How Much These 4 Money Experts Made in Their First Jobs and What They Learned
Written by
Karen Doyle
Edited by
Susan Kim
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It seems as though the money experts you see and hear from online must have always been rich. But many of them pulled themselves up by their bootstraps — starting out in entry level jobs that had nothing to do with where they ended up. Yet they all took lessons away from these early jobs.
Here are five money experts who began working for little money and learned big lessons.
Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger, late vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was as successful an investor as his better-known colleague, Warren Buffett. In his teens, Munger worked at the Buffett & Son grocery store, owned by Earnest P. Buffett, Warren’s grandfather. He was reportedly paid $2 for working a 12-hour day.
One might assume Munger learned the value of connections at this first job, but he didn’t meet Warren while working at the store. Their first meeting would come years later, and they formed a partnership that lasted over 60 years.
Little has been reported about Munger’s experiences at that first job, but he did say, “People are less happy about the state of affairs than they were when things were way tougher,” referencing the Great Depression. Presumably, Munger learned young the value appreciating and building on what he had to work with.
Dave Ramsey
When Dave Ramsey was 12 years old, he asked his father for some money to buy an ICEE frozen drink. His dad told him that he didn’t need money, he needed a job. So, Dave began mowing lawns in his neighborhood. It’s unclear how much he charged his customers, but the going rate for lawnmowing in 1972 was probably only a few dollars per lawn.
Ramsey parlayed this work ethic into a million-dollar real estate business by the time he was 26 but lost it all, because he was overleveraged. He declared bankruptcy and decided to advise others on how to avoid a similar fate.
Suze Orman
Suze Orman’s first job after leaving college — she hadn’t graduated — was as a tree clearer for $3.50 an hour. She was on a cross country road trip with a friend, and they needed some money, so she approached the boss of a tree service that was clearing trees in the California hills. They were hired on the spot and worked clearing trees for the next two months.
After that, Orman took a job as a waitress for $400 a month and finished up the one class she had remaining to get her college degree. She waitressed for seven years, and then decided to open a restaurant.
Losing the money she had raised to open her own restaurant — when her broker invested it in options instead of the money market account she had requested — was what inspired her to learn about investing. It was this lesson that set her on the path to a very successful career as a financial expert.
Robert Kiyosaki
Robert Kiyosaki is the author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and a financial educator, podcaster and public speaker.
Kiyosaki’s first job was as a third mate on an oil tanker. He earned $42,000 for seven months’ work per year. But after less than a year, he quit and joined the Marine Corps to learn to be a pilot. Kiyosaki’s philosophy is to “work to learn, then to earn,” and he recommends continuous learning in order to become an expert in your craft.
All of these people became money experts despite — or maybe because of — their humble beginnings. Maybe their experiences and their advice can help you, too.
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