The Best Million Dollars A Year Jobs

When I started my professional career over 20 years ago, hitting the 6-figure income per year level was a goal of many.

People would say to themselves “I’ve made it if I can get a job that pays over $100,000 annually”.

While that is still the goal for some, the 6-figure mark isn’t what it used to be.

The median household income in America is $70,784 and is already inching its way to the 6-figure mark.

Now, the million-dollar-a-year club is where you want to be.

Obviously, not all jobs provide the same potential of crossing into the double comma club.

Some jobs\careers provide the best chance at hitting the 7-figure mark.

This post provides you with the list of the best million dollar jobs and the different paths you can take to land a million dollar job yourself.

How Much Is A Million Dollars Compared To The Rest Of The United States

The United States Census Bureau provides household income information on an annual basis.

The latest household income is for the year 2021. These numbers are amounts earned by the entire household and not income earned by an individual.

2021 household income at selected percentiles in the U.S.:

10%: $15,660

20%: $28,007

30%: $40,524

40% $55,000

50%: $70,784 <- median

60%: $89,744

70%: $113,210

80%: $149,131

90%: $211,956

95%: $286,304

99%*: $597,815

*Data for 99% is not from the U.S. Census which did not provide the 99% info. This number is from a Forbes article.

The median U.S. household income in 2021 is $70,784.

That means half the American household made more than $70,784 in 2021 and half the American household made less.

$1,000,000 is significantly above the median income in the United States to the tune of 14 times.

The top 1% of household income is $597,815.

A $1 million income is 67% higher than the income threshold needed to reach the top 1% in the U.S. 

In fact, a $1 million income per year will put you in the top 1% of all earners in every state.

SmartAsset conducted a 2022 study to determine what it takes to be in the 1% income by state.

The below five states are where the 1% income threshold is the highest:

Connecticut

• Top 1% income threshold: $896,490
• Top 5% income threshold: $311,589

Massachusetts

• Top 1% income threshold: $810,256
• Top 5% income threshold: $314,389

New York

• Top 1% income threshold: $777,126
• Top 5% income threshold: $265,530

New Jersey

• Top 1% income threshold: $760,462
• Top 5% income threshold: $308,976

California

• Top 1% income threshold: $745,314
• Top 5% income threshold: $291,277

$1 million is over 10% higher than the income needed to be in the top 1% in Connecticut.

How To Find Million Dollar Jobs

I see 4 paths to earning 7 figures a year.

Path 1: Be an expert in a lucrative field.

Big law partners, managing directors in investment banking, neurosurgeons, and an NBA player all took this path to making millions per year.

This is the path for corporate climbers. Who says you can’t make good money working for someone else?

Typically, the path starts with choosing a high-paying profession to go into such as law, finance, or medicine.

Then, you need to pursue a relevant education such as attending law school, medical school, or obtaining a degree in finance.

Next, gaining industry-specific skills is necessary to be able to move up.

Look to obtain a college internship at industry leaders. Join a firm that specialized in your field after college.   

Continue to earn promotions and advance in your career. Once you make partner, managing director, or head of a department, watch the money roll in.

Aim to be an executive or leader and your pay will explode.

Path 2: Utilize exceptional sales skills to sell high-cost products.

Enterprise sales, real estate broker, and head of fundraising at an asset management firm are all professions that require an exceptional level of sales skills.

To be a top salesperson, you need to know the product or services that you are selling. In addition to that, you should also understand your market.

Patience and resilience are both important qualities in a salesperson. You will hear more no than yes. Therefore, learning from failure and having the fortitude to continue to sell is important.

Communication is key to being a top salesperson. The form of communication can vary, from electronic communication to one-on-one to a presentation. Regardless of which form, you need to bring your A-game when dealing with a prospect.

Lastly, negotiation is also important and is a delicate balance. You want to extract the highest price from your customer without damaging the relationship with the customer.

Once you master the art of selling high-priced products or services, making 7-figure should be a piece of cake.

