The first thing that you will need to do is to become a lawyer. Since a lawyer is very good at making money, you should not find this too upsetting. Experience as a lawyer is what makes a person a good judge, along with excellent personality traits. But to make money as a lawyer you will first need to attend a traditional four-year college to earn your undergraduate degree. This degree can be in just about anything, but most people go for pre-law, political science, or business, although those majors are not required in order to be accepted into law school.
Once you are finished with your four-year degree you will then want to move on to law school. While studying in law school you will want to make money so that you can begin to pay down your student loans. This is very important because these loans add up to be a lot of money once you are completely done with school. The more you are able to pay off now, the easier things will be for you in the future. It is also a good idea to work as an intern in an attorney's office. Generally interns do not make money, but there are some paid internships out there. You will have to do a lot of looking around to find the perfect internship for you.
After law school you will need to take and pass the bar exam for your state. Of course, before that exam can be taken you will have to pass an ethical standards exam and have a background check completed. Every state is different though. You will need to contact your state's bar administration to find out what all of the requirements are. Once you have passed the bar exam you will be able to begin working as an attorney and making money. This money will support your bills, help to pay off your student loan debt, and to put money in the bank.
You will need to focus on making money while you are an attorney because this is a position that you are going to be stuck with for a while. Most states require people to make money as an attorney for a certain number of years before they are even allowed to run for a judgeship position. You can make use of the time that you are making money as an attorney by taking additional coursework that is required for judges. Take as much additional legal training as possible as some judgeships are required to have the additional education in order to oversee cases with juries and such.
Once you have all of that out of the way you can then work on running for judge. You will have to continue to make money as an attorney because you are not paid to run for a judge position. You will only be paid as a judge if you are in fact elected into the position. There is a lot of paperwork that has to be submitted in a timely manner to the judicial nominating commission when there is a vacancy in the judgeship. In order to qualify to run, you will have to be at least a certain age, a state citizen and U.S. citizen, a member of the state bar, and live within a certain geographic area of where the vacancy is. Generally, to run and make money as a judge you have to live in the county where you would be working. Become nominated and have a huge team of supporters and you will have your chance at making money as a judge. There are a lot of benefits to being judge but it is a lot of work and not for someone who does not like to be an enforcer.
