Ever wondered why so many students drop out of college despite societal pressures to stay? Tune into this week's Balanced Blueprints as we unpack the hidden struggles faced by college students. We're thrilled to have Aiden, a high school student shadowing us, bringing a fresh perspective to our discussion. Together, we delve into the benefits of pursuing a career in the trades, offering a pathway not only to personal fulfillment but also to financial success. For graduates wrestling with employment in their chosen fields, we explore strategic methods to leverage existing skills to gain entry into desirable companies, eventually guiding them towards their dream roles.
Our journey doesn't stop at career transitions. We dive into the vital aspects of financial freedom and self-awareness, illuminating the path to achieve both. Discover why sometimes taking less fulfilling jobs can be the stepping stone to future financial stability and career flexibility. Through stories of sacrifice and smart financial choices, we emphasize how living below one's means today can open doors to more meaningful career opportunities tomorrow. This episode is packed with insights on understanding personal patterns and passions, providing a roadmap to align your career with what truly drives you.
Lastly, we tackle the often-overlooked issue of student loans, providing crucial guidance on borrowing responsibly. We discuss the importance of keeping student debt within 50% of your expected income and share practical tips to minimize debt through scholarships and frugal spending habits. We also explore how maintaining physical and mental well-being, including fitness and nutrition, can contribute to financial health. This episode is a comprehensive guide for college students aiming to balance their finances and health, setting the stage for a prosperous future. Don't miss this enlightening conversation designed to help you navigate the complexities of career transitions and financial management.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Balanced Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss the optimaltechniques for finances and
health and then break it down tocreate an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, justin Gaines,here with my co-host, jon Prober
, so in this episode we're goingto do something a little
different.
I have Aiden here with me.
He's a high school student,he's shadowing me for the day,
and so we're going to get alittle bit of the financial
(00:21):
perspective as well as someother perspectives from a high
school student on what they'rethinking about when they go and
look at colleges or look attheir next career step.
And obviously John and I havebeen through that.
We've had two very differentpaths as far as approaching that
.
We had two very differentcollege experiences too.
(00:49):
I know that we've talked aboutit at great lengths in our
personal lives about how we wishwe knew a bunch of stuff that
we didn't know going into it andprobably would have made
different decisions, and, youknow, just approach things
differently.
So this will be interesting tosee how you know, flash forward
10 years from when we weremaking this decision, see if 10
years changes the thoughtprocess and the questions, and
then hopefully be able to answerthem and have a good, good
podcast out of it.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, well, this wasn't my next question, but
this transition just seemsseamless.
So in 2023, there was a 33%dropout rate and in 2021, 28.2%
aren't able to find a job intheir field of study.
How would you advise thesepeople to restart their adult
life and progress towards thatfinancial freedom restart?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
their adult life and progress towards their financial
career.
So this is where I think peoplewith a degree start to
pigeonhole themselves and thinkthat that's the only thing that
they can get into.
Most jobs that you go intoretrain you anyways.
So what I would tell theseindividuals?
The dropout situation.
In my experience, individualsthat drop out tend to drop out
because they were forced to getinto college, because that's
(01:45):
what their school told them todo, that's what their guidance
counselor told them to do and,quite frankly, they never should
have been there in the firstplace, because it wasn't where
they should have been.
They might have had an interestand a passion for working with
their hands and they were toldyou know, you're going to be a
failure, You're never going tomake it in life unless you go to
college.
They go there for a year or two.
They drop out because theyabsolutely hate it.
The people that are in thatspot should absolutely go work
(02:07):
with your hands.
You are going to make a ton ofmoney and you're going to be
just fine.
The individuals that have adegree, like the degree that
they're in and are trying to bein that field, find ways to sell
the skill sets that you have toget into a bit of a job that
you can then laterally move intosomething that more identifies
(02:31):
and more lines up with whatyou're trying to be into.
But just try to get into abusiness that has those careers
that you're looking to get into.
Sell your skills to get intothat business and work in some
department and then, once you'vebuilt rapport and you've shown
your value to the company,telling them that you want to
try something in a lateral moveis going to be a much easier
(02:52):
sell than trying to sell them onyou as a whole Once you're in
the door.
The cost of acquiring a newemployee for a business is
highly expensive.
So if you present to them thatyou're not really loving the
career you're in right now youwent to school for X, you want
to be in X position.
You see that there's jobopenings in that company for
that position.
(03:12):
You want to make a lateral move.
If you've shown your value ofthe company, they're going to
retain you and move you intothat position.
It might not be right away, itmight take some time, but if the
issue is that you're having ahard time finding a degree in
your field, one look up thestatistic on how many people
actually use their degree, andyou'll find that it's an
(03:33):
alarming rate that most peoplewho go and get a degree do not
end up working in that field,and so you know you're not alone
.
But if you are in a positionwhere that's the field you want
to be in, find a way to get intoa company that has lateral
movement opportunities for youand eventually get into that
field.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Mine's pretty short here in terms of I'm going to
take a nice woo-woo holisticapproach like I normally do
approach, like, like I normallydo it, I would just look at.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I think you should maybe go a little longer on this
because you have, you have the,you had the degree, but the
degree that it would get youisn't the right fit.
But now you're you're doingwhat you're doing in order to
get into what you actually wantto get into.
So I think I mean, honestly, Ican talk about theories and
concepts of numbers, but I thinkyou have more real life
experience with this one that'strue.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Can you repeat the question?
It was harder to hear yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So the question was um he rightful, awesome
statistics, but there's a largepercentage of individuals that
went to college and then droppedout within the last five years
and then also within the lastfive years, there's a large
percentage of individuals whogot degrees and are not in the
career okay, are not able to geta, get a job in the career that
(04:50):
they wanted to be in based ontheir degrees I see and then
what advice would you give tothose people which I feel like
the latter part of that is you,where you have a degree.
You weren't advised properly, sowhat you wanted to go into
didn't line up with what youactually had.
So it's going to be an uphillbattle and now you're doing the
whole re-education.
Try and finding the right fitfor you yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So I'm going to zoom out and say it's all about
knowing yourself.
It's not about knowing and I.
That's even hard to say becauseI don't even know how you do
that at 18, 19 years old.
But I was, like Justin said,pretty misguided from the start.
I didn't decide where I wantedto go to school in high school,
(05:35):
so I wasn't going to go anywhere.
My guidance counselor called myparents and said you can't send
your son to a community school,which I think is completely
terrible and overstepping,because there's nothing wrong
with community school.
Ours did a two plus two program, so I could have just done it
for two years.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Save some money when you probably would have what you
actually wanted to do if youdid two years at way cheaper
rate than what you did yes, sothat that was.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I never knew she did that until years later.
I was like that's, that's bad.
So I was guided that way.
I ended up going to a communityuh, not a community college, a
suny college, because I guessthat's better.
Um, so I went to suny.
I applied very late.
I'm saying all this because toshow you how much of a roller
(06:25):
coaster, crazy, not guided pathit was.
I went abroad the firstsemester ever of my college
experience.
Came back didn't like the schoolI was at, transferred to Siena,
still didn't know the major Iwanted to do.
Took a class that I really hadinterest in, but the school
didn't have a major in thatinterest.
They only had a class.
(06:46):
Tried to make my own major forit.
Found out later on that theUSDA, the government, they don't
really like your own major,that you need to be like we
talked about earlier, play moreof their game.
You need their grades, theirclasses.
So I just boil it all down tois I didn't know what I wanted.
(07:06):
I still sometimes don't.
I think it's not about how muchmoney I want to make or what job
I wanted people to see me in.