Path 3: Become a successful business owner. 

This is the path where leverage comes into play.

A business allows the owner to leverage human capital resources, finances, and production scale.

Employees provide the labor and time.

Banks and lenders provide financing for capital expenditures, growth initiatives, and acquisitions.

Machinery and technology can provide production scale.

The owner reaps all the benefits of such leverage. That is how a successful business owner can earn millions a year.

Path 4: Produce high-quality content.

Successful bloggers, YouTubers, Grammar award-winning singers, and Oscar winners are examples of people who took this path in earning over one million per year.

Connection with an audience is key here.

You want to make sure the content, rather it is a song or a YouTube video, appeals to a large enough audience that you can make good money from the content.

Forbes listed the highest-paid YouTube stars in 2022. Unsurprising, all those YouTube stars have subscribers in the tens of millions.

Even the 10^th-highest YouTube star earned $16 million over the past year.

The Highest Paying Jobs In America

Now that you know the 4 paths to making $1 million per year, let’s look at those jobs that are the highest earning in America.

Want to make good money? Being a doctor is the way to go.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published the highest-paying occupations.

The medical profession occupies 19 out of the top 20 spots. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers was the sole occupation that cracked the top 20 without being in the medical profession.

Ophthalmologists (except pediatric), physicians (all others), radiologists, psychiatrists, and physicians (pathologists) are listed as the top 5 earning occupations with a 2021 median pay greater than $208,000 per year.

Coming in at #20 on the list is nurse anesthetists with a $195,610 per year 2021 median pay.

Indeed.com listed their top 100 highest paying jobs. Once again, the medical profession owns the top spots on the list. The top 20 jobs are listed below:

1. Cardiologist

National average salary: $351,827 per year

2. Anesthesiologist

National average salary: $326,296 per year

3. Orthodontist

National average salary: $264,850 per year

4. Psychiatrist

National average salary: $224,577 per year

5. Surgeon

National average salary: $216,248 per year

6. Periodontist

National average salary: $214,896 per year

7. Physician

National average salary: $202,387 per year

8. Dentist

National average salary: $196,417 per year

9. Internal medicine physician

National average salary: $194,938 per year

10. Obstetrician

National average salary: $191,931 per year

11. Nurse anesthetist

National average salary: $185,856 per year

12. Pediatrician

National average salary: $180,202 per year

13. General practitioner

National average salary: $170,283 per year

14. Enterprise architecture manager

National average salary: $168,762 per year

15. Quantitative analyst

National average salary: $153,539 per year

16. Vice president

National average salary: $151,358 per year

17. Director of information security

National average salary: $149,204 per year

18. Enterprise architect

National average salary: $142,355 per year

19. Software architect

National average salary: $139,127 per year

20. Software engineering manager

National average salary: $138,933 per year

List Of Jobs Which Can Pay One Million Or More Per Year

Unsurprisingly, doctors top the highest paying occupations.

When you need to spend 4 years in undergraduate studies, 4 years in medical school, and at least 3 years in residency, you better make good money after.

As a doctor, you probably don’t start making good money until you are in your early to mid-30s. Net worth building can occur in your late 30s to 40s.

After all, paying back student loans for those years of education coupled with a growing family can put a damper on savings, even with a high income.

To speed up reaching the $1,000,000 a year mark, look to other high-paying occupations that can pay $1 million or more per year.

Law

Lawyers make good money. It also takes a lot of education to become a lawyer.

4 years of undergraduate studies coupled with 3 years of law school.

Unlike being a doctor with years spent doing a residency, an attorney can earn good money immediately after law school.

A first year at a big law firm can make $215,000 in salary with an annual bonus of $20,000 for a total compensation of $235,000. A 7^th-year big law attorney can make a total of over half a million dollars.

Being a law partner is where the money is at.

According to a report released by Major, Lindsey & Africa, the average annual pay for U.S. law firm partners reached $1.12 million in 2021.

A corporate partner is even more lucrative. The average total compensation for a corporate partner is $1.49 million.  

