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Education

How to Choose A Career Path

By //  by Khaleef Crumbley

When considering a career path, one can feel overwhelmed by the various choices. In order to help you narrow down your choices, some well-meaning friend will tell you, “do what you love”, while another will say, “choose a career that will pay a lot of money”. Who is right in this case? How can you determine what path to take?

 

I was reading an article titled, “Doing What You Love Versus Doing What Pays” that looks at common advice on the subject. In reading the comments to that article, it seemed as though most of the readers would advise someone to choose a career path based on the potential income. Others still stuck with the “do what you love” advice that many hold to.

But is it really that simple? Let’s take a look at a few of the pros and cons to both of these views, and also see if there isn’t some other choice that we can make.

A Career Path that you don’t love but pays well:

Pros:

  • You will make a good amount of money
  • You will more than likely avoid the stress that comes from having a lower income (of course this ultimately depends on your financial discipline)
  • The added income may give you the financial freedom that you need to pursue what you love, as a hobby – or at least to not focus on the income it generates
  • You may be able to retire faster and then do what you love full-time

Career Path
photo credit: HikingArtist.com

Cons:

  • If you dislike a particular field, it may be harder to gain enough of an expertise in order to be highly compensated (for instance, those who hate math will not make top notch engineers)
  • You may be required to give up quality time with family and friends in order to accomplish your salary goal
  • Some people with higher incomes find it harder to exercise financial discipline than those with lower ones
  • Many high paying careers paths are also considered to be the most stressful
  • This stress will impact your relationship with family and friends over the long run

A Career Path that you love, regardless of the pay:

Pros:

  • Your love of that field will make you a great student, and so you may excel to the point where you are a top earner in that sector
  • You will have a sense of fulfillment and happiness from your work
  • The lower salary may force you to develop financial discipline
  • You may have lower levels of work-related stress

Career Path

photo credit: icadrews

Cons:

  • Lower salary – you may have to live a much simpler life
  • May take you longer to retire – this may not be a big issue for you if you absolutely love your job
  • If you lose your job, it may be harder to find a new one – although there are a few low paying jobs that are in demand

A couple of things to note. First, this is by no means an exhaustive list. Actually, I am counting on your comments below to help fill in the missing pieces. Second, you will notice that many of these points use uncertain terms like “may”, or “many”; this is due to the fact that many of these will not be true in EVERY case.

My take on choosing a Career Path is this:

I think that the answer to this question is different for everyone and is a matter of prospective. My initial reaction to this question was, “If you can get paid a ‘decent’ living wage for doing what you love, go for it! We wouldn’t have teachers, social workers, or pastors if people didn’t follow this line of thinking.” I also said to myself, “Money isn’t everything, and if you have to be miserable for 10 hours/day just to make a few extra dollars, it probably isn’t worth it.”

Do what you love, and if the pay isn’t great, lower your standard of living to match your pay. You can’t determine your standard of living apart from your income. In other words, LIVE WITHIN (or actually below) YOUR MEANS! This is true no matter what your income turns out to be.

However, for many there is little to no career opportunity in what they “love“. In that case, find a balance. Do something you like, and if it doesn’t pay enough to maintain your desired standard of living, try to make a few bucks from what you love. Like others have said, don’t choke the life out of what you love by focusing on money, but maybe you can be a consultant in that area or start a blog giving advice about it.

Ultimately, we should be content with whatever financial/work situation in which we find ourselves. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. ~ Philippians 4:11-13

We see from this passage that our situation should not be able to determine our satisfaction or contentment in this life – especially if we are slaves to Christ!

Personally, I happened to “like” a field that is in good demand (Economics & Finance). However, my true love is Theology, and that may be something that is in my future.

What about you? What choice did you make? Any regrets? How would you advise someone in choosing a career path? Would you tell them to look for money, happiness, or both?

To help you in your choice, Payscale.com has released it’s list of “Best Undergrad College Degrees By Salary”:

Best Undergrad College Degrees By Salary
Degrees Degrees
Methodology
Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 2 years of experience; mid-career have 15 years. See full methodology for more.

Not an engineer or an economist? Here is the full list: http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/degrees.asp

Be sure to leave your comments below.

 

photo credit: jeremy.wilburn

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Filed Under: Bible, Career, Education, Personal Finance Tagged With: Biblical Finance, Career, contentment, Education, Personal Finance, prosperity

Four Student Loan Debt Options You May Not Have Considered

By //  by Sherrian Crumbley

In our current society, it has unfortunately become the norm to graduate from college with a large amount of student loan debt. Then the student struggles to find employment, and if they are lucky enough to do so, the salary is way below the expectation of the degree they earned.