I think it's just about what doI want to do, how do I want to
spend my time?
How do I want to wake up eachday and maybe use what I have to
help other people?
Because I guess, why would youdo a job unless you feel like
(07:30):
you're making an impact and I amnow taking the time I guess
what I would suggest people todo is get yourself a decent
financial spot.
If you found like, okay, I am inthe wrong profession or I
dropped out or I have a degree Idon't want to use, you can't go
and explore or figure thingsout if you're in debt or don't
(07:51):
have any money.
So I spent probably time afterthat of building up some money,
graduating, paying off schooland saving up some money.
And now I'm in the spot ofrediscovery.
And I'm not looking atrediscovery in terms of what job
, although I am exploringdifferent jobs but I'm looking
at it in terms of, like, what doI want to do for a long time,
(08:14):
and that always may change.
But yeah, I would say, save upsome money and then just don't
be afraid to try new things,Things that I saw this yesterday
.
That was a great thing is youknow if you're always wondering
what to do or what your purposeis is like we have patterns in
life.
So now that time has gone by,it's like look back, what do you
(08:37):
usually go back to, what do youusually do?
Look to those patterns and thenyou can figure out your job and
how to make money from there.
But I wouldn't start at startwith like what college degree or
what job do I want to get.
I would just be like who am I?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, and also you glazed over it really quickly,
and I want to, I want to putsome emphasis on here, because I
do think it is a big thing thatyou did is you took jobs, that,
and because, because we're soclose, I can state all this
because I, you know, was withyou through it.
Um, you took jobs that youdidn't like at all, but that
they paid you well and you livedwell below your means, saved up
(09:18):
money, paid off all of yourstudent debt, which was like I
mean, do you want to share thatnumber?
I don't remember what exactlyit is, but yeah, I think it was.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I think I was paying with scholarships, like probably
24 a year, four years, so likeand then your debt once you got
out of college, so that you justpaid off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What was that dollar amount?
That was like oh, the one Ijust did, that was just 34, 34
yeah, so so, and now you don'thave any student loan debt,
which is what has given you theflexibility to now, so you took
probably well, all of covid andthis really since 2019.
You've really been working jobsyou don't like it's a great
(09:57):
life so you've been working forthe last five years.
You've been working jobs youdon't like, living below your
means, got yourself into aposition where you have a
sizable savings, no college debt, actually, no debt at all,
right, right, yeah.
So you have no debt, you havesizable savings and you have the
ability now to do what you wantand work jobs that may not pay
(10:20):
as much but allow you to eitherself-discover or just do a job
that you find meaning in.
And that is because you tookthe self-sacrifice for five
years, live through that painand now are starting to be able
to, you know, reap some of thefruits, and I know that.
You know we're still at a earlytrajectory on that path and
it's still.
There's still some plenty ofpainful days, as I know from our
(10:42):
conversations.
But, yeah, I feel like you'refinally starting to be able to
see the light at the tunnelinstead of just digging that
tunnel to be able to get you outof there.
And I think that's that's a keycomponent that I don't think our
generation or the currentworking force likes to think
about is.
They want everything to be niceand easy, bright, rosy,
sun-colored glasses, and thatlife is supposed to be easy for
(11:04):
me and just hand it to me, andthat's just not reality.
You've taken the sacrificesover the last five years to put
yourself in a position where youhave control now again over
your life and over yourdecisions when it comes to going
back to school, working jobs,doing all that sort of stuff.
But if you didn't take the timeto put in those five years of
sacrifice and live and it wasn'tjust sacrifice working in jobs
(11:27):
that you didn't like, it wassacrifice living well below your
means to be able to have thatsavings to then be able to clear
out those debts it wouldn't bepossible.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, and I think it's easy to get bitter too,
because I look back and I'm likeI'm sacrificing five years, but
then I'm like what was college?
Sacrificing four, you know.
So it's that's why my mainadvice is really know yourself,
because if I knew myself beforeall this, I still may be working
very low end job, but at leastI have like what I'm working
(11:58):
towards.
So I'm not saying you can avoidthe hard work by knowing what,
what, what I want and what job,but you at least have that
carrot in front of you of likethat's the care I want.
I'm working towards thatbecause I know myself, whereas
now, like I've done all that toget myself into the position,
like Justin said, of now I havethat freedom to explore and I
(12:19):
think where I'm really at islike, oh well, I'll see that
light come closer to me once Ieven know myself more.
So if I did that earlier, orreally emphasized on what's what
my heart's telling me versuswhat my peers are doing or this
or that, I'd say that's probablythe best thing.
I mean, that's why peoplechange careers, they drop out.
They do that because they'rejust, they're not, they're not
listening to their heart.
(12:39):
But it's also hard to do.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Right For do this because they're just, they're
not, they're not listening totheir heart.
But it's also hard to do, rightfor sure, for sure.
I just wanted to highlight, youknow, a few of those things
that, yeah, you've done, thathave been hard, that most people
there's probably a ton ofpeople that are going through it
and it's just, it doesn't.
It's not a good feeling, itdoesn't seem like it's the right
feeling, you feel like youmight have made a mistake, but
you know, part of that's lifeyou know?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
yeah, you're right.
I mean I won't keep us on thisquestion too much longer, but I
glaze over.
You glaze over the hard stuffor the recognition.
It's been a bumpy road, anemotional road, a lost road.
So just ride it, I guess.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
You're not alone.
You're not alone.
It happens and you learn a lotfrom it.
I also, I remember we weretalking about this a little
while ago and I'll say this andthen we can move on, because I
think we're both to that pointon this where we're not.
We don't.
We don't like the, the sappyemotional stuff.
But, um, we were talking abouthow it's ironic that most of the
milestones that society likepushes for seem to be on 10 year
(13:44):
delays.
We tell 18 year olds in thiscountry to have it all figured
out at 18.
And realistically, they'reprobably not going to start
figuring it out till they're 28or 30.
Everybody wants to be amillionaire by 30, which is very
hard to do.
It's possible, but it is veryhard to do.
It takes a ton of sacrificeWhereas the majority of people,
if they took a little bit ofsacrifice and were very targeted
(14:06):
, could be millionaires by 40.
And it's just, it's interestingthat you know and I don't know
if it's a consumption thing or asales thing from large
corporations, or you know whatthe case is but it just seems
that in this country we pushpeople 10 years faster than
reality should be.
And I think if more people cameto that realization, they would
(14:27):
realize that they've made someserious accomplishments.
They're still ahead of theeight ball or they're right on
track for what the averageperson does.
The problem is is, in our eightsecond attention spans and tick
tock and Instagram, Facebookworld, All we see is the person
who became a millionaire at 25or is making 300, $400,000 a
(14:50):
year and like that's just notthe average person.
That's not reality.
But because that's what we seeall the time on those social
media platforms, we think it isreality.
I'll go off my soapbox, but Ijust, you know, I do think
that's another portion to this.
But I think we have time for onemore question and then we'll
wrap it up.
What's the last one you want toput in the podcast?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Student loans.
How do you know when you shouldand or stop borrowing money for
your college?
So student loans your college.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So student loans, when should you and when should
you not borrow money again?
This is where I think it goesback to the previous question of
you know, jobs, careers,evaluating whether or not you
should or shouldn't go tocollege.
If, if the average pay for theprofession you're going into is
going to exceed what you'repaying each year, you're going
(15:44):
to have a problem.
But I also think, because I'm aproponent for working and
applying for as manyscholarships as you can, your
debt load should not exceed yourdebt load for your degree.
Absolutely in no circumstancesshould it exceed the equivalent
of what you're going to make inthat profession.
