Federal government employees don’t take those jobs exclusively for the money. For one reason, the salaries aren’t great, and it’s much easier to build wealth working on the open market or becoming an entrepreneur.

However, there is a path to becoming a millionaire working for the federal government, and one person has navigated it quite well over the past 30+ years to build a net worth estimated to be around $5 million, and it might just shock you who it is.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has become a household name, as recognizable as a rock star and in some circles more popular. Prior to March of 2020 though, when he was thrown into the public spotlight because of the coronavirus pandemic he was essentially unknown.  Most people had never heard of him, or had any clue a position like the one he holds even existed.

Even though the 80-year old Dr. Fauci has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, the Cornell graduate was unknown, minding his own business far away from the glare of the TV lights and cameras that he’s spent so much time in front of in the past 11 months.

Of the many surprising facts about Fauci that has come out in the past year is that he’s the highest paid federal government employee, setting at the top of the heap, with an annual salary of $417,608. His salary in 2019 was $384,000.  Throughout the 1990’s he was pulling in around $200K each year.

To contrast that, President Joe Biden will make $400,000 this year. Vice President Kamala Harris will pull in about $250,000, which is a bit of a bump over her salary of $174,000 as a Senator.

Fauci has been around so long, he has now advised a total of seven U.S. Presidents, and when he took the job Ronald Reagan was sitting in the big chair.

On top of his salary for being the federal government’s top doc, Fauci can operate a couple side hustles that pull in the high six figures annually too.

Information from his financial disclosure show he earned somewhere between $100,000 and $1 million in royalties for editing a medical book called “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine.”

He also can be paid small appearance fees for speaking at medical conferences if he chooses.

If Fauci had gone into private practice after his Ivy League education chances are he would have made a small fortune over the course of almost four full decades of service in the medical industry. 

He went down a different path, working in government, but through a combo of good fortune, talent, and the ability to survive in Washington, D.C., he’s become a multi-millionaire.

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