuddler. ...
- Hotel Sleep Tester.
The Million Dollar A Year Dream
The easiest way to make $1 million a year or more is as a public company non-founding CEO or senior executive. The compensation is outrageously high for what they do. CEOs have huge teams who do most of the work for them. A CEO is really just an ambassador of the firm.
- Investment banker. There's plenty of confusion about what investment bankers actually do. ...
- Author. ...
- Athlete. ...
- Entrepreneur. ...
- Lawyer. ...
- Real estate developer. ...
- Surgeon. ...
- Inventor.
For more than 200 years, investing in real estate has been the most popular investment for millionaires to keep their money. During all these years, real estate investments have been the primary way millionaires have had of making and keeping their wealth.
What jobs make rich and famous? ›- Data Scientist.
- Product Manager.
- Cloud Architect.
- Full Stack Developer.
- Big Data Engineer.
- DevOps Engineer.
- Blockchain Developer.
- Mobile Application Developer.
What is the most paid job? ›
The highest-paying job in the world, in a traditional sense, holds the number one spot in this article: anesthesiologist. They are also the only job listed above $300,000 a year. The list, however, does not take into account mega-CEOs like Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos, who make considerably more than that.
How can I make 500k a year? ›- Actor/Actress.
- Physician/Surgeon.
- Chief Executive Officer.
- Author.
- Investment Banker.
- Lawyer.
- Entrepreneur.
- Engineering Manager.
- Start Saving Early. The easiest way to build your savings is to start early. ...
- Avoid Unnecessary Spending and Debt. Stop buying things you don't need. ...
- Save 15% of Your Income—or More. ...
- Make More Money. ...
- Don't Give in to Lifestyle Inflation. ...
- Get Help if You Need It.
...
The remaining 23.5% of billionaires made their fortunes in other industries not listed below.
- Banking and finance.
- Industrial conglomerates. ...
- Real estate. ...
- Food and beverages. ...
- Healthcare. ...
- Manufacturing. ...
- Technology. ...
Some of the ways you can increase your earnings if you want to discover how to become rich from a poor background include; starting a side hustle, creating a product, getting multiple jobs, starting a business, and investing in real estate, businesses, or stocks.
How can I become a millionaire fast? ›- Stay Away From Debt.
- Invest Early and Consistently.
- Make Savings a Priority.
- Increase Your Income to Reach Your Goal Faster.
- Cut Unnecessary Expenses.
- Keep Your Millionaire Goal Front and Center.
- Work With an Investing Professional.
- Put Your Plan on Repeat.
1. Military. All military roles have their difficulties, but challenging roles such as a marine and mercenary are among the hardest in the world. These positions require soldiers to put their lives at risk on a daily basis.
What is the hardest work? ›Nurses were deemed to have the hardest job in the country, followed by doctors, paramedics – and police officers. Other jobs people in Britain believe are harder than any others include farmers, prison wardens and social workers.
What is the best job for a lazy person? ›- Survey Taker. There are tons of online sites looking to hire people to take surveys for money. ...
- Online Shopper. ...
- Line Stand-In. ...
- Rideshare Driver. ...
- Librarian. ...
- Food Taster. ...
- Professional Cuddler. ...
- Hotel Sleep Tester.