So if your profession, youraverage income in your
(16:06):
profession and I'm not sayingright out of college, I'm just
saying average income in yourprofession If the average income
in your profession is a hundredgrand, you should not under any
circumstances have more than ahundred grand student debt.
I would put it even for likethat is the absolute stopping
point.
But I would say that youprobably shouldn't get in a
(16:26):
situation where it's exceeding50%.
If you're going into a careerthat generally makes $100,000,
you probably shouldn't rack upmore than $50,000 in student
loan debts, in student loandebts.
You want to keep that number aslow as possible, but the higher
it goes, it just means you'regoing to have higher payments.
(16:46):
The interest is going tocompound harder and faster on
that and the ability for you topay it back it's just going to
be that much more difficult.
You're going to be taxed bystudent loans the rest of your
life and then you know if you goto college you get a job that
pays you well, but in order toget that job you had to rack up
(17:08):
a massive debt that then youhave to pay back.
You're not actually making moremoney, you're just making more
money and paying off studentloan debt.
So your take-home pay stillends up being what it would have
been if you didn't go to school, because you're paying that
massive student loan payment.
Generally speaking, whereinterest rates are right now,
for every on student loans debtthat is, for every ten thousand
(17:29):
dollars of debt you're probablygoing to be paying somewhere in
the two hundred dollar per monthrange.
So if you have a hundredthousand dollars of debt, you're
going to be paying a mortgage.
You're going to be paying closeto two grand a month to pay it
off in 10 years and, like youknow now you're not going to be
able to buy a house Now you'renot going to be able to buy all
(17:49):
these other things and worktowards those things.
So you're making $100,000 ayear, which means you're taking
home roughly 80, we'll call ithigh 70s, we'll be ambitious
eighty thousand dollars takehome pay.
24 of that is going to studentloan payments.
So you're only taking homefifty six thousand dollars.
(18:09):
Yeah, fifty six thousanddollars a year is your take home
pay.
On that, versus if you, you know, didn't get that degree and you
just went into the workforceand worked your way up and were
making $60,000 a year and aftertaxes that comes out to, say,
$48,000, you're talking about an$8,000 difference in annual
(18:32):
income as far as take-home isconcerned because of the amount
of debt you racked up, theamount of debt you racked up,
and so it's just.
You know the juice isn't worththe squeeze, so to speak.
If you're going to rack up debt, that's going to be equivalent
to or exceed your income earningpotential.
Now, after the 10 years, youget all that money back and you
know you get that.
You pay off the debt.
(18:52):
So then you have that spendingpotential back into your budget.
But is it worth that 10 years ofsacrifice?
That's where you have to ask thequestion.
So, from a financial perspective, I think it should be below 50%
of what your average income inthe profession is.
Again, because you might noteven end up in your profession
(19:13):
as we've already talked about inthose conversations and you
find out you hate it, and nowthe profession that you actually
go into is $80,000.
You hate it, and now theaverage, the profession that you
actually go into, is 80 grand.
Well, if you only have fiftythousand dollars worth of debt
because you're at 50 now, thatonly bumps up to 75 by shifting
careers 75 by shifting careersversus if you had a hundred
thousand in debt and you had toshift to a career that doesn't
(19:33):
make as much money, and nowyou're only making 80.
Now you're at 125 and you knowyour take-home pay drops down
into, you know, minimum wagejobs, slightly above minimum
wage jobs for take-home pay, andso that's where I think it's a
delicate balance, but I thinkit's something that needs to be
(19:54):
considered.
Yeah, I don't expect you tohave much to say, but the only
thing I got from that was it's.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I mean, if you know that's what you want to do and
you love it, nothing you can doabout it.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So if it that's the only thing it's you and that's a
good point that you make is, ifyou know that you're going to
love it and you know that you'regoing to go into it, then it's
not so much a big deal becauseyou're going to have that high
income rating.
But what that also means,though, is that you've
handcuffed yourself to thatcareer.
If you're looking at $100,000 ayear career and you have
(20:32):
$100,000 in debt, you'vehandcuffed yourself.
Doctors, lawyers that have$200,000 in debt.
They can make 200 grand.
That's fine, but the problem isthey just handcuff themselves.
If they do not want to be adoctor, do not want to be a
lawyer, it doesn't matter, theyhave to be a doctor.
They have to be a lawyer forthe next 10, 15, 20 years in
order to pay off the debt,because the other thing is is
(20:53):
they're not going to pay to beable to afford the $2,000 a
month when they first start off.
So they're not going to pay ona 10-year loan.
They're going to pay on a 15 ora 20-year loan in order to cut
that payment, or being in a highearning career, versus if you
don't have the debt.
You know, if you, if you got outof out of high school weren't
(21:29):
sure what you wanted to do andwent and worked for a landscaper
or a carpenter or a plumber notas, not as a certified in any
one of those, but you just werea laborer in that field.
You could save a bunch of money.
Find out that you either lovewhat you're doing and keep doing
it and make all kinds of money,or then go and go to college
afterwards but have the money tobe able to pay for it, so that
(21:50):
then, even if you get a degreein something you don't
absolutely love, pivoting to adifferent career isn't as
detrimental.
And it all comes down to howmuch debt you're going to take
on.
Now, if you're somebody whowants to go to college and
you're pretty certain thatyou're going to be an electrical
engineer and you're prettycertain you're going to love it,
what I would say to you is findall the scholarships you can
apply for them.
(22:10):
Get as much money as you can outof that so that you can make it
, so that the amount of debt youhave is not much less.
Take a campus job.
Take a job off campus.
Find some way to minimize theamount of debt that you're
taking on.
All right, he said.
Do another question, becausehe's going to split it into two
(22:32):
episodes for us.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So you get a bonus question.
He said he has some good ones.
He has, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There's quite a few more.
We'll go into the diet side forthis one since this one.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
the other one was Diet-specific question for John.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
How would you avoid that typical college diet,
whether that be foodalternatives or getting money to
afford the healthier foods,college-specific being the
typical instant ramen in themicrowave.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
This will be good.
I'm curious to hear yourresponse that's tough.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
avoid it.
And if you're going to do itthrough buying different stuff,
how do you afford it?
I'm going to put myself rightback at sienna, because sienna's
food was not not great yeah,and I feel like I feel like
sienna's food though to you know, this might be because I love
sienna but I feel like sienna'sfood was probably like most
(23:26):
college campuses, where it'sjust not great yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
The only school I went to that was cool, that I
visited was colgate, that theyuse stuff from the garden they
grow, so I guess that colgatehad some great food.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I visited there a couple of times and it was
pretty impressive what theywould do there.
But I feel like most collegecampuses have one spot that's
decent and the rest of it's justaverage at best.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
All right, so to navigate, I'm just gathering my
thoughts here.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, While you gather your thoughts, I guess
I'll make my my comments thatyou'll hate All right.
I would say that you know we wetalk about in our podcast that
um health.
There's a lot of overlapbetween health and finances and
one of them is is that if, justlike if you have money, you can
spend money on stupid stuffbecause you haven't, it's not
going to negatively impact you.
Generally speaking, if you'refit, active and you do a lot of
(24:21):
the other physical fitness stuffand be involved and stay active
on campus and you get out inthe wet and you get out in the
sun and do all these things, youcan eat a less than ideal diet
because you have good health,and so you can spend that good
health while you're young andthen make up for it once you
actually have a good job withbuying local and really good
things.
(24:41):
Um, because on the finance side, I would say your food is
something that you can get onthe meal plan.
