Tesla Model 3

[redpoint5]

Does college turn ordinary people into smart people, or do smart people attend college?

Perhaps a little of both, but statistics cited by schools are misleading because correlation doesn't equal causation. Are they also citing the average student loan debt upon graduation when they are advertising for customers?

I'm not saying college is bad, I'm saying it's inefficient, needlessly expensive, and should only be pursued if a career path requires it, or the alternative is doing nothing at all.

My anecdote is that my friend that is a doctor is paying interest only on his house while he pays down his $200k in debt, along with his pharmacist wife's student loan debt. Meanwhile I'm purchasing my 3rd property, give somewhere around 22% gross in charity, and have cash to spare... earned mostly on a $40k annual income for the first 14 years of full time employment.

I'm very fortunate (entirely fortunate), but it shows that college isn't the best choice for everyone.

I must confess, when I attended Eureka College -- and let me stop here and say hello to my brother TEEK's -- I was involved with so many activities that I didn't always give my studies the time I should have. Even now, I sometimes wonder how far I might have gone had I fully applied myself

- President Ronald Regan

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm glad I bought and paid for my college education while Steve Jobs wasn't getting his.

This isn't a veiled comment about your age, but my grandfather would stress to me the importance of college continuously. He was from a different era where his $400/yr law degree from U of O(regon) made him financially set for the rest of his life.

The times changed, and the degree doesn't cost four hundred bucks a year anymore, and doesn't secure a position among the elietely educated. Employers are increasingly looking for a demonstration of knowledge and relevant experience, with a college degree perhaps being a requirement for consideration at best, or background noise at least.

[freebeard]

I was the first and last in my immediate family, and I was out of debt by the end of the first summer after graduation. Then I went halfway around the world and everything was changed when I got back and I was unemployable.

My son opted for six years in the Navy instead. I think it was the right choice.

Now, another generations gone by. Today it's Youtube tutorials:

https://youtu.be/Zkj9iXjmUd0?t=391

That's Kevin Kelly.

[Xist]

If I joined the Army right out of high school and only promoted fast enough to avoid being maxed out at my pay grade, I could have been a Sergeant First-Class two years ago earning $4,566.60 a month or $54,799.20 annually, and I could have retired with half of that, or $27,399.60.

That is about what I earned last year.

If, for some reason, I stayed in for forty years, I would need to reach the rank of Sergeant Major to continue receiving raises. A Sergeant Major with forty years of service would make $8,241.82 a month, $98,901.84 annually, and would retire with 100% of that.

Fifty-eight years old and making almost $100,000 a year in retirement, plus you would have forty years of free room and board.

One of my exes said that if you just showed up to KFC every day, on-time, and did your job, after six months they would make you shift leader, with a small raise. Let's say that you start when you are sixteen, in theory, when you graduate, you could be a manager.

Switching to McDonald's just because they are supposed to have great management training, Indeed.com says a manager makes about $13 an hour.

Crap.

You can graduate from high school, get fingerprinted, take CPR, First Aid, a few other courses, and my agency would pay you $14 hourly to help kids read good and stuff.

Good luck getting forty hours a week, though.

It seems like there are far better options for making at least $13 an hour, but I am sure that once you get above Store Manager the pay gets better and better. If nothing else, you can take your management experience and go elsewhere.

I do not have any leadership experience.

[Hersbird]

Post office starts at $15.75, will give you more than 40 hours, and after about 20 years you should max out at about $30 without leaving a craft and going to management. My brother does even better than that (I think about $43) as an electronics technician fixing sorting machines, a job he got with his navy training and taking a postal exam, no traditional college. His job has less overtime available, my job has potential most years for $15-20k more in OT although sometimes even $30-40k in OT is possible depending on how many other people in your station want it. Good benefits and retirement after a few years as well. There are usually openings all over, all the time. Just always go directly to USPS.com and look at career opportunities as there are a ton of scam companies out there that make themselves out as the way to get in the door. Everything should be free and direct from USPS itself. FedEx Express drivers make even more, and UPS drivers the most.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

If I joined the Army right out of high school and only promoted fast enough to avoid being maxed out at my pay grade, I could have been a Sergeant First-Class two years ago earning $4,566.60 a month or $54,799.20 annually, and I could have retired with half of that, or $27,399.60.

That is about what I earned last year.

If, for some reason, I stayed in for forty years, I would need to reach the rank of Sergeant Major to continue receiving raises. A Sergeant Major with forty years of service would make $8,241.82 a month, $98,901.84 annually, and would retire with 100% of that.

Fifty-eight years old and making almost $100,000 a year in retirement, plus you would have forty years of free room and board.

One of my exes said that if you just showed up to KFC every day, on-time, and did your job, after six months they would make you shift leader, with a small raise. Let's say that you start when you are sixteen, in theory, when you graduate, you could be a manager.

Switching to McDonald's just because they are supposed to have great management training, Indeed.com says a manager makes about $13 an hour.

Crap.

You can graduate from high school, get fingerprinted, take CPR, First Aid, a few other courses, and my agency would pay you $14 hourly to help kids read good and stuff.

Good luck getting forty hours a week, though.

It seems like there are far better options for making at least $13 an hour, but I am sure that once you get above Store Manager the pay gets better and better. If nothing else, you can take your management experience and go elsewhere.

I do not have any leadership experience.

I spent the weekend a couple weeks ago with my brother-in-law that retired from the Air Force almost 2 years ago. He recently turned 50. One of his last assignments was base commander on the CA coast. I forget what % 30 years of service earns in retirement, but he's making something like $80k/yr in retirement. I don't know if disability is part of that $80k or not. His private job last year earned $300k. He took his RV to Montana to fish this week.

I've got no military experience (to my dismay), but it seems like it provides a good opportunity to earn a living through retirement.

The factory I worked at would hire temps (just about anyone that can pass a drug test) and pay them $14/hr to start, and after about a year of good attendance would hire people directly and pay $16-$18hr with benefits and built in overtime (with optional overtime for those that wanted it). I saw people go from new hires, to engineers, to department managers there.

Pay isn't the only consideration. You exited the military for your reasons, and you got into speech therapy for your reasons.

[Xist]

Years ago a friend studied to get a job with the post office.

She did not even have an interview.

Since twenty years in the military will get you 50% and forty years will get you 100%, I am going to guess that 30 years would get you 75%.

I do not know what it takes to have a million-dollar idea, let alone a billion-dollar one.

Most years I would have earned at least as much as a teacher and that is supposed to slowly increase year after year.

[Fat Charlie]

Million dollar ideas are a dime a dozen. I've had several. The money comes from being able to implement them so they can produce any money at all, much less a million dollars. If you can accomplish that, you might as well do it for your own ideas instead of somebody else's and keep the money. If you can't, it doesn't matter which ideas you have (from the perspective of making your own fortune).

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Xist

Years ago a friend studied to get a job with the post office.

She did not even have an interview.

Since twenty years in the military will get you 50% and forty years will get you 100%, I am going to guess that 30 years would get you 75%.

I do not know what it takes to have a million-dollar idea, let alone a billion-dollar one.

Most years I would have earned at least as much as a teacher and that is supposed to slowly increase year after year.

Anyone enlisting after about 1984 is 2% per year. 20 years is 40%, 40 years is 80%, it takes 50 years for 100% but that's impossible because you will face mandatory retirement before you could reach 68 years old needed to have 50 years in joining when you were 18. You also need 20 years to be eligible for any retirement. 18 years gets you zero. The good thing is there is no minimum retirement age like the rest of the federal government. Join at 18, do your twenty years, get 40% for life starting at your current age of 38. One major difference in some of the numbers posted, sure an E6 can make $80,000 a year in total pay depending on ratings and location, but that 40% retirement pay is 40% of the base pay only which is probably about 1/2 of the total $80,000. You lose all the housing and specialty pays. Another "perk" is some areas make all your pay tax free including re-enlistment bonus which can be up to $100,000 for a 6 year extension. I put "perk" in quotes because it's places like the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

[Xist]

I did not pay state taxes on any part of my enlistment bonus because I received each installment in Germany of Afghanistan. I did not pay Federal taxes on anything in the sandbox.

I always wonder where I spent all of the money.

[wdb]

Moderators can we please have this thread split? I'm sick of clicking to see new posts about Tesla Model 3 and finding all kinds of other stuff instead.