The liberal arts

[DGuller]

Seems rather smart to me.

It is.  The utility of knowing that you have assets to fall back on if your employment goes to shit is worth more than pissing away every cent you earn.  Peace of mind is a pretty good thing to splurge on in our society.

[Ideologue]

No, my interest rates are not 3.4%.

Well, I figured you could refinance, but after googling it seems there are challenges with refinancing student loans...So at this point I will just admit I was wrong about everything and carry on... 

Ide, if you had it all to do over again, what would you do? Skip college to focus on a career in restaurants?

Can I carry back detailed knowledge of the markets or a sports almanac, or just key pieces of wisdom?   Seriously, because Replay is my favorite mental self-torture device.

But, if only wisdom gets to go back in time, I'd focus on math and science and probably be a nurse in a high-skill field, like anesthesia.  My family has connections in hospitals, too, so there's that.  My step-sister is specifically a nurse anesthetist and makes $125k a year for working 35 hours a week.  She owns a big house and just had her second kid.

Alternatively, I'd focus on my art and be a comic penciller, with eyes toward writing.

Alternatively, restaurant work.

[Eddie Teach]

How much is $200 a month in your earliest earning years going to be worth if invested and compounded over your career?

Who the fuck invests $200/month of their earliest earnings?

Seems rather smart to me.

It is both smart and embarrassing.

[11B4V]

How much is $200 a month in your earliest earning years going to be worth if invested and compounded over your career?

Who the fuck invests $200/month of their earliest earnings?

Seems rather smart to me.

It is both smart and embarrassing.

How is it embarrassing to basically be a leg up on your peer group?

[DGuller]

People who don't do stupid things when they're young are squares.

[CountDeMoney]

People who don't do stupid things when they're young are squares.

That's why they're accepted by the FBI.

[Josquius]

How on earth does one even invest when we're talking about such small sums

[The Brain]

How on earth does one even invest when we're talking about such small sums

[OttoVonBismarck]

Generally if you want to invest small amounts like $200/mo brokerage trading fees eat away an unacceptable percentage of your returns. If you open an IRA though a lot of mutual fund companies will let you buy the fund for $1000 and then you can make minimum contributions of $100 or more with no trading fees. You could also buy into a DRIP/DSPP which are also cost effective ways to make small investments.

[crazy canuck]

How on earth does one even invest when we're talking about such small sums

When I first started working in high school I began by investing 50 dollars per month.  This was back when interest rates were somewhere around 15%.  That monthly amount didnt really go up until after law school.  But by that time I had a nice little pile of dough to help with a downpayment on my first property.

[Martinus]

The problem is not the humanities.   The US is predominantly a service economy, and managers and executives in such industry require literacy, communication, and social reasoning skills that can be enhanced by a good humanities-based education.   The problem is the notion that everyone ought to go to university.  that is a problem because increasing the number of university graduates doesn't necessarily increase the number of jobs that require or need that level of education.

Bingo.

[OttoVonBismarck]

So Ide, not to make this thread entirely about your career troubles, but having a law degree if you wanted to setup shop for yourself in some strip mall doing criminal defense for DUIs and suing businesses when people fall on the floor of their store how much money could you make at that?

I know a guy who is in a partnership with two other guys basically doing generic criminal defense, personal injury, and minor contract work in Fredericksburg (a moderately size small city) and those guys are loaded. The one who I'm friends with has a very nice,  big house. He also has a vacation home out on Deep Creek Lake in Maryland that I know for a fact cost over $300,000. He has two children, one went to UVA and the other Washington & Lee, he's paid both of their tuition out of pocket with no loans and bought them both very nice, $120-150k houses to live in while they're in college.

So I don't know his income, but it's obviously substantial, and he's not a partner at some big lawfirm, it's just him and two other guys that are partners (they have no associates but do I think have some paralegals and clerk types.)

[Neil]

Ide doesn't actually want to practice law.  His degree was pretty much a prop that he thought would help him get a government job.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Ah, that sounds stupid then. As someone in government I can tell you there's a lot cheaper and easier post-baccalaureate degrees you can get that will open up government jobs to you in abundance.

[Neil]

Ah, that sounds stupid then. As someone in government I can tell you there's a lot cheaper and easier post-baccalaureate degrees you can get that will open up government jobs to you in abundance.

Not to mention less evil degrees.