Not eat off campus, not, youknow, we'll talk about the
elephant room not spend a ton ofmoney on booze and all this
other things that college kidsdo.
Reduce your spending there,because college kids will find
(25:02):
50 to 100 to go out on theweekends.
But if they could take that 50to 100 and put it towards their
student loans and put it towardsother things like that, that
would make a much better impactand then eat whatever school has
for food.
Yeah, maybe it's not the best,maybe it's not the most ideal,
but most ideal.
But if you're able to reducethe student loan piece, it's
(25:23):
going to directly impact theability to afford better food
when you get out.
And then play catch up, so tospeak, on your health in that
component.
That would be my take on it asa non-health expert, but we'll
send it over to John expert, butwe'll send it over to john.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
For what?
Uh, it's funny because I agreedwith basically everything.
And then, when you were likeit's funny because they'll find
150 to go out, but they can putit to their loans, my head went
to they'll find 150 to go out,but they could put it towards
healthy food yeah so like yeah,so there's the other route so
that's the only difference.
But but to go off your point, asa freshman you're probably
either stuck on campus or onlyon a meal plan.
It's going to be, like Justinsaid, more about your other
(26:03):
activities.
Go to the gym, get outside,soak up as much sun as you can,
especially depending on whereyou're going to school if it's
in the northern hemisphere.
Get sunlight, have goodrelationships, take care of your
mental health.
Justin and I got into a lot ofconversations about how
(26:25):
important is diet versus theseother factors of your health.
Then what you're going to do isyou go to the dining hall, just
do your best to like.
An extreme version is go to thesalad bar and make your own
salad with the protein they haveevery day.
That's extreme.
The other extreme is eat thepizza and fries they have every
day.
So I would just go to themiddle and try and do like pick
the whole foods, pick the yogurt, pick the yogurt without sugar
(26:47):
added, add your own toppingsLike they should have better
stuff there of.
Okay, for breakfast I'm goingto go get plain yogurt, vanilla
yogurt, throw in some driedfruit have, throw in some nuts.
They have you know.
Just pick whole foods, realfood, and I think this is more
important.
We're not like huge proponentsof you have to fast, but this
(27:09):
might be a better time to,because they see they've shown
that fasting helps.
When you're eating actuallymore junk food than healthier
food, it plays a bigger role.
So this might be better to belike I'm just going to eat
between 8 am and 7 pm.
So this is where you know a lotof college kids will burn the
(27:29):
midnight oil, do homework allnight.
They'll be like you want to goget pizza at midnight.
This is where I'd say maybethose are the ones where you can
leave out and be like nope, Iate tons of food during the day,
I'm not hungry.
Or hopefully, you're sleeping,because sleep schedule is going
to be there.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's funny you bring up sleep, because I was just
going to say that was my bigthing in college I would never
do any work past 10 pm and Ialways made sure I was in bed by
midnight.
There was occasional nights outdrinking and having a good old
time, that it was midnight thatI got to bed.
But I always remember my friendsbeing like I don't understand
how you get all your work doneand still not work past 10 and
(28:09):
go to bed at midnight.
And I was like, and I alwaystold people the issue was, is
that I could work past 10.
The problem is is that theamount of time that it would
take me to do a task if I wasworking past 10, versus waking
up at 7 and doing my morningroutine and starting work again
at 8, from 8 to 9 in the morning, I could do just as much as I
could do from 10 to 1 at night.
(28:29):
And it was because you're tired, you're exhausted, your brain's
not properly firing, and so youknow I I wasn't even doing it
from a health perspective.
But you know there's thathealth component as well that
just getting the right amount ofsleep will also play a huge
role in your body's ability tocombat the fact that you're
eating all these seed oils andyeah, you know, fried foods and
(28:52):
all that stuff.
Yeah, I didn't think about thefasting one.
That's an easy, cost effective,doesn't cost you a penny to do
it.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Yeah, and that's how I would answer your question.
I mean food's important, butreally focus on the other ones
because if you do it right, youcan become if this is what you
want I say this because it'scool to me you can become like
an absolute unit in college, andby that I mean sleep well.
You live on a campus with a gym.
You live on a campus with a gym.
(29:19):
You live on a campus withunlimited food.
So just pick high protein foods.
Always eat protein first.
You can't overdo it.
Like Justin said, there's a lotof fried.
Tried to go for the not friedfood.
And then my only other thingthere is we leveled up our
college.
Once you get out of freshmansophomore year, our college had
a store like a littleconvenience store with just
(29:40):
plain ingredients.
We used our campus money to buythose.
You can cook for yourself orshop at Walmart.
It's just brown beef, avocados,fruits.
It's a lot cheaper than mostpeople think.
You know it's not seasonal,local, but you're going to get
healthy and fit off of justgoing to walmart and getting
(30:00):
decent quality, organic fruits,meats, things, things.
There.
It's still cheap.
So I would say that's probablyprobably that nice, that was a
fun one.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
What else you got?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
send it our way I don't have any specific diets to
answer my second question butuh, that's good, it means we
gave a good answer.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, I'm looking at our recording time.
I think we can get one more inone more.
One more, and then we'll beable to split it in two.
This one is a little bitopen-ended, so perfect, that's a
great way to end.
We're going to end with anopen-ended question.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Moving up the rungs of college.
My plan personally is communitycollege, private.
Hopefully something betterafter that.
How do you know when to stopputting money into that dream of
something like an MIT or an IvyLeague with that moving up
process?
When should you know to quit?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Interesting question, I would say.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Try to reiterate I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'll repeat the question.
So he said that his trajectoryis do some community college,
then do a private and thencontinue to move up the rungs to
a better and higher, moreprestigious college in that
process.
When do you give up on thatpipe dream?
When do you say enough isenough?
At what level do you stop?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I'll let me do mine, because it's super quick okay,
go for it, yeah good you stopwhen you're happy and you're
satisfied and you continue whenyou feel like you're stagnant.
I mean that I feel like there'sno reason to continue for me if
I'm enjoying what I'm doing,enjoying where I am.
If I want more because I feellike I stopped learning, I'll go
(31:52):
for more right, yeah and Ithink that's a good response.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I would reiterate the point that I made earlier of
when you're going to thoseschools, one I'll back up a
little bit.
I think it's the right approachto take.
I think doing two years ofcommunity college and then going
somewhere else is phenomenal.
I think it gives you theability to keep that student
debt down.
It also allows you two years tobe able to be like do I
actually want to become anelectrical engineer?
(32:17):
For, I mean, what does hudsonvalley cost right now?
Is it like it would bebasically free, with all the um,
with all the scholarships, soyou wouldn't even have to pay
for those two years and even ifyou were you're talking about
like four grand a year or fourgrand a semester, I think.
Eight grand a year, 16 000 fortwo years.
Like you make that sort ofmistake, you can work a minimum
wage job and make up thedifference there.
(32:38):
So one absolutely completelyagree with the trajectory Go to
a community college, figure outwhat you want to do, make sure
it's what you want to do andthen jump from there To me.
So you would make a jump thenpotentially for your bachelor's.
So you go two years, get yourassociates, go bachelor's.
Maybe not even get yourassociates, but just go into a
college for your bachelors.
Your next jump would be masters.
(32:59):
So you have the potential ofthree different colleges there.
What I would tell you is Do whatmakes sense from a networking
perspective, because just bygoing to a college you have
access to their network.
You go to Hudson ValleyCommunity College.
You have access to people whowent to Hudson Valley Community
College.
Now, because it's a communitycollege, typically that alumni
(33:21):
network won't be as strong andcultish, if you will, as some
different colleges.
But then the private school yougo to probably is going to have
that very network,alumni-centric focus.
