<p>What would you rather see your child do: work on wall street making 500k before they’re 30 or work as a biologist and get paid a fraction of the amount but are contributing to society more so than working on wallstreet? Assuming they find both careers interesting.</p>
<p>Why would “making 500k” ever be an explicit goal? How tacky and gauche to think that way. </p>
<p>I want my kid doing something he enjoys. Period. If that winds up bringing in big money, great, but that wouldn’t ever be the end goal in and of itself.</p>
<p>This was already a thread, was it not?</p>
<p>Yup–repeat thread. It’s worded differently, but is basically asking the same question as before.</p>
<p>
The more I participate on message boards the more I learn that:</p>
<p>Every thread was always a thread before</p>
<p>Wouldn’t the guy making $500k be paying at least $150k in taxes? I would think that’s a considerable contribution to society.</p>
<p>There are plenty of biologists researching the next plastic surgery wrinkle filler…</p>
<p>Most parents, including my own, want their child to do what they wish to do. In this case, you have said that the child is passionate about both. So I guess either is okay for the parent as long as the child is healthy and has good morals.
However, many parents also want their child to do what feels ‘worthwhile’ to them and what they will feel proud of later on. Either, if their is a good reason for it, could be good.
It’s just that most children aren’t in the position to choose between the two careers the OP mentioned.</p>
<p>Many parents who have had the good fortune coupled with hard work to earn a generous six figure income will tell their sons and daughters that they wish they had made different choices with their careers. We have many friends where one spouse is a full time litigator in a large law firm and will be away from their home and family for 6-8 weeks at a time. 2-3 million dollars in compensation++ does not replace seeing your child’s first soccer goal, piano recital or the chance to read to them in the evening. I have the same personal perspective with physicians and entrepreneurs-there are trade-offs for great incomes-sometimes, but not always.</p>
<p>As I told our kids when a very close friend of ours passed away at the age of 43 and his daughters were 13 and 11-" do what you love in life and you will love what you do". This person was a commercial pilot while other siblings had pursued far more lucrative business careers-but with far less love and laughter in their home. His family traveled together and spent real time together when he was home-which in retrospect was a tremendous gift to his girls. You don’t have to save the world to make a difference, but you can do what you love, earn a wonderful living and in the process contribute the by-product of what a strong family life contributes to those around you.</p>
<p>Why is it an either/or proposition?</p>
<p>I believe this poster had an almost identical thread recently in which he bragged about being such an a@@ that he was a disappointment to his parents???</p>
<p>I’m not sure why he thinks a person who makes a lot of money can’t be and do good, and why a person who makes little money is automatically a saint?</p>
<p>He paints life in black and white, and doesn’t have the maturity yet to see shades of gray instead of just the extremes.</p>
<p>Contribute to society any day. That said, I’d like my kid to have health insurance and enough money for room and board and a cushion for emergencies. (That doesn’t require anywhere near $500,000.)</p>
<p>IF my kid were to work on Wall Street, and made 500k I would insist A. they give substantial $$ to charity and B. They maintain a high level of ethics in everything they do</p>
<p>B of course should apply to everyone, but I would make sure it especially sinks in for someone going into I Banking. </p>
<p>And after that, I would buy myself a nice bottle of Bordeaux.</p>
<p>All academic - DD is enrolled in a B Architecture program. So its Chuck Shaw for me, and hoping to someday walk into a building and say “MY DD built THIS”</p>
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Unless this is an alias, that was another poster. This poster is a math major in college, the other was a HS kid. I think the other poster was a gadfly, this OP seems on the up and up. But I could be completely wrong.</p>
<p>you’re stereotyping these careers. one can make $500k on Wall Street trading in a zero-sum market, probably not a societal positive. alternatively, one can also earn $500K raising new capital to pay salaries for a fleet of human health biologists. </p>
<p>biologists can develop new therapies, new cosmetics, or new pathogenic weapons. can’t think of many career fields that are uniformly virtuous or evil.</p>
<p>The assumption that you could not possibly enjoy a high paying career and are not doing good if you acquire wealth is an American middle class one. Most of the world believes high paid professionals are very happy and are contributing.</p>
<p>Life is not a zero sum game. Look at Charles Ives, for example.</p>
<p>Financial success, personal fufilment, and being a benefit to the greater good need not be mutually exclusive goals.</p>
<p>There are conflicting goals at work here: We love our children, and want them to be happy, period. But in the back of our mind we know if they could do what they love with a little less financial pressure, that would be really great.</p>
<p>However, it’s not reality. Yes it would be lovely to have earned enough not to think about money, or to just say to your kids, “work on Wall Street” for 5 years, then do what you want. </p>
<p>We have three children, all different as can be. Our oldest leaves for college Tuesday. She is going to double major in History and Film, and wants (at this point at least), to be a historical documentary film maker. When she talks about it, and I see her light up from head to toe, what else is there to say? </p>
<p>If money is your career goal, there are ways to get there too…Part of the long term life lesson is figuring out how you can stand on your own two feet, and be proud of doing so.</p>
<p>But in terms of pride, if our kids turn out to be great people, kind, generous and happy in their work, and relationships? I feel like we’ve done our job…</p>
<p>Working on Wall Street does not necessary mean one is not contribuitng to society, or making money in any field. </p>
<p>There are people on WS who are helping companies raising money to come up with more efficient energy source, or finding better ways of disposing waste. Without funding, a lot of those ventures wouldn’t get off the ground. </p>
<p>My daughter’s best friend is very much into gender studies and race issues. She wants to get her law degree and to help disadvantaged people by working in legal aid office. This young lady has top grades and has proved herself to be a leader on the campus. My daughter is saying to her that maybe she should think of doing something bigger - become a partner at a top firm (donate money to help people or start a pro bono program at her firm), be a policy maker, become a ceo/general counselor of a firm. D1 tells her that she could make a bigger impact when she has the financial resource and in turn she could possibly help out more people.</p>
<p>I don’t think making money and contributing to society are mutually exclusive. All we have to do is to look at the money a lot of successful companies and individuals have contributed to various charities. </p>
<p>If each one of us (and our kids) could be financially secure, we wouldn’t need to take unemployment money from our government, we could give our kids good food/shelter and education, and all of that also make our society better. When we are struggling to put food on the table, and are so tired every night after working very long hours it is also hard to think about doing good for society.</p>
<p>I am in no way saying that people who work in legal aid or are social workers are not contributing well to society, and only people with money are doing more social good. What I am trying to say is everyone is different and has different strength and there is not just one path in contributing to society.</p>
<p>If my kids made $500,000 I’d insist that they start a scholarship fund to their UG and contribute annually. I don’t really care what any of the boys does as long as they are productive, moral, kind and throughtful.</p>