Wall Street Trader Turned Tutor Earns $500K A Year – ‘There’s No Substitute For Waking Up Knowing You’re Serving Others’

When Steve Menking first entered Wall Street in his early 20s, he thought he had found the career of his dreams. However, by the age of 25, he realized that the fast life of a stock trader was not what he wanted.

“I’ve watched my peers my age — or younger — excel in their careers,” Minking recently told CNBC Make It. “But seeing people staying in the office until 1 a.m., I couldn’t imagine that this was my future. This was not the lifestyle for me.”

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Menking, now 36, has made a bold pivot that many dream of but few attempt: leaving finance to pursue his passion for teaching. However, he didn’t want to start from scratch in the classroom. Instead, he turned to private lessons.

What started as a professional experiment in 2014 has evolved into a thriving business, earning him more than $500,000 a year — a number he is on track to repeat in 2024. He works 20 to 25 hours a week from his home in Connecticut, where he lives with his wife. . And three children.

“I realized that teaching brought out a more patient and purposeful version of myself,” Minking explained. His love of helping others learn stems from his time as a college teaching assistant and tutor, experiences that have given him a deep sense of meaning.

According to Grand View Research, the global tutoring market is expected to reach 154.8 billion by 2030, and Minqing’s career is a prime example of this.

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His journey began humbly: He submitted his resume to dozens of tutoring agencies in New York and created a profile on Wyzant, an online tutoring marketplace. Charging just under $100 an hour, he relied on his Wall Street experience to carve out a niche helping students with math, finance and accounting.

As word spread and referrals poured in, Minqing gradually increased his rates. By 2017, he was earning $150 an hour. That same year, Thomas Howell, founder of Forum Education, approached him with a game-changing offer.

The forum’s expanded network connected Menking with Ivy League students from schools like Princeton and Yale, increasing his annual income from $95,000 to $200,000. “That’s when the monetization potential really kicked in,” Minking recalls.

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Today, Menking earns approximately $1,000 an hour. He works with undergraduate students to simplify complex financial concepts, and prepare for exams and internship interviews.

His clients are spread across the country and his schedule is as dynamic as the students he teaches. During the summer, he may work eight to 10 hours a week, but that workload can rise to 40 hours in the lead-up to final exams.

Despite the late-night emails from a stressed student, Menking says tutoring provides an “exceptional work-life balance.” When he’s not helping students solve difficult problems, he’s working to grow his company, Menking Tutoring LLC, which he launched in 2020. In addition to one-on-one sessions, the company offers online test preparation and corporate coaching for budding investment banking analysts.

“There is no substitute for waking up every day knowing that you are serving others in a way that is consistent with your unique experience,” Menking said.

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