And then where you go from thereis also up to you.
I am a huge proponent of notgetting your bachelor's and your
master's at the same collegethough.
(33:41):
So even if even if you're youknow, say, you go to a private
school and then you know you'relooking at Ivy's for your
master's, but you don't get intothe Ivy's and you could just
stay where you're at I'm a hugeproponent of moving to a
different college, and thereason being is that I firmly
believe the reason why you paymore to go to a private school
versus a state school is becauseof that cult-like alumni
(34:03):
network.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
We hope this helps you on your balance freedom
journey.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Please share your thoughts in the comments section
below.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Until next time, stay balanced.
Welcome to the Balanced Blueprints podcast,
where we discuss the optimaltechniques for finances and
health and then break it down tocreate an individualized and
balanced plan.
I'm your host, justin Gaines,here with my co-host, jon Prober
, so in this episode we're goingto do something a little
different.
I have Aiden here with me.
He's a high school student,he's shadowing me for the day,
and so we're going to get alittle bit of the financial
(00:21):
perspective as well as someother perspectives from a high
school student on what they'rethinking about when they go and
look at colleges or look attheir next career step.
And obviously John and I havebeen through that.
We've had two very differentpaths as far as approaching that
.
We had two very differentcollege experiences too.
(00:49):
I know that we've talked aboutit at great lengths in our
personal lives about how we wishwe knew a bunch of stuff that
we didn't know going into it andprobably would have made
different decisions, and, youknow, just approach things
differently.
So this will be interesting tosee how you know, flash forward
10 years from when we weremaking this decision, see if 10
years changes the thoughtprocess and the questions, and
then hopefully be able to answerthem and have a good, good
podcast out of it.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, well, this wasn't my next question, but
this transition just seemsseamless.
So in 2023, there was a 33%dropout rate and in 2021, 28.2%
aren't able to find a job intheir field of study.
How would you advise thesepeople to restart their adult
life and progress towards thatfinancial freedom restart?
Speaker 1 (01:24):
their adult life and progress towards their financial
career.
So this is where I think peoplewith a degree start to
pigeonhole themselves and thinkthat that's the only thing that
they can get into.
Most jobs that you go intoretrain you anyways.
So what I would tell theseindividuals?
The dropout situation.
In my experience, individualsthat drop out tend to drop out
because they were forced to getinto college, because that's
(01:45):
what their school told them todo, that's what their guidance
counselor told them to do and,quite frankly, they never should
have been there in the firstplace, because it wasn't where
they should have been.
They might have had an interestand a passion for working with
their hands and they were toldyou know, you're going to be a
failure, You're never going tomake it in life unless you go to
college.
They go there for a year or two.
They drop out because theyabsolutely hate it.
The people that are in thatspot should absolutely go work
(02:07):
with your hands.
You are going to make a ton ofmoney and you're going to be
just fine.
The individuals that have adegree, like the degree that
they're in and are trying to bein that field, find ways to sell
the skill sets that you have toget into a bit of a job that
you can then laterally move intosomething that more identifies
(02:31):
and more lines up with whatyou're trying to be into.
But just try to get into abusiness that has those careers
that you're looking to get into.
Sell your skills to get intothat business and work in some
department and then, once you'vebuilt rapport and you've shown
your value to the company,telling them that you want to
try something in a lateral moveis going to be a much easier
(02:52):
sell than trying to sell them onyou as a whole Once you're in
the door.
The cost of acquiring a newemployee for a business is
highly expensive.
So if you present to them thatyou're not really loving the
career you're in right now youwent to school for X, you want
to be in X position.
You see that there's jobopenings in that company for
that position.
(03:12):
You want to make a lateral move.
If you've shown your value ofthe company, they're going to
retain you and move you intothat position.
It might not be right away, itmight take some time, but if the
issue is that you're having ahard time finding a degree in
your field, one look up thestatistic on how many people
actually use their degree, andyou'll find that it's an
(03:33):
alarming rate that most peoplewho go and get a degree do not
end up working in that field,and so you know you're not alone
.
But if you are in a positionwhere that's the field you want
to be in, find a way to get intoa company that has lateral
movement opportunities for youand eventually get into that
field.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Mine's pretty short here in terms of I'm going to
take a nice woo-woo holisticapproach like I normally do
approach, like, like I normallydo it, I would just look at.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I think you should maybe go a little longer on this
because you have, you have the,you had the degree, but the
degree that it would get youisn't the right fit.
But now you're you're doingwhat you're doing in order to
get into what you actually wantto get into.
So I think I mean, honestly, Ican talk about theories and
concepts of numbers, but I thinkyou have more real life
experience with this one that'strue.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Can you repeat the question?
It was harder to hear yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So the question was um he rightful, awesome
statistics, but there's a largepercentage of individuals that
went to college and then droppedout within the last five years
and then also within the lastfive years, there's a large
percentage of individuals whogot degrees and are not in the
career okay, are not able to geta, get a job in the career that
(04:50):
they wanted to be in based ontheir degrees I see and then
what advice would you give tothose people which I feel like
the latter part of that is you,where you have a degree.
You weren't advised properly, sowhat you wanted to go into
didn't line up with what youactually had.
So it's going to be an uphillbattle and now you're doing the
whole re-education.
Try and finding the right fitfor you yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So I'm going to zoom out and say it's all about
knowing yourself.
It's not about knowing and I.
That's even hard to say becauseI don't even know how you do
that at 18, 19 years old.
But I was, like Justin said,pretty misguided from the start.
I didn't decide where I wantedto go to school in high school,
(05:35):
so I wasn't going to go anywhere.
My guidance counselor called myparents and said you can't send
your son to a community school,which I think is completely
terrible and overstepping,because there's nothing wrong
with community school.
Ours did a two plus two program, so I could have just done it
for two years.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Save some money when you probably would have what you
actually wanted to do if youdid two years at way cheaper
rate than what you did yes, sothat that was.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
I never knew she did that until years later.
I was like that's, that's bad.
So I was guided that way.
I ended up going to a communityuh, not a community college, a
suny college, because I guessthat's better.
Um, so I went to suny.
I applied very late.
I'm saying all this because toshow you how much of a roller
(06:25):
coaster, crazy, not guided pathit was.
I went abroad the firstsemester ever of my college
experience.
Came back didn't like the schoolI was at, transferred to Siena,
still didn't know the major Iwanted to do.
Took a class that I really hadinterest in, but the school
didn't have a major in thatinterest.
They only had a class.
(06:46):
Tried to make my own major forit.
Found out later on that theUSDA, the government, they don't
really like your own major,that you need to be like we
talked about earlier, play moreof their game.
You need their grades, theirclasses.
So I just boil it all down tois I didn't know what I wanted.
(07:06):
I still sometimes don't.
I think it's not about how muchmoney I want to make or what job
I wanted people to see me in.
I think it's just about what doI want to do, how do I want to
spend my time?
How do I want to wake up eachday and maybe use what I have to
help other people?
Because I guess, why would youdo a job unless you feel like
(07:30):
you're making an impact and I amnow taking the time I guess
what I would suggest people todo is get yourself a decent
financial spot.
If you found like, okay, I am inthe wrong profession or I
dropped out or I have a degree Idon't want to use, you can't go
and explore or figure thingsout if you're in debt or don't
(07:51):
have any money.
So I spent probably time afterthat of building up some money,
graduating, paying off schooland saving up some money.
And now I'm in the spot ofrediscovery.
And I'm not looking atrediscovery in terms of what job
, although I am exploringdifferent jobs but I'm looking
at it in terms of, like, what doI want to do for a long time,
(08:14):
and that always may change.