The highest paid General Counsels make millions per year.

According to the General Counsel Compensation Survey, the top 100 highest-paid General Counsels, based on total cash compensation, earned $2.42 million on average.

Finance

For an accelerated path to making millions, try the finance route.

Investment banking and asset management (private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital) are great sectors to be in to hit 7 figures in earnings.   

Investment Banking

A decent-performing Managing Director in investment banking should earn over $1 million per year, with an average between the $1 million to $3 million range.

Even a successful vice president in investment banking can hit the 7-figure mark by the late 20s.

Private Equity

Big money is made in private equity.

Heidrick & Struggles published their 2022 North American Private Equity Investment Professional Compensation Survey.

Over 25% of the partners and managing directors in private equity funds with over $1 billion in assets under management (“AUM”) make over $1 million a year in total cash compensation.

In private equity funds with $40 billion or more, even principals make over $1 million in total cash compensation.

Those numbers are for cash compensation and do not include allocated carry interest which further juices the total compensation. Carry is a share of the profit the professional receives for a successful investment.

Hedge Fund

The hedge fund route is another way to make millions per year.

In fact, the top hedge fund managers make billions per year.

The 25 highest earning hedge fund managers earned a combined $26.64 billion in 2021 according to Institutional Investor.

You need to make $260 million just to make the list of the top 25, with eight managers making at least $1 billion. The median earner in the top 25 comes in at $800 million per year.

The top 10 earning hedge fund managers in 2021 are:

#1 James Simons, Renaissance Technologies at $3.4 billion

#2 Israel (Izzy) Englander, Millennium Management at $3.1 billion

#3 Kenneth Griffin, Citadel at $2.5 billion

#4 Christopher Hohn, TCI Fund Management at $2.2 billion

#5 Karthik Sarma, SRS Investment Management at $2 billion

#6 David Tepper, Appaloosa Management at $1.6 billion

#7 Steve Cohen, Point72 Asset Management at $1.4 billion

#8 Daniel Sundheim, D1 Capital Partners at $1 billion

#9 Daniel Loeb, Third Point at $920 million

#10 Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates at $900 million

Don’t forget, those numbers are their earnings in 2021, one year only.

Forget about earning $1 million a year, even $1 billion a year is possible as a hedge fund manager.

Venture Capital

Being in venture capital has been lucrative the past few years given how well the equity markets have performed before 2022.

In the past few years before 2022, debt was cheap which provided fuel to grow early-stage companies. Some of those early-stage companies have taken off.

Consequently, venture capital investment professional compensation has gone up as well.

As a general partner or managing director in a venture capital firm, you can expect to earn over $1 million per year. The carry (share of the profit) received for a successful exit can be multiples of $1 million.

Even a junior partner can expect to earn over $1 million per year upon a successful exit on a deal the junior partner worked on.

Consulting

According to Salary.com, the average consulting firm partner makes $299,465 in the United States.

But if you can make partner at one of the top consulting firms, you can expect your pay to be multiples of that average.

Working for a big consulting firm not only brings big bucks, but also prestige and interesting work.

McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company (“MBB”) are the 3 most prestigious consulting firms in the industry.

While MBB’s salaries are guarded, it is estimated that partners’ compensation can range from $500,000 to $5 million+ per year.

An MBB junior partner can make between $350k – $500k base, with another $150k – $500k in bonus for a total compensation between $500k to $1 million.

An MBB senior partner can make between $500k – $650k base, with another $550k to $4.5 million+ in bonus for a total compensation over $1 million up to $5 million+.

No College Degree Needed For These Jobs That Can Produce Millionaires

Making a million dollars per year isn’t restricted only to the educated.

What if you are not someone who likes school? Does it mean you have no shot at making 7 figures a year? Of course, it is possible.

After all, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are two of the wealthiest people on Earth and they both don’t have a college degree.

In fact, nearly a third of the world’s billionaires didn’t graduate from college.

