Personally, I like going around with a factor and instructor to speed things up. Do any game gurus have another set of hirelings they consider best?

D'oh, I forgot these forums are for the MM collection, I was talking about MM7

Scholar. Two for: identify and additional experience points.
2nd: If I wanted to get rid of the Arena challenge. Horsemen. I hated the arena challenge because whenever I was winning the later more difficult matches, the game would crash (there was a bug in some of the harder knight level games)
Otherwise, Instructor or teacher.
(Sorry, Horsemen allow you to go to the Arena 5 times in the first five weeks at level one. Easy pickings. This tip was put up on this forum and I have used it several times)

Replace your factor with a banker for the same effect with better numbers.

I start with a Cartographer and a Scholar. When a party member can use Expert Wizard Eye, I dump the Cartographer in favor of an Instructor. If I get up to Master or GM Id Item on a character, I'll dump the Scholar for a Teacher. If I need to Town Portal or Fly somewhere before I have the spells myself, I'll dump a Hireling (Scholar if I have it, since it is cheaper to hire and can be found in more towns) until I'm done with the spell I want, then rehire whatever I temporarily dumped. I also use the Horseman trick that MacAilpin mentioned.

how do i get rid of a hireling when i dont want them? In might and magic 9

I usually pick up the ones that give bonus XP. I figured they would pay off the most in the long run.

Scholar gives a smaller bonus to XP than an Instructor, but free unlimited ID Items. I always carry one of them, and forgo ID Item. By the time I have the spare points to master/GM ID Item, I'm no longer really worrying about gear anyway. I like having an Instructor as well. Mo XP means Mo Levels.

A Weaponsmith or Amorer either one is handy at various times, at least until I can remember where to get M/GM Repair. Which I never do.

Scholars are awesome. The difference in your level by the end of the game between a Scholar and an Instructor/Teacher is very small (and for characters who can't get Master/GM learning it's virtually nil). The problem with no Scholar is that you have to sink in 27 skill points on a character for Master (and 54 to get grandmaster) who is already very starved for skill points (thieves shine with high dagger skill, and getting an extra point there is much better than identify item) into an otherwise worthless skill. The quality of life that you derive from not having to pass all of your loot to 1 character to ID is invaluable too.

I don't remember this part 100% but Master 10 ID might be the same as GM ID since the highest difficulty stuff (relics) I think were rated difficulty 30. If I had to do ID Item on a character, I'd put it on a Thief, get to Expert 4, and then equip a ring that gives like +24 ID skill.

Scholar is always worth having until you reach the point where you just don't care about loot anymore. A Merchant or even Duper is great at the start of the game when you have lots of skills and training to pay for. Eventually you can swap it for a Banker or Instructor. Once you have more gold than you'll ever spend, you might as well hire a Spell Master.