But yeah, I would say, save upsome money and then just don't
be afraid to try new things,Things that I saw this yesterday
.
That was a great thing is youknow if you're always wondering
what to do or what your purposeis is like we have patterns in
life.
So now that time has gone by,it's like look back, what do you
(08:37):
usually go back to, what do youusually do?
Look to those patterns and thenyou can figure out your job and
how to make money from there.
But I wouldn't start at startwith like what college degree or
what job do I want to get.
I would just be like who am I?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, and also you glazed over it really quickly,
and I want to, I want to putsome emphasis on here, because I
do think it is a big thing thatyou did is you took jobs, that,
and because, because we're soclose, I can state all this
because I, you know, was withyou through it.
Um, you took jobs that youdidn't like at all, but that
they paid you well and you livedwell below your means, saved up
(09:18):
money, paid off all of yourstudent debt, which was like I
mean, do you want to share thatnumber?
I don't remember what exactlyit is, but yeah, I think it was.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I think I was paying with scholarships, like probably
24 a year, four years, so likeand then your debt once you got
out of college, so that you justpaid off.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
What was that dollar amount?
That was like oh, the one Ijust did, that was just 34, 34
yeah, so so, and now you don'thave any student loan debt,
which is what has given you theflexibility to now, so you took
probably well, all of covid andthis really since 2019.
You've really been working jobsyou don't like it's a great
(09:57):
life so you've been working forthe last five years.
You've been working jobs youdon't like, living below your
means, got yourself into aposition where you have a
sizable savings, no college debt, actually, no debt at all,
right, right, yeah.
So you have no debt, you havesizable savings and you have the
ability now to do what you wantand work jobs that may not pay
(10:20):
as much but allow you to eitherself-discover or just do a job
that you find meaning in.
And that is because you tookthe self-sacrifice for five
years, live through that painand now are starting to be able
to, you know, reap some of thefruits, and I know that.
You know we're still at a earlytrajectory on that path and
it's still.
There's still some plenty ofpainful days, as I know from our
(10:42):
conversations.
But, yeah, I feel like you'refinally starting to be able to
see the light at the tunnelinstead of just digging that
tunnel to be able to get you outof there.
And I think that's that's a keycomponent that I don't think our
generation or the currentworking force likes to think
about is.
They want everything to be niceand easy, bright, rosy,
sun-colored glasses, and thatlife is supposed to be easy for
(11:04):
me and just hand it to me, andthat's just not reality.
You've taken the sacrificesover the last five years to put
yourself in a position where youhave control now again over
your life and over yourdecisions when it comes to going
back to school, working jobs,doing all that sort of stuff.
But if you didn't take the timeto put in those five years of
sacrifice and live and it wasn'tjust sacrifice working in jobs
(11:27):
that you didn't like, it wassacrifice living well below your
means to be able to have thatsavings to then be able to clear
out those debts it wouldn't bepossible.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, and I think it's easy to get bitter too,
because I look back and I'm likeI'm sacrificing five years, but
then I'm like what was college?
Sacrificing four, you know.
So it's that's why my mainadvice is really know yourself,
because if I knew myself beforeall this, I still may be working
very low end job, but at leastI have like what I'm working
(11:58):
towards.
So I'm not saying you can avoidthe hard work by knowing what,
what, what I want and what job,but you at least have that
carrot in front of you of likethat's the care I want.
I'm working towards thatbecause I know myself, whereas
now, like I've done all that toget myself into the position,
like Justin said, of now I havethat freedom to explore and I
(12:19):
think where I'm really at islike, oh well, I'll see that
light come closer to me once Ieven know myself more.
So if I did that earlier, orreally emphasized on what's what
my heart's telling me versuswhat my peers are doing or this
or that, I'd say that's probablythe best thing.
I mean, that's why peoplechange careers, they drop out.
They do that because they'rejust, they're not, they're not
listening to their heart.
(12:39):
But it's also hard to do.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Right For do this because they're just, they're
not, they're not listening totheir heart.
But it's also hard to do, rightfor sure, for sure.
I just wanted to highlight, youknow, a few of those things
that, yeah, you've done, thathave been hard, that most people
there's probably a ton ofpeople that are going through it
and it's just, it doesn't.
It's not a good feeling, itdoesn't seem like it's the right
feeling, you feel like youmight have made a mistake, but
you know, part of that's lifeyou know?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
yeah, you're right.
I mean I won't keep us on thisquestion too much longer, but I
glaze over.
You glaze over the hard stuffor the recognition.
It's been a bumpy road, anemotional road, a lost road.
So just ride it, I guess.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
You're not alone.
You're not alone.
It happens and you learn a lotfrom it.
I also, I remember we weretalking about this a little
while ago and I'll say this andthen we can move on, because I
think we're both to that pointon this where we're not.
We don't.
We don't like the, the sappyemotional stuff.
But, um, we were talking abouthow it's ironic that most of the
milestones that society likepushes for seem to be on 10 year
(13:44):
delays.
We tell 18 year olds in thiscountry to have it all figured
out at 18.
And realistically, they'reprobably not going to start
figuring it out till they're 28or 30.
Everybody wants to be amillionaire by 30, which is very
hard to do.
It's possible, but it is veryhard to do.
It takes a ton of sacrificeWhereas the majority of people,
if they took a little bit ofsacrifice and were very targeted
(14:06):
, could be millionaires by 40.
And it's just, it's interestingthat you know and I don't know
if it's a consumption thing or asales thing from large
corporations, or you know whatthe case is but it just seems
that in this country we pushpeople 10 years faster than
reality should be.
And I think if more people cameto that realization, they would
(14:27):
realize that they've made someserious accomplishments.
They're still ahead of theeight ball or they're right on
track for what the averageperson does.
The problem is is, in our eightsecond attention spans and tick
tock and Instagram, Facebookworld, All we see is the person
who became a millionaire at 25or is making 300, $400,000 a
(14:50):
year and like that's just notthe average person.
That's not reality.
But because that's what we seeall the time on those social
media platforms, we think it isreality.
I'll go off my soapbox, but Ijust, you know, I do think
that's another portion to this.
But I think we have time for onemore question and then we'll
wrap it up.
What's the last one you want toput in the podcast?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Student loans.
How do you know when you shouldand or stop borrowing money for
your college?
So student loans your college.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So student loans, when should you and when should
you not borrow money again?
This is where I think it goesback to the previous question of
you know, jobs, careers,evaluating whether or not you
should or shouldn't go tocollege.
If, if the average pay for theprofession you're going into is
going to exceed what you'repaying each year, you're going
(15:44):
to have a problem.
But I also think, because I'm aproponent for working and
applying for as manyscholarships as you can, your
debt load should not exceed yourdebt load for your degree.
Absolutely in no circumstancesshould it exceed the equivalent
of what you're going to make inthat profession.
So if your profession, youraverage income in your
(16:06):
profession and I'm not sayingright out of college, I'm just
saying average income in yourprofession If the average income
in your profession is a hundredgrand, you should not under any
circumstances have more than ahundred grand student debt.
I would put it even for likethat is the absolute stopping
point.
But I would say that youprobably shouldn't get in a
(16:26):
situation where it's exceeding50%.
If you're going into a careerthat generally makes $100,000,
you probably shouldn't rack upmore than $50,000 in student
loan debts, in student loandebts.
You want to keep that number aslow as possible, but the higher
it goes, it just means you'regoing to have higher payments.
(16:46):
The interest is going tocompound harder and faster on
that and the ability for you topay it back it's just going to
be that much more difficult.
