College or Work? The million dollar question...

[YouTubez]

I'm in a big turning point for my life and I like to take advice from all kinds of different points of view.
I don't like to ask people who are family because well they tend to have a judgmental point of view on things and try to give me money to pay for my problems. (which is nice but I don't want to rely on them)

My problem is this, should I go to college or continue where I am work my ass off then go to college?
My main thing keeping me from going to college would be me not having money and not having a drivers lic + car.

I'm currently renting a room out of a friend's parents house and it's not the best living conditions. Great motivational spot though to say the least with amazing internet connection.

I want to work my ass off, get my own apartment, buy a car, then go to college. On the other hand my dad is pushing me to go to college.

The college I would be going to is about a hour away in a big city so I would have to move up there permanently till I got a car + drivers lic.
With moving somewhere perm I would have to pay around $500 - $800 a month which with my current IM earnings + part time job could pay for about rent and that's it. (nothing else)
I could pull out some crazy student loans but I don't want to. (I could understand student loans to pay for a dorm room but not an apartment)

I also moved out of my parent's house about exactly a month ago and I have a pretty clear idea that my parents don't want to give me any money period for anything. Especially college expenses it'll all come out of my back pocket which I can understand 100% no hard feelings.

I would be going to college for either A) Marketing or B)Programming or C) ???.

I'm currently living in a shitty city that's dead as far as jobs and my current job is a "temp job" at a telemarketing place calling old people of the evenings. In reality my only real opportunity would be to make bank with IM and hit it as hard as I can. My goal right now is to make $100k by next august 2015. The great thing about living in this dead city is there isn't a lot to distract me and you can live like a king with a few grand in the bank.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

If in doubt go to college. When in college, if you find an incredible opportunity, then decide. In the meantime, stick with your education. Just my 2 cents.

 

[wild1]

College and IM

 

[YouTubez]

If in doubt go to college. When in college, if you find an incredible opportunity, then decide. In the meantime, stick with your education. Just my 2 cents.

I would but idk where the money to pay for living expenses will appear...

I'm currently eating $5 subs and cheap crackers for dinner every night. (my only meal)

 

[farfetchedmoney]

Is the 100k goal realistic? If you only making 500-800 a month now what makes you think you will be making 100k by aug 2015? By your post it indicates to me that you arent focused and college isnt going to help you focus. Go to college when you know WHY you want to go. You'd be better off getting a trade and earning more work income that way. Then you can use funds to ramp up IM activity, if you know how. As they say, "what good are resources if you dont know how to use them".

I think you should read the first 73 pages of lazy way to riches by joe karbo for focus.

 

[nonai]

a college degree is worthless. dont be under the impression that just because you have a college degree you are going to have it easier later on. it's just a piece of paper that you paid $100k for. dont waste 4 years of your life.
The only reason anyone should ever go to college is to continue on to masters and phd or a professional school. but that takes dedication and 12 years of your life.
oh, did I mention student loans will never go away, not even if you declare bankruptcy?

 

[YouTubez]

Is the 100k goal realistic? If you only making 500-800 a month now what makes you think you will be making 100k by aug 2015? By your post it indicates to me that you arent focused and college isnt going to help you focus. Go to college when you know WHY you want to go. You'd be better off getting a trade and earning more work income that way. Then you can use funds to ramp up IM activity, if you know how. As they say, "what good are resources if you dont know how to use them".

I think you should read the first 73 pages of lazy way to riches by joe karbo for focus.

yeah I do notice that about myself I am totally unfocused.... I know to stick to one thing and become damn good at it and I did that for the longest time till my method died utterly.

I tell people that ask if I'm going to college I tell them yes but it always felt like a lie....

 

[Numbuh362]

college is first, college is a more secure career foundation, without it you wont have anything to fall back on.

 

[Elliot305]

Question: "College or work? The million dollar question"

Answer: Whichever one gets you the million first.

 

[jazzc]

On the other hand my dad is pushing me to go to college.

Tell him that his opinion needs to be backed by cash to shoulder the costs of his preferred choice.

Getting a student load may not be a bad idea for a determined person - just make sure it 's a federal one with fixed percentage. Why? Well, 2 reasons:
a) Student loans is a humongous bubble and it 's probably going to burst before you repay it - rates of loans going bad will be over the roof and the government will be making for reduced payments to "help" the loan takers at the expense of the tax payers - i.e. mostly not you.
b) Even if the above doesn't happen any time soon, inflation (as in "value of money") is going up (but you have a fixed interest rate)*. These periods are great for loan takers and bad for loan issuers, because the real repayment value will be lower than the nominal one. If inflation is big enough, you may end up paying less value that the loan capital itself (negative interest rate).

