sweetp, u need not buy lottery to be rich. odds are in millions. right to hit a jackpot thus no use. work hard in whatever you do. be the best. be conservative. enjoy life but be frugal. you would be rich in time. [ dedication, perseverence and hard work] mm, there are lot of multimillionares who are phd. among billionares. I can mention one Irwin Jacobs. He is PHD. has published a lot in CDMA. and is a CEO of QCOM. [last time I checked (o:] indi, it was more of a realistic happening. how many phds are actually been billionares.. may be irwin jacobs of qcom. if you can name others, it would be gr8 too. so it means that one needs to be street smart to become rich [ in money]. agreeing to mm. if you are talking about knowledge then phds are always in top. getting back to the calculation portion. How many SCIENCE Phds have you seen starting with a salary of $100k? Assistant Professors starts around 70k-90k. if you find a job that matches your research area in industry then your range in 90-130k. How often it happens? But a bachelors (in EE, CPE, CS, engineering, nurshing, pharmacy) landing $50k job 99%.