<p>Oldfort that is a very good post.</p>
<p>No, life does not suck. However, the way the country has managed the cost of living in the past 50 years does suck. In southern California, median house prices have gone from 2.25 times the income of a young carpenter in the 1950s to more than 7.5 times the income of a Dartmouth College graduate today.</p>
<p>If you ask me, we’ve all been snookered.</p>
<p>I am not a Trump admirer but this illustrates my thinking- we need to make mistakes because we don’t learn much when everything goes smoothly.
RIsk is part of change & if we don’t ever make mistakes then we are not challenging ourselves enough.
[Learn</a> from Setbacks and Mistakes - Inside Trump University](<a href=“http://www.trumpuniversity.com/mynetwork/inside-trump-tower/issue30.cfm]Learn”>http://www.trumpuniversity.com/mynetwork/inside-trump-tower/issue30.cfm)</p>
<p>“Which is really disconcerting, because I can not approach a situation in life if I haven’t planned and it bothers me to delay these decisions, because i feel as if I won’t make the optimal decisions along the way. I detest making errors and I don’t want to learn from mistakes. I plan so I don’t make major mistakes and therefore never have to learn from them, so it is REALLY bothering me to not have a plan for life.”</p>
<p>Good luck with that plan to not make major mistakes. Despite our best thought-out strategies, real life gets in the way sometimes and really fouls things up.</p>
<p>OP, I wish you the best of luck at Yale. One of the things you will realize with some maturity and life experience is that nearly every decision you make will also involve some regret/thought about the path that you DIDN’T choose, and what might have happened if you did. I’m sure you’ll do fine. The best piece of advice I can give you is to find something that you enjoy - work is much easier if it’s something you’re passionate about.</p>
<p>“I will say…remember this…the more you earn, the more you are likely to spend.”</p>
<p>Just A minor correction:</p>
<p>I will say…remember this…the more you earn, the more Obama will take it away from you.</p>
<p>Oldfort: Very nicely put…I liked the old Nissan commercial,“Life is a Journey Enjoy the Ride”.</p>
<p>We just came back from a place called Paradise (and it really IS). The Inn’s slogan was,“Paradise is not just a myth…it’s a destination”.</p>
<p>“Which is really disconcerting, because I can not approach a situation in life if I haven’t planned and it bothers me to delay these decisions, because i feel as if I won’t make the optimal decisions along the way.”</p>
<p>There are many who can’t make decisions. They just circle around an issue to buy ‘time’. They just float around the life like logs in a sea. Hoping that the sea currents will take them some place.</p>
<p>In life there are no optimum decisions. You just have to make best of the options you select.</p>
<p>I don’t know what to say, and I always have something to say. But my advice to you, get a revolver.</p>
<p>Coolbreeze,
"I don’t want to have any children, and 100K is very minimal for me, 150k+ sounds much better. Why is this minimal for me? Well the life style I want, being able to explore the world, living in a nice and likely highrise condo ( ofcourse I would want one with a nice view), and always enjoying myself, possibly eating out a lot at healthy resturants ( and that will cost more money) if I please, there is just so much do to and see in the world and would be much difficult for one to try to do all while retired, starting young your likely to do/ see much more. "</p>
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<li>At least $500 k / year imo - cardiology anesthesiologist will be what you need. Anything else is very questionable in terms of security and compensation level. Most likely will not satisfy your requirements.</li>
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<p>My life for the better has never been a roller coaster, I suppose I am very fortunate in this arena. There have only been two bumps along the way that I didn’t plan for: my Bs in math and getting into Yale (I planned to go to UT or Baylor). </p>
<p>I think some people are being unduly harsh, obviously a person who hasn’t started college yet has a much more limited perspective of life but I don’t think that is attributable to so called isolation in terms of the world. I mean the entirety of school predicates that people plan for things. From punctuated exams, appointments for practice, tournament dates, etc. All of them revolve around planning and the most successful people are typically those that plan. For instance all of the people in the top 10 in my class when I graduated started working towards that goal when they were in middle school.</p>
<p>The conflation that people are making between planning and naivete is certainly wrong. People have to be cognizant of the fact that there are WRONG paths and therefore plan to avoid them. I don’t think it is naive to set goals in life and say that is where i want to be, in fact I would wager that it is a stroke of maturity to set goals at a young and age and be devoted to achieving them and avoiding the negative paths that may come along the way.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be rude, but is it really immature to plan life so that you are successful? People like to talk about luck in life but mostly that is bull, luck is positioning yourself to be in a position to receive opportunities and that only happens with planning. </p>
<p>What some call being naive I believe is determination and it has worked so far for me.</p>
<p>Having a plan is a good thing. I think what the posters are trying to say is that you just need to be flexible and be able to adjust to disappointments and/or the unexpected.</p>
