Careers › Truck driver (CDL)
Truck driver (CDL): pay, training and money by age
Hauling freight over the road or locally. A commercial driver's license takes a few weeks of school; long-haul routes pay more but mean time away from home. About $57,000 a year at the middle of a career, about $27 an hour.
Opens Starting Out with this job picked. Change anything: school, rent, car, family, savings, detours.
Getting there
CDL school (a few weeks, about $6,000). About $6,000 a year in school costs. Pay starts near $39,900 and rises with experience.
First month on the job (age 18)
| Pay before taxes | $3,325 |
| Take-home after taxes | $2,785 |
| Rent or housing | $0 |
| Car | −$350 |
| Food, phone, utilities, health and personal | −$500 |
| Saved (10%, plus the tax a 401(k) saves) | −$1,206 |
| Left for everything else | $728 |
Plus about $133 a month from an employer match. Rent assumes roommates.
What changes the picture
| Choice | Result | Could stop at |
|---|---|---|
| Stay single, no kids | $600,260 at 45 | 51 |
| Invest $250 more a month | $860,026 at 45 | 51 |
| Rent from 18 instead of living at home to 22 | $542,323 at 45 | |
| A DUI at 22 | about $169,372 less by 65 | 55 |
| Smoking a pack a day from 22 | about $498,772 less by 65 | 57 |
At the same savings rate, higher pay doesn't always mean stopping sooner: spending tends to rise with pay. Saving more is what moves the date.
Questions
How much does a truck driver make?
About $57,000 a year at the middle of a career (U.S. median, Bureau of Labor Statistics), or about $27 an hour. Starting pay is lower, around $39,900.
How do you become a truck driver?
Hauling freight over the road or locally. A commercial driver's license takes a few weeks of school; long-haul routes pay more but mean time away from home. In the model: CDL school (a few weeks, about $6,000). About $6,000 a year in school costs.
When could a truck driver retire?
With the defaults on this page (saving 10% of take-home, a 4% match, married at 28, two kids, a home at 32), about age 54, and from 47 to 65 depending on pay and markets. Saving more moves it sooner.
Similar careers
Construction laborer · Warehouse worker · Fast food or cook · Cashier or retail · Carpenter · all careers
How these numbers are made: the FIRE Mission Starting Out model in today's dollars. Pay is the U.S. median from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023-24), rounded; starting pay is about 70% of it, rising to about 125% after 20 years. Defaults: start at 18, live at home to 22 with the rent invested, roommates to 24, $1,450 rent, a paid-off car with $150 insurance, married at 28 to a spouse earning $50,000, two kids from 30, a $400,000 home at 32 once affordable, saving 10% of take-home with a 4% match, 5% returns after inflation, Social Security from 67. The range runs from 25th-percentile pay with 3% returns to 75th-percentile pay with 7%. A sketch, not a forecast, and not financial advice.