+1 JJ
@OP: It’s difficult to “cut your losses” but the US education market is insanely inflated right now. I’m assuming you’re young and unattached. Here are some brainstorming starters. Don’t think of it as advice, just think of it as ideas to get you started thinking:
- Move to a different country with more reasonable tuition costs and finish your degree there
- If you’ve completed close to two years of school and you choose to quit college, you might as well get the AA certificate - better to get something than nothing for all that money
- Stop thinking about “your future” and focus on the now - start thinking about how you can start earning money now, ASAP
- Stay away from stock, bond and mutual fund investing until either you’re over 35 years of age or your net worth is greater than $100K, unless that’s the business you’re planning to go into (and if it is, I have a list of reservations here)
- The primary obstacle facing would-be business owners is capital - even seeking venture capital requires capital (to pay for your unemployment or underemployment)
- Focus on building cash. Remove any student debt, CC debt etc. Don’t stop until you’re to zero and then keep right on going. Live as frugally as possible, work as much as possible. Two jobs would be ideal for this phase. If your parents will allow you to live at home, do it, even if you have to kiss and make up. There’s nothing that will give you as big a leg up as free/super-cheap rent at this stage in your life.
- Assuming you choose not to move to a different country, do at least set aside some time and cash to travel to another country. Many countries in South America are great destinations. Doug Casey recommends Argentina. This will prep you for the future when you need to start hedging your wealth - and yourself - across multiple jurisdictions to keep it secure.
- Think about how you can peddle what you own - peddling is one of the oldest - though recently it has become one of the most reviled - professions. Craigslist has opened a new vista for the part-time peddler. If you know baseball cards or legoswhatever it is, you can browse Craigslist during your lunch breaks and then trade during off-hours, weekends and vacations. Trade what you know. Always know how you’re going to make a profit; don’t “guess”. This is an invaluable way to build the “horse-trading” skills you will need in any business endeavor throughout the rest of your life. You’re going to make mistakes no matter what and this one of the safest ways you can make them.
- Another strategy I considered when I was in a similar position is to learn a high-risk trade - high-iron construction, high-voltage lineman, forest-fire hotshot, whatever. One of the key advantages you have if you are male is that your brain is more amenable to handling high-risk jobs and so you might as well leverage it. It’s about the only thing about being male that you’re not going to pay through the nose for during your life. These are the kind of jobs that will take 100% of your time and energy but they pay a lot better than double-shifts at McDonald’s and the only skill required is a pair of testicles.
- I can’t emphasize enough the importance of frugality. Before you get married and have children, your capacity for frugality is limited only to your imagination. I sub-let a room from a very clever guy who had me and one other guy sub-renting a 3-bedroom house. Each of us sub-renters paid more than half the rent, so he had a little profit at the end of the month - free rent, basically. He had a box full of coupons and he would get the $1 Burger King special or whatever for lunch. For breakfast, he had a protein shake from a monster jar of protein from Costco that he had calculated cost him $0.77 per breakfast. For dinner, he had a barbecue grill and he would grill up top-grade steak for the week, which he usually ate with a small salad. He worked out at the gym for like half the day every day and then brought home a different chick every weekend (yes, hot). Oh, and he didn’t work. Whenever I think back, I am still awed by what that guy managed to do on so little. He was focused on maintaining as little income as possible due to a bitter divorce but if you combined his cost-cutting strategy with some good, old-fashioned elbow grease, you could put away some serious cash in a hurry.
OK, I’ll stop with that. I hope some of that helps you get started.
Clayton -