Prs to be making me less broke? Financial Follies

[katyseagull]

Isn't graduate school pretty freaking expensive? I mean how would he afford that (assuming he was even interested)?

[Anacardo]

Zoelef,

I couldn't sell a heater to an Eskimo, but these links look pretty hot.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
If you don't want to work for the Man, you need to develop your own expertise. Nobody here can tell you what your preferences are in terms of what expertise that might be, and asking others for that is simply folly. You may not yourself know what it might be, in which case my recommendation is to pick something, anything, that doesn't seem hellishly obnoxious. How about the undersea expedition guys that recently found a new wreck?

Of course, the way to develop expertise is to work for the Man for a while and figure out what he's doing wrong. I don't think you'll advance yourself by tutoring or working on a casino boat: both of those are dead-ends. If you can tolerate the Man for five years, someone of your obvious intellect should be able to figure out how to do it better, in which case you can strike out on your own.


[/ QUOTE ]

There's a lot to be said to this. Any given business may be mundane, but making money with it is different from the business itself, and different from loving that kind of business. It's a challenge and one that defeats LOTS of bright people.

Finding a way to leverage that money to make even more money can be the next step of the challenge. Business isn't necessarily about being a drycleaner or whatever; it's about making money. If you're an employee, you don't get but a small slice of that almost no matter what stage of the game you're at. As an owner, you're playing a whole different ball game. That ballgame can be very challenging and legitimately fun, and give you a great sense of accomplishment.

Speaking of drycleaners, I read that drycleaning has produced more millionaires than any other job. That's including doctors, lawyers, etc. And lots of those stores are owned by people with limited education, to say the least. But they used their brains, challenged the market, and won.

It IS a game, and it can be for very high stakes. You might find it very interesting to own your own business, Cardo. And it would certainly use up a lot of the energy you spend now on being muddled or unhappy or pissed off. Some of the times in my life that I've been least unhappy were when I had no time to be unhappy. Owning your own business can provide that, in spades. And it can also give you almost unlimited free time, if it succeeds.

[ QUOTE ]
Part of striking out on your own is convincing others you can do it. Networking is therefore useful. Whining about how much you hate what you are doing is never, ever productive in this regard, so get used to sucking it up.

You'll be surprised how fast your confidence can recover.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, it's possible for things to get better and better at a gratifying pace, as well as for things to get worse and worse. Things tend to feed on themselves, bad and good, and so do attitudes.

I'm the last guy to say that attitude is everything, though. You definitely need a plan, cardo.

But part of the problem is you only want a plan for a few months, you say. It's hard to come up with a plan for just a few months that sounds all that great.

[Anacardo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why do you people continue to throw advice towards Anacardo.

You would do better to throw pennies down a well.

[/ QUOTE ]
I much prefer openly ridiculing him. Just so I can quote someone smart in this thread and maybe sound smart too:

"Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us."
-T.Jefferson

[/ QUOTE ]

Forgive me, but aren't you saying that reason is against you?

[Zoelef]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't sell a heater to an Eskimo, but these links look pretty hot.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're welcome.

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't graduate school pretty freaking expensive? I mean how would he afford that (assuming he was even interested)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Having a 3.5+ GPA helps a ton, graduate school would be up my alley if I could get full tuition reimbursement but my understanding is that it's reserved for people who put out research/tutoring during their undergraduate career. Independent of those factors, I'm not aware of the innate demand for History TA's.

[ QUOTE ]

Why do you people continue to throw advice towards Anacardo.

You would do better to throw pennies down a well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Practice for myself in terms of life situations (24 w/BS in Math from a cow college). Some things don't change between situations (cost of goods required for survival) but it gets more interesting as you tweak other variables, such as education and liquid assets.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't graduate school pretty freaking expensive? I mean how would he afford that (assuming he was even interested)?

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be. Depends where you go. It's a lot less brutal if you go to a state college and you're a resident. And if you live with the folks or whatever.

It doesn't sound like he's interested in something like that, though. Cardo sounds like he needs to eventually head toward working on his own, even if he has to bite the bullet for a while to learn a skill worth having. Poker might be that skill, but as Cardo notes, it probably isn't for now, as his attitude and emotional control is a bit shot.

[tpir]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why do you people continue to throw advice towards Anacardo.

You would do better to throw pennies down a well.

[/ QUOTE ]
I much prefer openly ridiculing him. Just so I can quote someone smart in this thread and maybe sound smart too:

"Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us."
-T.Jefferson

[/ QUOTE ]

Forgive me, but aren't you saying that reason is against you?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. i.e. you are being unreasonable.

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
Isn't graduate school pretty freaking expensive? I mean how would he afford that (assuming he was even interested)?

[/ QUOTE ]

My brother is getting fully funded for his Phd in literature from the university and grants and stuff. I mean it's much rarer in humanities than sciences, but it's not impossible.

-Al

[Blarg]

Cost of goods required for survival varies dramatically depending on where you live.

[Stuey]

[ QUOTE ]
Why do you people continue to throw advice towards Anacardo.

You would do better to throw pennies down a well.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because I like him. Don't get me wrong I would neve hire him tho.