You're going to be taxed bystudent loans the rest of your
life and then you know if you goto college you get a job that
pays you well, but in order toget that job you had to rack up
(17:08):
a massive debt that then youhave to pay back.
You're not actually making moremoney, you're just making more
money and paying off studentloan debt.
So your take-home pay stillends up being what it would have
been if you didn't go to school, because you're paying that
massive student loan payment.
Generally speaking, whereinterest rates are right now,
for every on student loans debtthat is, for every ten thousand
(17:29):
dollars of debt you're probablygoing to be paying somewhere in
the two hundred dollar per monthrange.
So if you have a hundredthousand dollars of debt, you're
going to be paying a mortgage.
You're going to be paying closeto two grand a month to pay it
off in 10 years and, like youknow now you're not going to be
able to buy a house Now you'renot going to be able to buy all
(17:49):
these other things and worktowards those things.
So you're making $100,000 ayear, which means you're taking
home roughly 80, we'll call ithigh 70s, we'll be ambitious
eighty thousand dollars takehome pay.
24 of that is going to studentloan payments.
So you're only taking homefifty six thousand dollars.
(18:09):
Yeah, fifty six thousanddollars a year is your take home
pay.
On that, versus if you, you know, didn't get that degree and you
just went into the workforceand worked your way up and were
making $60,000 a year and aftertaxes that comes out to, say,
$48,000, you're talking about an$8,000 difference in annual
(18:32):
income as far as take-home isconcerned because of the amount
of debt you racked up, theamount of debt you racked up,
and so it's just.
You know the juice isn't worththe squeeze, so to speak.
If you're going to rack up debt, that's going to be equivalent
to or exceed your income earningpotential.
Now, after the 10 years, youget all that money back and you
know you get that.
You pay off the debt.
(18:52):
So then you have that spendingpotential back into your budget.
But is it worth that 10 years ofsacrifice?
That's where you have to ask thequestion.
So, from a financial perspective, I think it should be below 50%
of what your average income inthe profession is.
Again, because you might noteven end up in your profession
(19:13):
as we've already talked about inthose conversations and you
find out you hate it, and nowthe profession that you actually
go into is $80,000.
You hate it, and now theaverage, the profession that you
actually go into, is 80 grand.
Well, if you only have fiftythousand dollars worth of debt
because you're at 50 now, thatonly bumps up to 75 by shifting
careers 75 by shifting careersversus if you had a hundred
thousand in debt and you had toshift to a career that doesn't
(19:33):
make as much money, and nowyou're only making 80.
Now you're at 125 and you knowyour take-home pay drops down
into, you know, minimum wagejobs, slightly above minimum
wage jobs for take-home pay, andso that's where I think it's a
delicate balance, but I thinkit's something that needs to be
(19:54):
considered.
Yeah, I don't expect you tohave much to say, but the only
thing I got from that was it's.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I mean, if you know that's what you want to do and
you love it, nothing you can doabout it.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So if it that's the only thing it's you and that's a
good point that you make is, ifyou know that you're going to
love it and you know that you'regoing to go into it, then it's
not so much a big deal becauseyou're going to have that high
income rating.
But what that also means,though, is that you've
handcuffed yourself to thatcareer.
If you're looking at $100,000 ayear career and you have
(20:32):
$100,000 in debt, you'vehandcuffed yourself.
Doctors, lawyers that have$200,000 in debt.
They can make 200 grand.
That's fine, but the problem isthey just handcuff themselves.
If they do not want to be adoctor, do not want to be a
lawyer, it doesn't matter, theyhave to be a doctor.
They have to be a lawyer forthe next 10, 15, 20 years in
order to pay off the debt,because the other thing is is
(20:53):
they're not going to pay to beable to afford the $2,000 a
month when they first start off.
So they're not going to pay ona 10-year loan.
They're going to pay on a 15 ora 20-year loan in order to cut
that payment, or being in a highearning career, versus if you
don't have the debt.
You know, if you, if you got outof out of high school weren't
(21:29):
sure what you wanted to do andwent and worked for a landscaper
or a carpenter or a plumber notas, not as a certified in any
one of those, but you just werea laborer in that field.
You could save a bunch of money.
Find out that you either lovewhat you're doing and keep doing
it and make all kinds of money,or then go and go to college
afterwards but have the money tobe able to pay for it, so that
(21:50):
then, even if you get a degreein something you don't
absolutely love, pivoting to adifferent career isn't as
detrimental.
And it all comes down to howmuch debt you're going to take
on.
Now, if you're somebody whowants to go to college and
you're pretty certain thatyou're going to be an electrical
engineer and you're prettycertain you're going to love it,
what I would say to you is findall the scholarships you can
apply for them.
(22:10):
Get as much money as you can outof that so that you can make it
, so that the amount of debt youhave is not much less.
Take a campus job.
Take a job off campus.
Find some way to minimize theamount of debt that you're
taking on.
All right, he said.
Do another question, becausehe's going to split it into two
(22:32):
episodes for us.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So you get a bonus question.
He said he has some good ones.
He has, yeah, he does.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There's quite a few more.
We'll go into the diet side forthis one since this one.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
the other one was Diet-specific question for John.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
How would you avoid that typical college diet,
whether that be foodalternatives or getting money to
afford the healthier foods,college-specific being the
typical instant ramen in themicrowave.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
This will be good.
I'm curious to hear yourresponse that's tough.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
How do you?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
avoid it.
And if you're going to do itthrough buying different stuff,
how do you afford it?
I'm going to put myself rightback at sienna, because sienna's
food was not not great yeah,and I feel like I feel like
sienna's food though to you know, this might be because I love
sienna but I feel like sienna'sfood was probably like most
(23:26):
college campuses, where it'sjust not great yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
The only school I went to that was cool, that I
visited was colgate, that theyuse stuff from the garden they
grow, so I guess that colgatehad some great food.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I visited there a couple of times and it was
pretty impressive what theywould do there.
But I feel like most collegecampuses have one spot that's
decent and the rest of it's justaverage at best.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
All right, so to navigate, I'm just gathering my
thoughts here.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, While you gather your thoughts, I guess
I'll make my my comments thatyou'll hate All right.
I would say that you know we wetalk about in our podcast that
um health.
There's a lot of overlapbetween health and finances and
one of them is is that if, justlike if you have money, you can
spend money on stupid stuffbecause you haven't, it's not
going to negatively impact you.
Generally speaking, if you'refit, active and you do a lot of
(24:21):
the other physical fitness stuffand be involved and stay active
on campus and you get out inthe wet and you get out in the
sun and do all these things, youcan eat a less than ideal diet
because you have good health,and so you can spend that good
health while you're young andthen make up for it once you
actually have a good job withbuying local and really good
things.
(24:41):
Um, because on the finance side, I would say your food is
something that you can get onthe meal plan.
Not eat off campus, not, youknow, we'll talk about the
elephant room not spend a ton ofmoney on booze and all this
other things that college kidsdo.
Reduce your spending there,because college kids will find
(25:02):
50 to 100 to go out on theweekends.
But if they could take that 50to 100 and put it towards their
student loans and put it towardsother things like that, that
would make a much better impactand then eat whatever school has
for food.
Yeah, maybe it's not the best,maybe it's not the most ideal,
but most ideal.
But if you're able to reducethe student loan piece, it's
(25:23):
going to directly impact theability to afford better food
when you get out.
And then play catch up, so tospeak, on your health in that
component.
That would be my take on it asa non-health expert, but we'll
send it over to John expert, butwe'll send it over to john.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
For what?
Uh, it's funny because I agreedwith basically everything.
