That is alright, education is still an investment. Now someone like you could argue, that although I didn't get a skilled job of my education level, but I got a life experience, maturity, life long friendship, etc. out of college and that was worth my money. If you value those that high, so be it. But purely from an economical POV, your return was negative if you don't work in the chosen industry or you don't need the skillset acquired in your current job. I would say to that: You could have got similar experience for much cheaper or even by earning a salary. As a 18-19 year old not knowing what to do with yourself you could have volunteered to work for an organization maybe even abroad, and you bet you would have matured even more with such an experience. I am fond of the gap year concept, trying to find yourself.
Also, money isn't everything. You might be a highly educated and paid millennial who works 60+ hours and stressed out beyond belief. You might be trying to keep up with the Joneses and buying a new car every 2 years. etc.etc. And I might just be a blue collar hair dresser who doesn't make much but I am always there for my kids, don't work more than 40 hours, and my blood pressure is normal. Oh yes, and I am happy! TL: DR; Life is more than just about money.
True dat! Also a big fan of gap year. I wish our college admission system embraced it like the Europeans and Australians do.
and the average income in in China is......very low, again refer to the mean. also..just starting a business is not a guarantee of success. oh, and I'll take the college grads chances of success in starting a bus over a HS grad any day. ( and don't post but Bill Gates...blah, blah). look at probabilities. a college degree increases your probability of success, even if you have to work as a waitress for a spell.
Wow. Just Wow. https://johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-...ert-t-kiyosakis-book-rich-dad-poor-dad-part-1 "Summary Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the dumbest financial advice books I have ever read. It contains many factual errors and numerous extremely unlikely accounts of events that supposedly occurred. Kiyosaki is a salesman and a motivational speaker. He has no financial expertise and won’t disclose his supposed real estate or other investment success. Rich Dad, Poor Dad contains much wrong advice, much bad advice, some dangerous advice, and virtually no good advice. You may wonder if I just criticize or have I written a better book. I wrote a bunch of them. Here’s one on advanced fundamentals of real estate investment and another on basics. Click on either for more" First I've heard about this. True that Chinese are business oriented but education is still stressed in their culture. A lot!
In the case of a waitress, a boobjob is much better return over a college degree, and I am not joking. And in my story it wasn't for a spell, we were mid-40s at that time.
I can't fathom why anyone would ignore statistics. In any profession/vocation there will always be statistical outliers. Statistical realities as winds at our backs are a far superior springboard into adult life than engaging them as headwinds. Throughout our lives windows of opportunity appear, open and close. The simplistic Boy scout motto "be prepared" comes to mind. EDIT: I very much agree with sig re: a gap year,preferably doing something off one's normal patch.
Even without hearing this it was clear that Kiyosaki is a bit of a douchebag who never made it past the second level on Maslow's Hierarchy. I mean seriously "Robert Kiyosaki's story about his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad illustrates this point. His real dad was a principal and he was born poor and died poor." as if being a school principal is somehow a failure in life. I spent 20 years in the military, quite a bit more of a "slave" than your typical college grad given that we had official policies where "potential loss of (my and my crew's) life" was an acceptable risk for some missions. Worked 80 hour weeks for weeks at a time away from home and got paid crap compared to what I would have made as a civilian. Wouldn't trade the experience for anything, certainly not for being a 25 year old high school graduate millionaire. I have MBA classmates who either passed up or left 7 figure jobs to work in non-profits where they make less than 6 figures. One of them got malaria twice (apparently the second time almost kills you) and was struck by lighting in one year running around the outback of Africa, and before school he spent 10 years as a Marine. I can almost be sure he'll die penniless no matter how much he makes because he'll put it all into whatever social enterprise he's associated with. At 40 he's already had a far fuller and more meaningful life than Kiyosaki and his step-father combined ever will. There's more to life than money, far more, and those who don't realize it end up with the "what now" feeling when they finally do arrive and realize that the journey was the destination.
And what percentage of the Chinese population is living in such dwellings...the marble counter top ones ? Again, averages and probabilities.