Student Loan Debt

Thankfully, there are a number of options out there to help alleviate this debt that goes beyond the six month grace period after a student graduates. Some people may be qualified without realizing it, since some are pretty new, and haven’t considered getting help with the burden.

The important thing to realize is that this isn’t easy or free. There are extremely specific qualifications that need to be met in many cases, such as: debt to income ratio, specific time frames, length of employment, and consistent payment of existing loans. Also, only certain loans are eligible for these options.

Student Loan Debt Repayment Help and Forgiveness Options

1. Becoming a teacher in a low-income area. If you have a Stafford or Perkins loan, some or all of your debt can be forgiven if you work in a designated school (the government provides a directory of schools that qualify) as a teacher for five complete and consecutive years.

2. Join the military. Each branch has their own student loan debt forgiveness information, so check with the specific branch of the military for options.

3. A Public Service or non-profit job. This Public Service Loan Forgiveness option only applies to a Direct loan. For this loan you must have 120 qualifying payments (keep in mind that these payments will take you at least 10 years) while working full-time in these areas. Since this option came about in 2007, you can apply for this in 2017. “You must be working for a qualified public service organization at the time you submit the application for forgiveness and at the time the remaining balance on your loan is forgiven.”

4. Pay As You Earn. This program caps payments at 10% of discretionary income and forgives remaining loans after 20 years. For this plan, you must be a new borrower as of 2007, and only certain Federal loans apply. You must have at least a partial financial hardship and your payment amount may increase or decrease each year based on your income and family size.

Other Options for Student Loan Debt

These are a few of the most common plans out there, but please research through the government’s website, your loan program, even your employer to see if more options are available to you.

This is an important thing to do, especially if your debt is taking up more than 10% of your income.

 

 Have you applied for, or benefited from any student loan debt forgiveness or help? Do you know of any other student loan debt options?

 

Photo by FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: Debt Management, Education, Government, Loans Tagged With: debt, debt forgivenss, federal loans, student loans

What Your College Won’t Tell You About Your Money

By //  by guest

The following is a guest post from Martin of Studenomics, where he tackles what to do after college and anything else that could be on your mind when it comes to money.

September is here. As much as I hate to type this, it’s certainly true. The back to school commercials are up. It’s getting cooler outside. You have to wear a sweater at night. You now have to wake up before noon.

School is here.

Before you get depressed, let’s cheer up! Next summer is only a few months away or so…

I wanted to share with you what your college won’t share about going back to school so that you survive financially. I don’t want you to end up in thousands of dollars in debt. I don’t want you to be paying off student loans into your 40s. I want you to be debt-free early on. If I can do it, anyone can.

What Won’t Your College Tell You About Your Finances?

College Financial Literacy

You Can And Should Work.

Yes, you should be working. If you work even a little bit, this will help you out with your debt in the future. Every dollar today counts. You won’t get rich, but you’ll dent your debt while in school.

You also can’t fool me here. I always had an active social life and I still held a job. I know that you think you’re busy, but trust me, we all waste time. Working forced me to manage my time better and not to mess around. Those hour-long bus rides were my saving grace before finals.

But Martin! I can’t work, I swear.

If you’re program is too intense to even work a few hours per week, then you can work during your time off or apply for a work term. Either way, you should work during college. It will get you into the habit of being a real person when you graduate and it will help you cover some of your bills.

It’s also not too late to apply for a work term. You can try to get in for the next term or some time in the future. Please try to apply at least. You might have to give up your summer, but you’ll have money to help with bills!

There’s Free Money Available To You.

Money should never hold you back from a quality education. Every college offers all kinds of financial assistance. You can apply for any or all of the following:

  • Scholarships.
  • Bursaries.
  • Grants.
  • Awards.

You have nothing to lose from applying. I suggest that you take the next rainy afternoon to apply for all of these forms of financial aid. The worst case scenario is that they say no.

I dated a girl who would get insane amounts of financial assistance every year. She simply applied for everything because she was poor.

Think about it this way: if you get paid $12 an hour, how long would it take you to earn $2,000? Now imagine writing an essay in an hour that leads to $2,000. Not so bad, right?

Where do you find out more about financial help?

Every college has an office for this and a portion of the website dedicated to finances. It’s usually pretty easy to figure out. You can look for specific bursaries, scholarships, grants, or awards. They offer ones for each program and even for every specific niches.

All you have to do is print out the forms and submit them before the deadline.

There Are Plenty Of Free Resources (And Awesome Stuff).

There’s so much free stuff out there. You just have to look around.

For example, you can easily workout without a gym membership when you can’t afford it. However, as a student you might have a free gym membership as part of your package.

A Few Other Free Or Cheap Things To Look Out For:

  1. Concerts on campus.
  2. Student discounts.
  3. Health benefits.
  4. Resources (resume writing help, job search, etc.).