And then, when you were likeit's funny because they'll find
150 to go out, but they can putit to their loans, my head went
to they'll find 150 to go out,but they could put it towards
healthy food yeah so like yeah,so there's the other route so
that's the only difference.
But but to go off your point, asa freshman you're probably
either stuck on campus or onlyon a meal plan.
It's going to be, like Justinsaid, more about your other
(26:03):
activities.
Go to the gym, get outside,soak up as much sun as you can,
especially depending on whereyou're going to school if it's
in the northern hemisphere.
Get sunlight, have goodrelationships, take care of your
mental health.
Justin and I got into a lot ofconversations about how
(26:25):
important is diet versus theseother factors of your health.
Then what you're going to do isyou go to the dining hall, just
do your best to like.
An extreme version is go to thesalad bar and make your own
salad with the protein they haveevery day.
That's extreme.
The other extreme is eat thepizza and fries they have every
day.
So I would just go to themiddle and try and do like pick
the whole foods, pick the yogurt, pick the yogurt without sugar
(26:47):
added, add your own toppingsLike they should have better
stuff there of.
Okay, for breakfast I'm goingto go get plain yogurt, vanilla
yogurt, throw in some driedfruit have, throw in some nuts.
They have you know.
Just pick whole foods, realfood, and I think this is more
important.
We're not like huge proponentsof you have to fast, but this
(27:09):
might be a better time to,because they see they've shown
that fasting helps.
When you're eating actuallymore junk food than healthier
food, it plays a bigger role.
So this might be better to belike I'm just going to eat
between 8 am and 7 pm.
So this is where you know a lotof college kids will burn the
(27:29):
midnight oil, do homework allnight.
They'll be like you want to goget pizza at midnight.
This is where I'd say maybethose are the ones where you can
leave out and be like nope, Iate tons of food during the day,
I'm not hungry.
Or hopefully, you're sleeping,because sleep schedule is going
to be there.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's funny you bring up sleep, because I was just
going to say that was my bigthing in college I would never
do any work past 10 pm and Ialways made sure I was in bed by
midnight.
There was occasional nights outdrinking and having a good old
time, that it was midnight thatI got to bed.
But I always remember my friendsbeing like I don't understand
how you get all your work doneand still not work past 10 and
(28:09):
go to bed at midnight.
And I was like, and I alwaystold people the issue was, is
that I could work past 10.
The problem is is that theamount of time that it would
take me to do a task if I wasworking past 10, versus waking
up at 7 and doing my morningroutine and starting work again
at 8, from 8 to 9 in the morning, I could do just as much as I
could do from 10 to 1 at night.
(28:29):
And it was because you're tired, you're exhausted, your brain's
not properly firing, and so youknow I I wasn't even doing it
from a health perspective.
But you know there's thathealth component as well that
just getting the right amount ofsleep will also play a huge
role in your body's ability tocombat the fact that you're
eating all these seed oils andyeah, you know, fried foods and
(28:52):
all that stuff.
Yeah, I didn't think about thefasting one.
That's an easy, cost effective,doesn't cost you a penny to do
it.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Yeah, and that's how I would answer your question.
I mean food's important, butreally focus on the other ones
because if you do it right, youcan become if this is what you
want I say this because it'scool to me you can become like
an absolute unit in college, andby that I mean sleep well.
You live on a campus with a gym.
You live on a campus with a gym.
(29:19):
You live on a campus withunlimited food.
So just pick high protein foods.
Always eat protein first.
You can't overdo it.
Like Justin said, there's a lotof fried.
Tried to go for the not friedfood.
And then my only other thingthere is we leveled up our
college.
Once you get out of freshmansophomore year, our college had
a store like a littleconvenience store with just
(29:40):
plain ingredients.
We used our campus money to buythose.
You can cook for yourself orshop at Walmart.
It's just brown beef, avocados,fruits.
It's a lot cheaper than mostpeople think.
You know it's not seasonal,local, but you're going to get
healthy and fit off of justgoing to walmart and getting
(30:00):
decent quality, organic fruits,meats, things, things.
There.
It's still cheap.
So I would say that's probablyprobably that nice, that was a
fun one.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
What else you got?
Speaker 2 (30:14):
send it our way I don't have any specific diets to
answer my second question butuh, that's good, it means we
gave a good answer.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, I'm looking at our recording time.
I think we can get one more inone more.
One more, and then we'll beable to split it in two.
This one is a little bitopen-ended, so perfect, that's a
great way to end.
We're going to end with anopen-ended question.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Moving up the rungs of college.
My plan personally is communitycollege, private.
Hopefully something betterafter that.
How do you know when to stopputting money into that dream of
something like an MIT or an IvyLeague with that moving up
process?
When should you know to quit?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Interesting question, I would say.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Try to reiterate I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'll repeat the question.
So he said that his trajectoryis do some community college,
then do a private and thencontinue to move up the rungs to
a better and higher, moreprestigious college in that
process.
When do you give up on thatpipe dream?
When do you say enough isenough?
At what level do you stop?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
I'll let me do mine, because it's super quick okay,
go for it, yeah good you stopwhen you're happy and you're
satisfied and you continue whenyou feel like you're stagnant.
I mean that I feel like there'sno reason to continue for me if
I'm enjoying what I'm doing,enjoying where I am.
If I want more because I feellike I stopped learning, I'll go
(31:52):
for more right, yeah and Ithink that's a good response.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I would reiterate the point that I made earlier of
when you're going to thoseschools, one I'll back up a
little bit.
I think it's the right approachto take.
I think doing two years ofcommunity college and then going
somewhere else is phenomenal.
I think it gives you theability to keep that student
debt down.
It also allows you two years tobe able to be like do I
actually want to become anelectrical engineer?
(32:17):
For, I mean, what does hudsonvalley cost right now?
Is it like it would bebasically free, with all the um,
with all the scholarships, soyou wouldn't even have to pay
for those two years and even ifyou were you're talking about
like four grand a year or fourgrand a semester, I think.
Eight grand a year, 16 000 fortwo years.
Like you make that sort ofmistake, you can work a minimum
wage job and make up thedifference there.
(32:38):
So one absolutely completelyagree with the trajectory Go to
a community college, figure outwhat you want to do, make sure
it's what you want to do andthen jump from there To me.
So you would make a jump thenpotentially for your bachelor's.
So you go two years, get yourassociates, go bachelor's.
Maybe not even get yourassociates, but just go into a
college for your bachelors.
Your next jump would be masters.
(32:59):
So you have the potential ofthree different colleges there.
What I would tell you is Do whatmakes sense from a networking
perspective, because just bygoing to a college you have
access to their network.
You go to Hudson ValleyCommunity College.
You have access to people whowent to Hudson Valley Community
College.
Now, because it's a communitycollege, typically that alumni
(33:21):
network won't be as strong andcultish, if you will, as some
different colleges.
But then the private school yougo to probably is going to have
that very network,alumni-centric focus.
And then where you go from thereis also up to you.
I am a huge proponent of notgetting your bachelor's and your
master's at the same collegethough.
(33:41):
So even if even if you're youknow, say, you go to a private
school and then you know you'relooking at Ivy's for your
master's, but you don't get intothe Ivy's and you could just
stay where you're at I'm a hugeproponent of moving to a
different college, and thereason being is that I firmly
believe the reason why you paymore to go to a private school
versus a state school is becauseof that cult-like alumni
(34:03):
network.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Thanks for listening to our podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
We hope this helps you on your balance freedom
journey.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Please share your thoughts in the comments section
below.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Until next time, stay balanced.
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