This is assuming that you actually weight everything up and decide that there 's positive value for you going to (that specific) college rather than not.

My take without knowing your specifics - if you are a person who knows what his goals are, go. College isn't about knowledge, you 'll never use most of the shit you 'll "learn" there anyway. College is about learning how to learn and of course the piece of paper you buy from them. So, why go? Because it 's hard to make your own curriculum without guidance and it 's even harder to get good guidance. But that begs the question - do you have any idea how you 're going to monetize the degree?

For example, while programmers are in high demand, not everyone with such a degree is. So, if you 're going for a programmer 's career, you need to know that you 'll have to invest tons of time to become a great one (and get easy access to well paid work).

* You can get a hint about this without any economics understanding from how the mainstream is now shyly trying to propagate the "inflation is good" story.

 

[jazzc]

Is the 100k goal realistic?

Goals aren't meant to be realistic, goals are meant to be motivators.

 

[ts713]

If you do decide to go, make sure you volunteer and apply for as many internship opportunities as possible that relate to your field. Start doing this right away. The degree alone is pretty worthless in my opinion without the experience. Most "entry" level jobs require 3-5 years experience (which is bs), but you can get that during college. So, my advice is to go to college (if possible) AND work.

 

[Cratos]

screw college.. if your going for a four year thing i believe it's a waste of time and money at this point in time. Go for something short that will get you a nice full time job and well paid. You'll have more time to dedicate to IM like that.

Lik jazzc said, most of what they teach you will forget it all. Mostly Worthless information.

And if your parents aren't going to help you with anything then why the hell worry about their opinions? same thing happened with me.. everyone's like are you going back to school? wouldn't you like to go back, your young. HELL NAW I wouldn't like to go back to that shit. You live like a damn dog eating subs everyday, well in my case breakfast burritos..mmmm ... Your always broke.. why the heck would someone want to go back to that lol Since most people that tell you to go to school never did themselves, they don't know what it's like to live the student life. They think its a piece of cake. They think it all comes so easy. Just like IM newbs.

and loans were never an option for me.. that shit will ruin you later if you don't have the funds to pay up. Because once your out of school, its time to pay up. Saw it happen with one of my cousin and have heard countless stories. Their not worried about if you've found a job yet or not. TIME TO PAY UP.

Think hard about it..

 

[Hybrid12346]

I agree with some say about college being a waste for a four year degree, but that is only if your choice of major is a joke (general studies, art, communications, etc.) There are many jobs that require degrees and offer great stability. For example, I will be getting my teaching degree in a year. It's not a guarantee to find a teaching spot, but when I do and if I get tenure then I can not worry about stability and still do IM after work and spend full time in Summer doing it.

College can be worth it if you don't go wasting your money switching your major year in and year out. I'm not saying it's your only option though because many business owners I know didn't touch college and are more successful than most. I agree Jazzc, if your father wants you to go so bad ask him to back you up a little bit.

 

[YouTubez]

I really appreciate your advice jazzc and cratos. This is why I ask things like this on public forums. Sure its revealing a lot about my life but its good to see a fresh point of view on things.

The funny thing about my dad is he's living off of his veteran benefits which he earned but he's just doesn't have a penny to throw to me to help pay for college.

Anyway I flip story this I keep seeing myself broke and burnt out in that big city. Sure I might be able to find a job flipping burgers but I would have school eating up my time I could be using for different ventures. I am pretty sure if I did end up going I would hop between 2 different majors and 99% of the time would be wasted bullshitting around. I think I could learn a thing or two in college as you guys said but do I really need a $10k - $50k loan up my ass... no...

I really appreciate the insight guys, love you all. (no homo)

 

[Cratos]

I really appreciate your advice jazzc and cratos. This is why I ask things like this on public forums. Sure its revealing a lot about my life but its good to see a fresh point of view on things.

The funny thing about my dad is he's living off of his veteran benefits which he earned but he's just doesn't have a penny to throw to me to help pay for college.

