Life is about choices and you make it what you want it to be! Growing up poor, I can tell you that given a choice, I would rather be rich. That in itself is not evil! Money is an inanimate object which is actually, made of cloth. How you use it determines where it is good or evil. Now, I educate the next generations of my family on their choices. They can decide for themselves what path to take. No doubt, some would be content to be employees and others would try to improve their lives by starting their business. I am sure that those who choose to improve their lives will find it more fulfilling doing the things they love than being stuck in a 9 to 5 job somewhere else. Been there, done that and if I can bring 20-30 years of my life back, I would to take the other path. Money is not everything but, most things you need in life involves money. Nobody is going to provide a service or give you an item you need for free.
Parent, kid, uncle, dog, cat, horse......whoever or whatever you wanna call it. Only an idot gets a loan for more then $100K for a 4 year college degree. If your parents don't have the cash to pay for you to go to +$100K university, then go to a community college. Who wants to graduate with +$100K loan?
Someone who is going to make 200k for the next 40 years, that's who. Would you invest 100k in a business that would secure your future, sure you would. Why not invest 100k in an education that will go the same. More clowns on this forum have lost ten's of thousands "investing" in their "trading career". Looking to forums for the holy grail. I'll take the kid coming out of a top 4 yr program with 100k in debt as a better bet than most of the "traders" on ET. Or the ones who say "just start a business" with your HS diploma...it's easy street from then on. LOL Nothing against community colleges, but if you think they are in the same league as top notch 4 yr. programs just go to Kipling's Best Values in Colleges and look at starting salaries, and get back to me.
For majority of people, they should get college degrees, but much of what they end up doing is "on the job training" which just about anyone off the street could end up learning as well. College shows employers you finished something in your life and if you did it with honors, you worked even harder for it and most likely start for more money. College opens doors that you would not be able to open with a HS diploma. Schools that are beyond college like medicine or law do teach more of what you want to become and prepare you better, but even those, you better work harder than the next person of achieving the most you can or someone else will become that person. But college is not for everyone and make same or more earnings in many areas of more of a physical job that frankly, most of population don't want to do. Not many want to be up 100 stories and learn to walk steel beams for welding, not many have the "touch" of working cranes without killing workers underneath, plumber, bricklayers, car mechanics, truck drivers, carpenters, electricians, traders, oil rigs are all demanding careers, many are done in inclement weather, and almost all people watch these people do these jobs and wonder how they can stand doing them. Often times long hours, dedication of doing the job perfect, all are at expert levels, cause if they not, someone will take their place. And most of these jobs you can be earning above $70,000-100,000+ in few years. I always found college to be a joke, many professors burned out teaching same stuff, they didn't have the motivation to do their specialties on the outside, truly lazy way to make money and they going to motivate people? College is very much like trading though, you learn all that you can in four years + and hope you good enough to run with the big dogs. But some of the brightest people on this Earth, I have meet in blue collars jobs, many ran their own businesses, they knew economy, advertising, accounting and the law without going to school and better than most who went to school Just believe if you apply yourself to the max, you will eventually become who you want to become with or without college. Really, how bad do you want it? Do you want to work long hard hours to become the best or close to it? Same goes with trading, you work very hard to compete against yourself and often you are your own worst enemy. And in trading, it is an Elite profession if you get to the top, how many professions can you earn over a billion dollars a year? Last goal to strive towards, and if don't make it, Enjoy the ride.................................Just wonder if @Xela will make it before me, she very gifted Professional trader and the forum is lucky to have her post, knowledgeable and trades for a Hedge fund, she is all business and gets down to the point, writes well, she is only one I make sure I read her posts in the morning and only one I follow. So keep it clean, forum loses all the finest traders due to various reasons, but most often attacks by jealous vicious non-humans.
