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I TUTOR MY 10-year-old niece once a week in math and science. After the study sessions, we often talk about other things—mostly kid stuff. Recently, her treasured piggybank got a nice boost on her birthday and we discussed what she might do with the money.
That’s when my niece asked, “How much money will I need when I grow up?” I guess she was trying to figure out if she did indeed have to study hard and get a job—or whether her current savings would be enough. I laughed and told her that she would definitely need to work, just like the rest of us, because she’d need much more money than her piggybank held.
Still, in retrospect, I think her seemingly innocent question can be a good starting point for introducing teenagers and young adults to the topics of money and careers. As children grow, they generally develop a sense for why money is important—but there’s no easy way for them to gauge how much they need.
A ballpark estimate can give them perspective and help them to double-check whether a career path will meet their financial needs. It can also force them to learn more about basics of smart money decisions. When I started my career, I knew I needed to work hard, earn a decent wage, avoid overspending and save regularly. But beyond those abstract notions, there was no concrete, holistic target in my mind. A rough roadmap—even one with a large margin of error—would’ve helped me to plan and organize my financial life better.
It isn’t too hard to come up with a ballpark estimate. Let’s ignore inflation and instead think about everything in today’s dollars. Let’s also assume a hypothetical couple who start a household at age 30, work for 30 years, raise two kids, retire at 60 and then live another 30 years. Their cumulative lifetime expenses might include the following major items:
Once the lifetime lump sum is determined, it’s easy to calculate the required average household annual income: You just divide the lump sum by the number of working years. This annual income represents income after federal and state income taxes, plus payroll taxes during the couple’s working years. You might increase the after-tax sum by 25% to arrive at the required pretax annual household income.
Using the above methodology and the national median household numbers cited above, the lifetime lump sum comes to about $4.25 million in today’s dollar. Over a 30-year working life, that amounts to roughly $70,000 per year per spouse or partner. What are the lessons from this exercise that you might discuss with your kids?
A software engineer by profession, Sanjib Saha is transitioning to early retirement. Self-taught in investment and financial planning, he’s passionate about raising financial literacy and enjoys helping others with their finances. Earlier this year, he passed the Series 65 licensing exam as a non-industry candidate.
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Thank you Sanjib. This is insightful and useful, as are Rquinn’s comments. Both of you, please keep writing and commenting.
Dave
Thank you David for your kind and encouraging words.
A good article, thanks.
I do think, however, that a college education, while a good thing to have, is not all that generally better than doing an apprenticeship in the trades and working as a journeyman and/or master.
Plumbers, electricians, stonemasons all work a lot and make very good money around here (northern California), and we will *ALWAYS* need power and plumbing. My friends in the trades, those who have their act together, easily make $75K a year, often much more, and did not have to worry about paying off ridiculous loans.
Not to denigrate a college education, but I do think that your statement “At least a bachelor’s degree is almost essential to affording the lifetime expenses we’re discussing.” is not an assumption that I would make when counseling a youngster.
Regards, and thank you
Thanks Daniel.
I agree that there are several other career paths without requiring bachelors. I think it can be a good conversation topic while counseling a youngster. At the same time, the data (https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2018/data-on-display/education-pays.htm) does suggest that across different levels of education, bachelor’s seem to be a reasonable sweet-spot in terms of both wage and unemployment. The median wage for bachelor is 40% higher than that of associate degree. The median unemployment rate is 25% less than that of associate. I understand that many without a bachelor are doing quite well, perhaps better than bachelor-degree holders. Given that the median wage numbers in that education-level category are still lower, they are probably not the representative group within that category.
You also bring up the topic of “ridiculous (student) loans” – something that bothers me a lot. I personally was fortunate enough to get a bachelor’s degree myself without having to break my back (or my parents’). Cost of getting a bachelor’s degree, especially out-of-state or private college, can definitely be a serious constraint to factor in as it can unfortunately be a deal-breaker for some. That’s probably a topic for another day :).
I think that a valid comparison would not be between bachelor’s and non, but between bachelor’s and trade school/apprenticeship.