“Money is meant to be spent.” That doesn’t mean blow it all on drugs and parties every payday, but don’t scrimp on every dollar. Remember the saying: penny wise, pound foolish. Just be aware of your spending habits.
Interest is the devil and the line between interest and usury is very thin. You’ll have to do the math at some point, but generally prioritize paying off debt. Here’s an interesting accounting revelation: a dollar saved > dollar earned. Why? The answer is taxation. In business terms it’s called the Profit Leverage Effect, which is specific to inventory costs and other accounting stuff, but the principle is the same as a consumer (you).
It’s better to be financially aggressive now than later – that means, don’t aim to jump straight into pensioned government jobs right after graduating (I don’t even think that’s possible with the education inflation anyways). Gov’t jobs are seldom competitive until you get into upper-middle and more senior roles, but the work-life balance is great. Generally speaking private -> public is the best way; starting and staying in the public sector ruins your competitive advantage… This also means experiment. Figure out what you like and what you’re good at while you can, and then come around and “settle down” so to speak. Your main advantage is time. You wanna save up and take a gap year? Study abroad for a term? Do a seasonal work placement on a farm in Germany? Do it. Debt when young is a given, debt when old is a shackle.
One thing I should note: so long as capitalism reigns you will have to play the game. Losing at life (financially, career, happiness and satisfaction) is an awful feeling and it can’t be hand-waved away by going “well at least I’m not a liberal”. You can try, but it won’t do you any good.
The worst way of making money is through your own labour (again, taxation). “Rich people don’t pay taxes” isn’t a joke: they literally don’t! 100k invested means you retain about 95% of it, but 100k earned means you retain ~65% through taxation and contributions. This is the case for Canada. All of that for what? Massive governmental corruption with shitty healthcare and infrastructure. Fun!
Network and develop your soft skills. You’d be surprised at how many people do not give a flying fuck about either of them, and it shows. The only people who seem to care about them are wannabe venture capitalists; the rest are in this juvenile mentality of “well I’m smart hmph hire me!!” mentality. Now, if you’re young, networking doesn’t mean anything. Who are you going to know? Your friend who also doesn’t know anybody? Focus on soft skills now, and when you get older, assuming you have your soft skills developed, focus on networking. Networking is very matter-of-fact: go to industry associations (apply and maintain membership), go to alumni gatherings (free), literally go up to folks and say “let’s connect” (on Linkedin) or something. It’s really that blunt at times. Also, the more you network, the more you should maintain them. That doesn’t mean being friends, it means calling them once in a while, going through the social routine, but keeping it professional. Again, network doesn’t mean “friends”, it means “network of people I know that can/will help me in my career”. It sounds very manipulative because it is, and it’s implied that other people are doing the same to you, so the overall effect is a win-win.
If you can’t talk your way out of a box you will never prove to people how employable you are. Don’t expect people to read minds! This is why so many liberals subscribe to the “everyone is an NPC but me” doomer mentality: they have the soft skills of rotting roadkill and expect people to know their entire worldview and being!
As for industry: what others have said is great. I want to point out that capitalism has rotted our brains into believing that hustle culture = good. It’s not. What you should do is evaluate when to compete and when to pivot. An example:
Everyone wants to be a teacher, but the supply for teachers is generally fixed due to population demographics. But… you really want to be a teacher. Well, so does everyone else! There’s nothing wrong with finding a smaller pond, so to speak. Skills are meant to be transferable, and if they aren’t, guess what: it’s the SOFT SKILLS again. Don’t feel pigeonholed into sticking to your life path or whatever; life isn’t a straight line of events.
Networking gets you the interview, soft skills gets you the job. Your workplace competencies lets you keep the job, but soft skills gets you the promotion. Soft skills is the heavier weight!
Oh also: it’s popular advice on Reddit to job hop every year for maximum pay increases. Here’s the thing: DON’T DO THAT. I worked in HR and those people are called “frequent flyers” which means what? It means that I will throw your resume away (literally), place you lower on the interview schedule, place your resume lower in priority, be stricter on your salary expectations, etc. IOW: YOU WILL BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST if you job hop a lot. The majority of Reddit users are young, male, and tech-oriented, keep that in mind. Also white. The higher up the ladder you climb, the worse this will look.
