While many aspiring educators brace themselves for modest earnings, alum Steven Keys 鈥�14MAT embraced it. He challenged himself to achieve financial independence and has now turned that experience it into a profitable endeavor 鈥� one that has taken him from a teacher鈥檚 salary to millionaire status.
For Keys, the recipe was a combination of many different ingredients: discipline, frugal living, tutoring, teaching, and entrepreneurship among them. It鈥檚 why he now spreads the wealth of knowledge he鈥檚 gained along the way through mentorship in both academics and lifestyle.
What began as pursuing his passion for education evolved into a startup online tutoring service, which made its debut at 麻豆原创, to continue the work he loves, all while co-running a lifestyle blog to inspire others to do the same. Here鈥檚 how he did it.
Road to Success
Keys received his master鈥檚 in science education through a resident teacher partnership program between 麻豆原创 and Seminole County Public Schools. As part of the program, he worked as a local public school teacher for two years while earning his degree, an experience that he says shaped both his teaching style and entrepreneurial mindset.
He graduated debt-free with both his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees and intended to keep it that way.
His path to success first began with years of intentional sacrifice. While he was developing his passion for education, Keys and his wife adopted a minimalist lifestyle, cutting unnecessary expenses, learning every strategy available to save money and committing to consistent investing.
Before their entrepreneurial journey even began, Keys and his wife had already reached millionaire status for themselves on their early-career salaries alone. The discipline that requires is something they now try to pass along to others.
鈥淲hen I first started my career, I was making $38,000 a year,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y wife and I were determined to be financially successful regardless of our salaries. We developed this life philosophy of frugality and minimalism. Being happy with less and learning to live on less, money-wise. Even on those relatively low salaries that we started with, we managed to save and invest over 60% of our income our very first year having full time jobs because we lived really frugally, shared one used car and lived a small apartment, all that stuff.鈥�
A few years into his teaching career, Keys shifted from the classroom teaching to private tutoring. He found success but ran into a new problem: the demand for tutoring services exceeded one person鈥檚 bandwidth.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥楾here鈥檚 got to be a better way to do this to help more students and be able to charge them less.鈥欌�� 鈥� Steven Keys 鈥�14MAT
鈥淎s a one-on-one tutor, you only have so much time to sell,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t one point, I was charging up to $200 an hour. I was turning away students because I had no more time. I thought, 鈥楾here鈥檚 got to be a better way to do this to help more students and be able to charge them less.鈥欌��
Education Meets Entrepreneurship
Eventually the couple saved and invested enough to be semi-retired before embarking on their next journey: co-founding an online tutoring service. CramBetter is a 24/7 online tutoring service built to help college students through professional support with their courses, with an emphasis on tough introductory courses 鈥� especially in STEM disciplines. Launched in 2023 with 麻豆原创 as one of its pilot campuses, the platform now serves students across the country.
Working with his wife, Lauren, and business partner, Marty Parks, they created a tutoring model that could reach thousands of students at an affordable price. Instead of traditional tutoring sessions, they curated a library of study guides, video lessons and practice exams they designed using their combined tutoring experience.
CramBetter focuses on the courses that Keys says most commonly 鈥渨eed out鈥� students in pre-health and engineering pathways 鈥� like chemistry, physics and calculus 鈥� and are often taught in large lecture halls with limited personalized support. It鈥檚 also available to students who wait until the last minute to study and cannot see a traditional tutor.
鈥淚t鈥檚 accessible 24/7, so if they’re at the library at 3 a.m., they essentially have a tutor with them,鈥� he says. 鈥淎 lot of tutoring requests come at the eleventh hour, when students have an exam the next night. That鈥檚 not the way that I recommend people study, but that is the reality for a lot of college students.鈥�
Lifestyle Tutoring
Keys and his wife also co-run a blog and YouTube channel called 鈥淭rip Of A Lifestyle,鈥� where they detail their personal philosophies and paths to success while providing free tips to help others achieve financially stable lives, especially through similar nontraditional or unexpected paths.
鈥淒on’t let people tell you not to go into teaching because there’s no money in it,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are all sorts of things you can do with a teaching background 鈥� not to mention that it鈥檚 a worthwhile endeavor because it feels good to teach. I have no regrets about going into teaching, even though I supposedly could have had a more ‘lucrative’ career in some other discipline.鈥�
Through CramBetter and Trip Of A Lifestyle, Keys is now mentoring far beyond the classroom, serving as an example to students and educators that with persistence, planning and creativity, it鈥檚 possible to build both financial security and meaningful impact.
He hopes his story can inspire students 鈥� especially those studying education 鈥� who may worry about career limitations.
鈥淲e just try to be positive and inspire others to chase their dreams,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need a big inheritance or salary. You don鈥檛 need to win the lottery to start a company or do other things you dream of. You just need to be consistent with saving from whatever job you have. If you set your mind to it, you can make it happen.鈥�
