Quote:
Originally Posted by
mcbrown 
Easy, tiger. Yes, one should save early and often if possible. But on a lifetime NPV calculation it is much more important when you are young to focus on your long-term earning potential rather than maximize current earnings. That is the time in your life to take risks, because the cost of having low earnings only increases as you get older - you definitely won't want to be taking a lot of career risks when you are 35 and married with kids, mortgage, parents entering retirement, etc.
Besides, how does turning down a $30k job help the OP on this front in the first place when the current alternative is a $0k job? Nothing stops him from looking for another job while he is working, so better to at least have SOME income than no income.
As for roommates, having roommates after college is different from having roommates in college, because it is "real life" and college is not. In college you don't have to figure out to nearly the same extent how to coexist with other humans while sharing the responsibilities of cleaning, dishes, shopping, rent, utilities, etc. It helps most people figure out that part of growing up is learning to take care of those things, and after a short while they will figure out why living without roommates is better. And it sounds like you are the exception - most people DO want roommates when they are young, because they think it is more fun than living alone. If nothing else they need to be disabused of that notion.
Also, in my experience people who never had to live with roommates in the "real world" are more likely to have difficulty forming and maintaining long-term romantic relationships as they get older. They have their patterns and routines, their way of doing things "just so", and they never learned how to make room in their life for people with differing opinions on how to navigate the banalities of daily life. Granted this is hardly scientific, just an anecdotal observation.
I just reread my earlier post, I apologize if I came off as a dick, I was confused by your comment, not trying to insinuate you were malicious or stupid.
Maximizing lifetime earnings is key, I think we both agree on that, and assuming the "standard" trajectory (jobs-->career-->family-->retirement) obviously I'll agree that fresh out of school is the time to mess around, take risks, keep options open etc. I just don't necessarily understand what the negative impact of investment at an early age on lifetime NPV would be, which is what you seem to be implying. I think I'm misunderstanding you here.
I didn't advocate turning down the $30k job. Turning down work you have the time to do is utterly anathema to me. I've mentioned before I work full time, I'm carrying 18 credit hours, I manage projects for a few people and I maintain two (very limited) "as needed" positions with ETS and a machine shop where I used to be a full time employee, in addition to thrifting/ebay and sourcing clients for the missus' web design company. I'm not sure why you thought I was advocating turning the job down, but if I were to tender my advice in that matter to the OP it would be to take the job, take side jobs, and when he performed his job for at least a year well enough to receive a glowing recommendation, start looking for more lucrative and rewarding positions.
The roommate thing I think we're going to disagree on. It seems like by the time you graduate college, to me, that you're either capable of living well with other people (maybe you need a bit of polish, maybe you don't) or not. I've had a number of roommates before going to college, and in college, and it seems there are just certain people who are too narcissistic for it to be a practical arrangement. Financially it is a good decision, generally, but I've also had roommates that were such a PITA it negatively affected both my academic and professional performance. I just can't in good conscience agree that roommates are a manifestly good thing for all people at that age.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Piobaire
Liam:
This post shows an indepth lack of knowledge, in more than one domain, that is readily available for all on the Netwebs. May I ask what area of study you are pursuing?
Of course, but it's a long answer. I have a background in marketing and organizational communication (completed the programs, not the degree). I'm now in school for a BA in History, although realistically I'm actually studying linguistics, a set corpus of languages and their corresponding literature, with minors in Classics and Religion. I have an interest in finance that I'm considering pursuing in terms of career, but I don't know nearly enough about it at this point to make that call.
To clarify, I am not being sarcastic here: What was incorrect? I'd like to be corrected if possible, as this is stuff I'll be needing to know in order to avoid making an utter hash of my life in the future.
