4. RESEARCHER AT THE US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION

Related Articles Minding your $ and ¢ 1. FIRST-YEAR POSTDOC AT A LARGE UNIVERSITY 2. MID-LEVEL RESEARCHER AT A SMALL BIOTECH 3. DIRECTOR OF TOXICOLOGY AT A LARGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY Economic Status: This 43-year-old man has worked at the FDA for 15 years. He makes $82,000 a year, has saved $130,000 in a government retirement plan and has more than $3,000 in checking and savings accounts. His wife is a stay-at-home mother to their two children - ages seven and three.

Written byBob Grant

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Economic Status: This 43-year-old man has worked at the FDA for 15 years. He makes $82,000 a year, has saved $130,000 in a government retirement plan and has more than $3,000 in checking and savings accounts. His wife is a stay-at-home mother to their two children - ages seven and three.

Financial Considerations: Planning for retirement, saving for college education, and paying all of the bills, as the sole breadwinner.

Goals: Focus on retirement first, says Linda Stratton of Stratton Advisors in Arizona. There are student loans and other assistance plans to help students with college tuition, she says, but "there's no program to help you pay for retirement." He can retire with more than one million dollars in 20 years, says Stratton by maximizing contributions to his Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the federal employee's 401(k). Put about $4,000 a year into low-cost Roth IRA as part of his retirement ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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