Don’t spend money that you don’t have on things that can be free to you or close to it.

This Is The Best Time To Live On The Cheap.

Let’s be honest here. One of the most charming aspects of college is the extreme frugality that we go through. This is the one time in your life where frugality is embraced. Being a poor college student will force you to make the most with the least.

For example, my brother can eat off nothing. Seriously, he’ll spend a $100 over a month sometimes on food. I have another friend who has had the same pair of shoes for years. He wears these shoes everywhere (formal events as well). I personally believe that he might be better off going bare foot at this point.

How cheap will you be as a student?

Watch Who You Hang Out With.

I know, that you’re a grown up. This doesn’t meant that you won’t make plenty of mistakes. All I’ll say is that you have to watch who you hang out with. If you get involved with the crowd, you can easily start spending money and racking up the debt on things that you don’t need. Your friends in college are very important.

I wish you all the best in college. I hope your grades are through the roof and that you manage to survive financially. Even if you apply one of these tips, you’ll thank me one day.

Don’t forget to check out Studenomics!

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Awards, budget, cheap living, College, cutting costs, Education, Frugal, grants, scholarships, student loan repayments, student loans, work study

Is Your College – or Your Degree – Worth the Money?

By //  by Kevin M

If you’re reading this article I probably don’t need to spend time convincing you that something is wildly out of wack with college educations today. They cost more than ever, they leave students buried in tens of thousands in debt for years to come – and worse – they no longer carry the promise of career success that they once did.

The education purists might be offended by that observation, but in the real world where most of us live, the biggest reason by far for getting a college degree, or paying for one for our children, is creating improved income earning capabilities. We don’t have the luxury of viewing an advanced education as some sort of gilded virtue divorced from economic reality. The paycheck waiting at the end is the primary justification for the effort.

Is A College Degree Worth The Cost?

To emphasize this point, along comes William Bennett, former Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan, who asserts that only 4% of colleges are worth the money. I’m not going to spend any time on that 4% claim, nor the factors that make it up, but I think the point is very well taken. College students and their families are spending an increasingly enormous amount of money on attending “the right school”. In too many cases, it’s a wasted effort.

Graduating College

You’re Still Better Off With A College Degree Than Without One

If you do some research on the subject, you’ll find that the difference in lifetime earnings between someone with a college degree and one with a high school diploma is anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to over a million. The exact amount is a moving target but one fact is absolutely clear: people with college degrees – in general – do tend to earn more money than non-graduates over a lifetime.

We’re not debating the value of a college degree, but rather challenging the notion of “pay any price to get that coveted degree” that seems so popular these days. Hard choices need to be made, especially when financial resources are limited, as they are for most students and their families.

A College Education Is No Longer The Deal It Once Was

True enough, statistically at least, you can expect to earn more money with a college degree than without one. But how much should you pay for that advantage?

That is the question that needs to be asked today. 20 or 30 years ago, a college education was unquestionably a good deal. You could earn the degree that was your ticket to higher future earnings, but the cost of that education could generally be recouped in the first year or two of employment. Today however, students are routinely entering degree programs that cost several times the expected first-year remuneration.

That changes the whole game.

For middle class and lower class families, the decision to send a child to college is no longer a “no-brainer”. Because of the high cost of obtaining the education, a graduate can enter the workforce so deep in debt as to be technically bankrupt. Even with a strong college degree, that is a decidedly disadvantaged way to enter adult life.

Part of the problem today however, is that students and their families are still laboring to work within the expectations of previous generations when a college degree made perfect financial sense. This is why so many graduates are either deep in debt, or unable to obtain employment related to their degree program.

The College Matters – But The Major Matters More

A generation or so ago it was possible to get a well-paying job – and build a successful career – as a result of having a degree in nearly any major. A degree in philosophy or history would be enough to get you a well-paying job in a corporate environment upon graduation. The major seemed to matter far less than the fact that you had a degree.

Today that situation has changed completely. While you may land a job pretty quickly after graduation if your degree is in nursing, accounting, or information technology, a degree in the soft sciences, such as sociology, philosophy or English literature, are mostly seen as advanced high school diplomas.

The major that you select is now critical. If that major cannot be reasonably expected to land you in a well-paying career field, you might be better off passing on college, and entering the workforce to gain practical experience instead.

More Isn’t Always Better When It Comes To College

As prospects for college graduates have dimmed in the last few years, the emphasis on getting into “the right school” has only grown. The thought is that the more prestigious the school is, the greater the career prospects will be upon graduation. This however is no longer true. Once again, degree trumps pedigree – your major is likely to have a far greater impact on your career success than the school you graduated from.