Anyway I flip story this I keep seeing myself broke and burnt out in that big city. Sure I might be able to find a job flipping burgers but I would have school eating up my time I could be using for different ventures. I am pretty sure if I did end up going I would hop between 2 different majors and 99% of the time would be wasted bullshitting around. I think I could learn a thing or two in college as you guys said but do I really need a $10k - $50k loan up my ass... no...

I really appreciate the insight guys, love you all. (no homo)

We love you too dawg. (no homo stuff)

that's another thing too man.. you gotta be disciplined. Can't be messing around, especially being in the situation you're in at the moment. Manage that money wisely as well. Don't spend it all on the girls.. that's another big side issue.

 

[Patel]

Tell him that his opinion needs to be backed by cash to shoulder the costs of his preferred choice.

Getting a student load may not be a bad idea for a determined person - just make sure it 's a federal one with fixed percentage. Why? Well, 2 reasons:
a) Student loans is a humongous bubble and it 's probably going to burst before you repay it - rates of loans going bad will be over the roof and the government will be making for reduced payments to "help" the loan takers at the expense of the tax payers - i.e. mostly not you.
b) Even if the above doesn't happen any time soon, inflation (as in "value of money") is going up (but you have a fixed interest rate)*. These periods are great for loan takers and bad for loan issuers, because the real repayment value will be lower than the nominal one. If inflation is big enough, you may end up paying less value that the loan capital itself (negative interest rate).

This is assuming that you actually weight everything up and decide that there 's positive value for you going to (that specific) college rather than not.


For example, while programmers are in high demand, not everyone with such a degree is. So, if you 're going for a programmer 's career, you need to know that you 'll have to invest tons of time to become a great one (and get easy access to well paid work).

I agree with jazzc. Even if the credit/loan bubble doesn't pop, the inflation really devalues the loan. Which is bad for the issuer. But loans is risky, its always better to work off of capital instead of borrowed money imo.

My personal opinion is, don't go to college unless you want that piece of paper that says your qualified for a certain job. If you do, earn enough money until you can afford it. And don't waste it on "unaccredited universities/colleges/career training programs" Personally, I feel degrees limit your potential. It's like saying, I have a bachelors, so I can make between $a-$c. And with masters, its like I you can make $c-$f.

Where if you're looking to be self-employed, you can make $a-$z depending on yourself.

For the past few months I have been investing my time learning python, and trust me, if you learn programming, it opens up a whole new highway for you. Alot of people looking for programmers don't care about your degree, they care about your skills and experience.

In this digital age, so few people can read/write code. Being a creative programmer + marketing background is a road for success in my opinion.

 

[DatMoney]

You need advice? f**k college!

 

[farfetchedmoney]

Goals aren't meant to be realistic, goals are meant to be motivators.

there is a difference between a goal and a dream or a goal and a wish. I figured most people here would know the difference but apparently not.

 

[penguin2111]

I felt like I was in a similar situation a little over a year ago. I didn't want to go to college and I didn't think that the money would be worth it. I figured that the CHEAPEST route would still cost around $50k dollars for 4 years (not to mention the opportunity cost of not working and being in school or studying instead). It really felt like a no brainer at the time.

But then I thought about things. I wasn't making nearly enough money to support myself if I wasn't living at home. I had the idea that if I had lots of free time I could increase my earnings from $800 a month to something I could live on. That probably would have been true but I still continued to think about the other options.

Long story short I went to community college my first year. Now I am going to university. My thoughts are that I will continue to go to school until I deem it better to quit. My dream is to be able to quit without having a feeling of regret. Even if I decide to return at a later time. My personal goal that would allow me to feel comfortable quitting would be a solid $90k a year in which I know I could at least continue making a steady $50k/year after that. I am nowhere near that so I continue to go to school.

I feel like you are how I was at the time. You really don't want to do the school thing so you are biased towards making it sound worse than reality. If you have the option you could go to community college and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. This way you aren't having to take out huge loans. I could be wrong but I really feel like you are tilted towards not going which was how I was at the time.

Long story short, I think going to community college while you continue your internet marketing is the way to go if at all possible. You will have plenty of time to do both. College teaches you work ethic as mentioned before and that will help in your internet ventures. If you think you are making enough then you can make the decision to leave college. There's my .02 coming from someone who was in a similar situation.

EDIT: I just reread that the college you might go to is further away. But maybe there is a community college near you that you haven't considered. Even if there isn't some of what I said should still apply.