Again...yes, some do very well without college. yes, some enjoy fixing toilets and carrying steel beams and working in 10 degree weather. Most do not. For those, the probability of success if much greater with a 4 yr degree than with out..no matter what the cost. Amortize 100k in debt or even 250 cost if you may the whole thing (most do not) over a life time and it is peanuts. As to your example of 70-100k to fix toilets, carry steel beams and work in 10 degree weather....that is not enough to me ! Each to his own though.
good comment sss12. I see your point. A 4 year degree from accredited university , I most definitely. I have a 4 year degree from a major university. I went to community college for 2 years, then transfer to the major university for the following 3 years til graduation. This saved me nearly $30K in loans. I am not saying don't get 4 year degree, i am saying get it as cheap as possible. I highly recommend a kid get a college degree. A degree offers confidence and critical thinking skills that is critical in society.
I did both. But this was back in the day when a decent summer job could make a hefty dent in (even private school) tuition. I did all kinds of things! (I was on the back of a garbage truck when Ronald Reagan was shot -- then went to my macro-econ class that night. Yipes!) Worked 50+ hour weeks (when I could get it) every break. Rode an unregistered, uninsured motorcycle right through a Master's degree, in New England shore, Lake Superior, and then Lake Ontario. "Brrrrr!" Sheeeeesh, the things we do......... Nowadays?? I don't know what I would do, were I 18-22 years old now. Having learned and taught at 2yr and 4yr schools, I can tell you that *every* class I have ever attended-or-taught got my full attention and effort. Period, without exception. (......except for that Yahoo I had for my General Philosophy class -- one which I *so*much* wanted to enjoy as a college sophomore. This putz-on-wheels turned it into a 15-week communist screed against the newly-elected Reagan Administration. Did I learn Plato? Socrates? Existentialism? No. I learned the blatherings of Marx, et.al., and Oh boy, I was not impressed....... So -- one class in 40?? was a waste?? Not bad.)
But NOTHING is guaranteed, you can be in corporate world and you boss hates you even though you do excellent work, or instead of you going on your own within a corp, your boss drags you slowly up the ladder and he tells all hands off cause without you he wouldn't have his job. There are so many what ifs in any profession whether corporate life or guy who fixes your toilet and he gets more satisfaction cause his job is completed and you come home exhausted. So where we should discuss quality of life, am guess the plumber might go bowling or coaching football with his kids on the team and you humping another 18 hour day, Quality of Life? Everything changes if you enjoy what you working at, but most corp people I speak to is disgusted working for the man. I have earned degrees and never worked in any of those fields, was fun at the time, didn't study much, just read books quickly, but it comes down to this and not the money, Quality of your life, cause if you doing work just for the money, be a long 40 years. Unlike me I enjoy everything I do and I put in 16-20 hour days, if I was to drive a truck, I do that-it's enjoyable for me, but I have worked decades to have automation trading 24/5.5 to keep score. The Holy Grail is working your rear end off in any venture and this trader would never work for anyone and never has.
College is good but it's not for everyone. I left home at 15 and just didn't have the $ to go to college. Instead I went to a 1 year trade school (mainframe computers, 1980) which I was able to pay off in advance, starting work with no debt. Right place, right time, right skills is all you need to do very well. If you really like what you do, which I always have, than you will never feel like a wage slave. I have friends that have degrees, even multiple masters, none have done any better than me over a 30 year span as far as their net worth, happiness, or job satisfaction. Because I started working years ahead of them and was not burdened in debt I was able to take advantage of compounding much earlier on than my college grad friends. It is unlikely any of them could catch up to me unless they receive a large inheritance. The average life time earnings between a 4 year college grad & a 1-2 year trade school is small, that's not even factoring in the student loans. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-you-should-consider-trade-school-instead-of-college/
The college vs. no college argument is completely dependent on the person in question. Steve Bisciotti the owner of the Baltimore Ravens also owns a huge headhunting firm which is where he made his money originally. He was a liberal arts major, he's now a billionaire. Ultimately it comes down to the individual and there is no one size fits all point of "everyone should go to college" or not. There are individuals who go to trade school like plumbing, work a few years to become journeyman/master then start their own shop and hire people to work for them who make well into six figures. That is not a rare Zuckerberg type of situation it's quite common. That being said there are plumbers who are idiots and liberal arts major also who are idiots. There are engineers who are idiots. College is, for many people, a smart decision to make, it does not mean that college makes a person smart. Individuals are either intelligent or not, seemingly biologically, and where they go and what they do is almost irrelevant as far as what impacts that.