Dear Millionaire Teacher,
Millionaire teacher sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Teachers are broke. Everybody knows it.
Growing up, I remember hearing a family friend say, "I'm so broke if they were selling battleships for a quarter, all I could do is run up and down the beach yelling, 'Man, that's cheap.'"
Lord, I still laugh when I think about that quip.
Battleship broke is a special kind of broke.
I don't know much about battleships, and I'm not a financial wizard. But my husband was selected to be a contestant on, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" He became a five thousandaire instead. In the end, we were happy with a free trip to Vegas, an experience for the ages, and a very generous five grand for answering six measly questions correctly.
Competing to win a million dollars on national television was surreal to say the least.
It may sound disingenuous, but as the day of taping inched closer, we realized we didn't actually want to win a million dollars, especially on national television. Ask any former lottery winner who has squandered his winnings, "earning" a million dollars is much better than "winning" a million dollars.
Recently, I started reading a book called, Everyday Millionaire. It is a fascinating read I highly recommend. Essentially, the book is a study of over 10,000 millionaires. The top three professions for millionaires surprised me.
My final answer was professional athlete, lawyer, and doctor.
That answer was incorrect. I should have used a life line.
The correct answer was engineer, accountant, and teacher. Yes, you read that correctly. The broke teacher wins the race.
According to Chris Hogan, the author, "That last one blows my mind."
Yeah, mine too, Mr. Hogan. Have you seen our W-2's? A splurge for teachers is an oil change and an Almond Joy at a gas station.
He goes on to say, "Teaching is one of the most common professions among America's millionaires. Clearly, teachers not only know how to work hard, they also know how to plan ahead with a long-term view."
Yes, yes, we do. We do it every single day.
The mind boggling fact that people who share my profession are bonafide millionaires causes me to pause and reflect.
I started analyzing the character traits of people in these three professions. It dawned on me that all three know how to build battleships. An engineer knows how to design a battleship, an accountant knows how to finance one, and a teacher knows how to get everyone on board in a single file line.
In a way, teachers are also an amalgamation of the other two professions. Like accountants, teachers are constantly counting the cost and investing now for a big pay off later, and like engineers, they are daily mapping out a plan and working to turn that plan into a reality. From classroom culture to model lessons, teachers are visionaries who have an idea of what can be, even when nobody else can see it.
As a general rule, they are also fairly content people who find joy in the actual work they do apart from monetary gain or lack thereof. They've also learned to live below their means.They have no choice, and in doing so, they begin to see they really like what they have and don't crave much more. They're among the rare breed of people who understand there is a distinct difference between being rich and being wealthy. They realize wealth is a state of being and fully grasp that striving to be rich can actually make a person very poor.
I'm grateful for the wealth teaching has brought me and so many of my friends. Aren't you?
-CDB