There are jobs out there that do not require a college degree and can provide an avenue for you to make $1 million per year or more. Obviously, having a college degree doesn’t hurt but that level of education is not required.

Below is a list of jobs that can earn you $1 million a year without the need for a college degree:

·       Influencer, Youtuber, and blogger

·       Fashion designer

·       Web developer

·       Professional athlete

·       Screenwriter

·       Actor

·       Entrepreneur

·       Insurance agent

·       Real estate agent

·       Day trader

·       Franchise owner

·       Enterprise sales representative

·       Software developer

Jobs That Can Produce Millionaires Over Time

To state the obvious, not all jobs pay $1 million per year.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t be a millionaire over time with a high paying job.

Some of the jobs that can make you a millionaire over time are listed below courtesy of Monster.com.

Those jobs take between 10 to 12 years for the person to make $1 million in cumulative gross earnings.

The “years to $1 million” information below is the median number of years that job takes to hit $1 million in gross career earnings based on the sum of earnings for each year of experience from entry level upward.

For instance, it takes an actuary an average of 10 years of work from the start to make $1 million in total gross earnings. 

Actuary

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $131,000 
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s 
• Years to $1 million: 10

Airline pilot, copilot, or flight engineer

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $127,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 12

Clinical trial manager

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $112,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 11

Compensation manager

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $102,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 11

Data scientist

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $112,000
• Typical degree level: Master’s
• Years to $1 million: 11

Network architect

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $116,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 12

Petroleum geologist

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $146,000
• Typical degree level: Master’s
• Years to $1 million: 10

Reservoir engineer

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $137,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 10

Wholesaler, financial services

• Median pay with 15 years of experience: $144,000
• Typical degree level: Bachelor’s
• Years to $1 million: 10

What Does A Million Dollar A Year Lifestyle Look Like?

Getting to 7 figures a year is a huge achievement in anyone’s financial freedom journey.

Of course, you can achieve financial freedom without ever hitting the 7 figure a year mark.

$1 million per year places you in the top 1% of all earners regardless of which state you live in.

However, it might not go as far as you imagine in certain areas of the country.

It is very expensive to maintain a high-end lifestyle in the U.S. coastal cities.

Take where I live for instance. I believe New York City is the greatest city in the world, and Manhattan is the crown jewel of the city.

But it is very expensive to live here.

Based on my calculation, it takes $502,000 to live an upper middle class lifestyle in Manhattan and $1,218,000 to live an upper class lifestyle in Manhattan. 

These two amounts are the cash amounts needed on an annual basis. The gross income amount runs double these two amounts.

To have an upper middle class lifestyle for a family of 4, the household pre-tax income needs to be at least $912,000, assuming a 45% income tax rate. 

A household pre-tax income of $2,200,000 is needed for an upper class lifestyle. 

Conclusion

There are several paths to earning $1 million per year.

The traditional high paying jobs in finance, consulting, law, and medicine still top the list of professions that can make $1 million per year.

However, there are plenty of jobs where $1 million per year is achievable – even without a college degree.

Don’t get discouraged if you are not making $1 million a year. Less than 1% of all earners achieve that threshold.

You can still be a millionaire over time without ever having hit the 7 figure a year mark.

To The Audience: Do you have a goal of hitting $1 million per year? If yes, how do you plan to get there? Have you made 7 figures a year before? If yes, how did you achieve it? Do you believe making $1 million is a lot of money?  

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Here’s What You Need To Be Upper Middle Class And Upper Class In NYC – It’s A Lot

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SoM @ SportofMoney.com

Many people work hard to better their physical and mental health. What about their financial health?

I started this blog back in 2019 to help people better their financial health as well.

My financial journey began with tens of thousands in student loan debt. Over the span of 20 years, I am close to achieving financial independence.

I truly believe anyone can get to strong financial health. Hopefully, this blog can help you on your financial journey to greater wealth and financial independence.

You can read more about me here.

Thank you for visiting. Come again soon!