Part of the shift is that employers are now less concerned with credentials, and more interested in hands-on skills (“what can you do for us if we decide to hire you?”). For this reason, an accounting degree at a local state college will probably be more valuable to you than a liberal arts education at an Ivy League school.

Economic Relevance DOES Matter When It Comes To College

In elite circles, there’s often a view that a college education takes place in a vacuum. In this view, the education obtained is seen as more important than the economic outcome that it produces. But for most of us, the economic outcome is the entire reason for getting a college education in the first place.

Unless you’re independently wealthy, this is the only way you should see it. The cost of a college education is so high that there must be an economic return on the investment.

There are two ways that you can handle this: choose a major that is likely to have the most positive economic outcome, and keep the cost of your education as low as possible.

In the first case, it’s important that your major is likely to produce the highest paying and most stable career possible. The second involves finding less expensive ways to earn that degree:

  • Attend an in-state college, rather than a private college or one located out-of-state
  • If possible, commute to school from home rather than living away on campus
  • Spend the first two years of your education at a community college
  • Work your way through college
  • Attend school part-time, while working full time for an employer that provides tuition reimbursement
  • Work for scholarships, or apply for assistance from the college – some grant assistance to a limited number of students
  • Set a strict limit on how much money you borrow for your education – it should be limited to an amount that will be very reasonable to payoff on the expected income that the education is reasonably likely to produce.

There’s no doubt that you’re better off with a college degree than without one. But the game has changed – the sky is no longer the limit. That will mean compromises – are you ready to make a few?

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: A College Degree, College Degree Worth, College Degrees, College Education, Cost Of A College Education, Degree Worth, Get A College Degree, Higher Education In The United States, Knowledge, The Cost Of A College Education, The Value Of A College Degree, Value Of A College Degree, Vocational Education

Save Money On Textbooks By Renting

By //  by Sherrian Crumbley

One of the most expensive and tedious things I had to worry about in college was purchasing my textbooks for class.   I hated trying to find the best deals online, or holding off for the first week or two after classes started, hoping that someone who dropped would try to unload their books at a discount.

There were many times when I did give up the fight and just pay whatever exorbitant price the school’s book store was charging, of course buying used if it was available.

Thankfully, things have improved quite a bit over the past few years, and smart students have many resourceful ways to save money on textbooks.  Seeing the necessity, websites like ecampus.com and the ValoreBooks textbook marketplace are offering, not only great deals, but making the process quick and simple for textbook consumers.

Textbook Rental Reviews: eCampus

Right from the home page, one has the option to buy, rent, or sell textbooks. RENT TEXTBOOKS?  This was something I would have done all through college.  There is nothing worse than buying a textbook new for $200, and then selling it back to the bookstore for $17.  The renting option is broken up into three price tiers based on the length of the rental: the longer the rental, the better the deal in price.

Save Money On Textbooks With e-Textbooks?

I was also impressed that many textbooks are available in an e-textbook format (no more lugging heavy texts around).   With the examples I perused, one would be purchasing a subscription for the e-textbook for a period of 180 days.  In these examples, the cost of the e-textbook was quite a bit higher than purchasing the physical texts.

In at least 2 cases, it was almost twice as much as purchasing a new hard copy.  While this would dissuade me from using this function, I can see how one could justify the extra cost for the convenience.

Besides showing the available new, used, rental, and e-textbook prices, there is also a “The Marketplace” tab, which allows you to purchase the text from private sellers at prices set at their discretion.  This option could offer you possible additional savings, and makes it quite easy to provide  textbook rental reviews, when their are multiple options to save and make money on a site.

The site offers other products such as DVDs and college clothing and other paraphernalia.  I compared the price of the DVDs to Amazon.com, where I usually purchase them, and the difference in prices were negligible in many cases.

I also compared a few textbook prices to my favorite site for textbook purchases, and that is where the difference was more noticeable.  In all fairness, this site in particular is all “marketplace”, and so the private sellers were asking for a great range of prices for the textbooks.

Compared to the prices at other bookstores and online retailers, ecampus.com is definitely a great bargain.

Since I am considering re-entering academia again in the future, I am glad I had a chance to review this site.  I will certainly revisit it for the textbook rental option, especially since they have free shipping on orders over $59.   Not only that, but they supply you with a shipping label to send the book back at the end of the semester.

Good prices, stress-free experience, and finishing touches to make sure you’ll come back – ecampus.com is worth a look.

Reader Questions

  1. How have you been able to save on textbook costs?
  2. Do you have a lot of professors who don’t require them at all?
  3. Have you had success using and following the previous edition of a textbook?
  4. Do you have any other tips that should be included here?

Filed Under: Education, Reviews Tagged With: book stores, chegg, e textbook, ecampus, rentals, renting, Saving Money, sell textbooks, shopping, student, Textbook Rental, Textbooks

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