My First $1 Million: Retired Educator/Administrator, 67, Greenville, S.C.

Welcome to Kiplinger's My First $1 Million series, in which we hear from people who have made $1 million. They're sharing how they did it and what they're doing with it. This time, we hear from a 67-year-old retired public school educator/administrator in Greenville, South Carolina, who's been married for 47 years.

See our earlier profiles, including a writer in New England, a literacy interventionist in Colorado, a semiretired entrepreneur in Nashville and an events industry CEO in Northern New Jersey. (See all of the profiles here.)

Each profile features one person or couple, who will always be completely anonymous to readers, answering questions to help our readers learn from their experience.

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These features are intended to provide a window into how different people build their savings — they're not intended to provide financial advice.

THE BASICS

How did you make your first $1 million?

My wife and I made our first million in three ways:

First, by using a faith-based approach to our earnings by always giving at least 10% of our gross salary to our local church and faith-based charities.

Second, by continuing my education, eventually earning a PhD so I could advance my teaching career into school administration.

And third, by adding more money into our retirement funds as I advanced my career, which also increased my annual earnings.

This was a 37-year journey.

What are you doing with the money?

We have been using our retirement savings to supplement our retirement pension and Social Security. We have been withdrawing about 5% per year from our retirement funds since retiring.

Thus far, we have been able to increase our level of giving while maintaining the principal balances of our retirement funds.

Also, we have been able to travel some and eventually move to South Carolina (from Indiana) to be closer to our children and grandchildren.

What was your salary range throughout your career?

$19,000 to $160,000

THE FUN STUFF

Did you do anything to celebrate?

Yes, we retired so we could spend more time with our family.

What is the best part of making $1 million?

I think it's having some financial cushion to supplement our pension and Social Security.

Also, my wife and I are trying to help our grandchildren by each month putting money into their 529 college savings plans. We want them to have the money they need to go to college should they choose to do so.

Did your life change?

It allowed us to retire earlier than we had planned, thus giving us more time to be with our children and grandchildren.

Did you retire early?

I retired at 62, which was about three years earlier than I was planning to do so.

LOOKING BACK

Anything you would do differently?

There are always things I could do differently, I suppose. However, the journey my wife and I have taken is, I think, a road less traveled.

Often, we hear about people who did everything right, saved money their whole lives and eventually achieved their financial goals.

We used a little different approach, first by trusting God to help us, as we were faithfully giving back at least 10% of our income, and second, by gradually improving our earnings as God blessed us with educational opportunities and career advancement.

What would you tell your younger self about making $1 million?

When I was younger, I thought the more money I had, the better life would be. Now that I am on the other side of that journey to some degree, I would say to my younger self to stay content, enjoy the journey and always remember that the most important things in life aren't things.

Did you work with a financial adviser?

Yes, I worked with school district-contracted advisers who helped teachers and administrators.

Each school district had different advisers, so there was not just one person helping me, but several over the course of my career in education.

Did anyone help you early on?

Yes, I had a wonderful chief financial officer who made a big difference in my life. It's unfortunate I didn't get to know him until the last 14 years of my career.

He took great interest in me and my family and helped us accelerate our financial planning.

LOOKING AHEAD

Plans for your next $1 million?

I am in the process of looking at turning some of my hobbies into side gigs.

So if I am successful and these gigs generate additional income, then we plan to give more to help others, increase our giving to our grandchildren's 529 plans and possibly travel more.

Any advice for others trying to make their first $1 million?

First, I would advise to trust God for all of your needs. That isn't to say one shouldn't work hard.

However, as we made a faith-based decision to put God first, and when we continued trying to do our best in all situations, He truly blessed our efforts.

Second, stay true to yourself. Others may try to sway you to run a different course. Changing course is fine so long as there is clear evidence that by changing course it will be better for your family and you.

Third, stay disciplined throughout the journey. There may be some lean times and some difficult times. Successful people stay the course and do not give up when things get tough.

Do you have an estate plan?

Yes, we developed an estate plan with our attorney. Our attorney created a plan that uses powers of attorney to help protect our family assets.

What do you wish you'd known …

Before you retired? Where my family would be moving to four years after we retired so we didn't have to go through the selling-and-buying process in this current economy.

When you first started saving? How much more we might have had by starting to save earlier.

When you first started investing? How much Apple would be worth today.

When you first started working with a financial professional? How easy it is to find a reputable financial professional who can help you along life's journey.

What's the chief difference for you between working and retirement? I think the American working culture is to produce results. So, when I was working in the field of education, I constantly strived for productivity. The better my productivity, the more satisfied I became.

Now that I am retired, I don't have a productive type of life. I have learned that in retirement, in order to be content, I don't need to be productive. I need to focus on being present with those around me.

Therein lies my level of happiness and contentment in retirement.

If you have made $1 million or more and would like to be anonymously featured in a future My First $1 Million profile, please fill out and submit this Google Form or send an email to MyFirstMillion@futurenet.com to receive the questions. We welcome all stories that add up to $1 million or more in your accounts, although we will use discretion in which stories we choose to publish, to ensure we share a diversity of experiences. We also might want to verify that you really do have $1 million. Your answers may be edited for clarity.

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