“Money is meant to be spent.” That doesn’t mean blow it all on drugs and parties every payday, but don’t scrimp on every dollar. Remember the saying: penny wise, pound foolish. Just be aware of your spending habits.
Interest is the devil and the line between interest and usury is very thin. You’ll have to do the math at some point, but generally prioritize paying off debt. Here’s an interesting accounting revelation: a dollar saved > dollar earned. Why? The answer is taxation. In business terms it’s called the Profit Leverage Effect, which is specific to inventory costs and other accounting stuff, but the principle is the same as a consumer (you).
It’s better to be financially aggressive now than later – that means, don’t aim to jump straight into pensioned government jobs right after graduating (I don’t even think that’s possible with the education inflation anyways). Gov’t jobs are seldom competitive until you get into upper-middle and more senior roles, but the work-life balance is great. Generally speaking private -> public is the best way; starting and staying in the public sector ruins your competitive advantage… This also means experiment. Figure out what you like and what you’re good at while you can, and then come around and “settle down” so to speak. Your main advantage is time. You wanna save up and take a gap year? Study abroad for a term? Do a seasonal work placement on a farm in Germany? Do it. Debt when young is a given, debt when old is a shackle.
One thing I should note: so long as capitalism reigns you will have to play the game. Losing at life (financially, career, happiness and satisfaction) is an awful feeling and it can’t be hand-waved away by going “well at least I’m not a liberal”. You can try, but it won’t do you any good.
The worst way of making money is through your own labour (again, taxation). “Rich people don’t pay taxes” isn’t a joke: they literally don’t! 100k invested means you retain about 95% of it, but 100k earned means you retain ~65% through taxation and contributions. This is the case for Canada. All of that for what? Massive governmental corruption with shitty healthcare and infrastructure. Fun!
Network and develop your soft skills. You’d be surprised at how many people do not give a flying fuck about either of them, and it shows. The only people who seem to care about them are wannabe venture capitalists; the rest are in this juvenile mentality of “well I’m smart hmph hire me!!” mentality. Now, if you’re young, networking doesn’t mean anything. Who are you going to know? Your friend who also doesn’t know anybody? Focus on soft skills now, and when you get older, assuming you have your soft skills developed, focus on networking. Networking is very matter-of-fact: go to industry associations (apply and maintain membership), go to alumni gatherings (free), literally go up to folks and say “let’s connect” (on Linkedin) or something. It’s really that blunt at times. Also, the more you network, the more you should maintain them. That doesn’t mean being friends, it means calling them once in a while, going through the social routine, but keeping it professional. Again, network doesn’t mean “friends”, it means “network of people I know that can/will help me in my career”. It sounds very manipulative because it is, and it’s implied that other people are doing the same to you, so the overall effect is a win-win.
If you can’t talk your way out of a box you will never prove to people how employable you are. Don’t expect people to read minds! This is why so many liberals subscribe to the “everyone is an NPC but me” doomer mentality: they have the soft skills of rotting roadkill and expect people to know their entire worldview and being!
As for industry: what others have said is great. I want to point out that capitalism has rotted our brains into believing that hustle culture = good. It’s not. What you should do is evaluate when to compete and when to pivot. An example:
Everyone wants to be a teacher, but the supply for teachers is generally fixed due to population demographics. But… you really want to be a teacher. Well, so does everyone else! There’s nothing wrong with finding a smaller pond, so to speak. Skills are meant to be transferable, and if they aren’t, guess what: it’s the SOFT SKILLS again. Don’t feel pigeonholed into sticking to your life path or whatever; life isn’t a straight line of events.
Networking gets you the interview, soft skills gets you the job. Your workplace competencies lets you keep the job, but soft skills gets you the promotion. Soft skills is the heavier weight!
Oh also: it’s popular advice on Reddit to job hop every year for maximum pay increases. Here’s the thing: DON’T DO THAT. I worked in HR and those people are called “frequent flyers” which means what? It means that I will throw your resume away (literally), place you lower on the interview schedule, place your resume lower in priority, be stricter on your salary expectations, etc. IOW: YOU WILL BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST if you job hop a lot. The majority of Reddit users are young, male, and tech-oriented, keep that in mind. Also white. The higher up the ladder you climb, the worse this will look.