<p>I don’t think people necessarily think it’s bad or naieve to plan. As a planner myself, I consider it a good thing. However, one thing older people can tell you that is entirely true is that people change substantially between 18 and their late 20s. The concern would be not someone has there head down executing a plan they created at 17 or 18 and suddently they are in their 20s and the plans isn’t working. There is a reason that so many kids change their major, their is a reason wo many marriages dont’ survive past 7 years…people change and want different things. Plans are great short-term, but they need to be reviewed every year. Me, the arch planner wanted to be a lawyer from the time I was 8. All through undergraduate - law school. I got to law school and did not like it…at all…switched to an MBA and went into marketing/communications/advertising. I’m now in my 50s and very grateful that I did switch gears. I make “less money” than perhaps I might have as an attorney, but I’m happy and I make “enough” money. That is just one example, but do be aware as you go through the next 5-10 years that it is A-OK to switch gears, change course, have new thoughts. I’m all for determination, but also have seen the heartache of friends pushing the rock uphill only to realize that there might have been an easier path that would have made more sense in the grand scheme of things. The only thing I think is “luck” is finding a spouse. Yup…that’s alot of luck and not too much planning. I think all the parents are saying is step back and smell the roses once in awhile and make sure you’re on the path you want to be on.</p>
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<p>Everyone plans for their life. Organization is a good thing. Your ability to adapt to new circumstances is even better. For example, I currently have a layout of my graduate school plans. However, I am always revising my plans because unexpected things happen such as loss of interest, better opportunities, more funding, etc. (I think I have revised my planner at least 20 times!). No one here is denying that you cannot organize. Your previous posts however have demonstrated that your perception of the real world is very limited for someone your age. Saying and believing that the poverty line is around $100,000 is pretty naive to me.</p>
<p>It’s possible to live a comfortable and fulfilling life making under $150K it just all depends on what you budget. Living within your means is the key to monetary success ad a rich life. Where you live also depends on your income. Making $150k would be middle class in downtown NYC but making 150k in a small city in Montana would make you very wealthy. I live in Seattle and I make about $120k/yr give or take. I’d consider myself upper middle class but not wealthy simply because of the cost of living and the expenses of the city. Plus almost every household makes $100k+. Yet, I live a very comfortable life.</p>
<p>I also do not believe that it’s immature to plan your future though your plans will not always work out. I went to school originally to get into the medical field and I discovered that I liked business. Right now I’d like to get my real estate license and possibly my MBA in the future. This is totally different than what I originally planned. My income is also very different than what I planned. I don’t have a degree so it makes me very fortunate to make the money that I’m making and the funny thing is is that I didn’t anticipate it or seek it, it rather came to me.</p>
<p>You have to be prepared for the hardships that life gives you. You make graduate and end up making $40k or you may start making $100k. Either way, you have to continue life, live within your means, and find something you enjoy doing. I’m 21, I’ve just recently found my niche in life. It may take a while but you’ll figure it out :)</p>
<p>“Your previous posts however have demonstrated that your perception of the real world is very limited for someone your age. Saying and believing that the poverty line is around $100,000 is pretty naive to me.”</p>
<p>And, your (OP’s) statement on a prior thread that anyone who stays at home to care for family/home isn’t doing a real job (although you do acknowledge that it IS work - same thing to me) shows that you’ve got some real world living to do. You’re clearly intelligent, but your posts reveal that your life experiences haven’t been all that varied. That is NOT a criticism - just an observation about most kids your age - MINE included (they’re 19 and 21). I still wish you well at Yale.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/757674-guys-paying-opening-doors-carrying-stuff-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/757674-guys-paying-opening-doors-carrying-stuff-4.html</a></p>
<p>First, scientist salaries do not cap at $90k. I know it for a fact. Not sure where you’ve heard that. All things consider, it clearly doesn’t pay as much as many other careers (e.g., iBanking, Consulting), but science in academia is a passion… Many wouldn’t trade this off for any $$.</p>
<p>Second, I second the posts mentioning that a good paying job is relative to the place you’re going to be living in… $70k goes a long way in many places… not in NYC, Boston, L.A., SF…</p>
<p>I would consider any 6 figure salary to be a good paying job. And there are a lot of them out there, in many fields including science.</p>
<p>It’s funny how OP is so steadfast in his future.
I’ve seen kids coming in thinking they’ll cure cancer. After the first Ochem class, they’d readjust their dream/ambition quite a bit.</p>
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<p>Well I would have wanted to pursue a biochem or pharma type job in industry and many of those are in high cost of living areas such as New Jersey. I got the salary figure from the National Science Foundation:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06320/pdf/tab54.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06320/pdf/tab54.pdf</a></p>
<p>which lists the median for biochem PhDs as 85K. Granted industry average is 103K, but the age at which this is attained is probably mid 40s. And I was mostly focusing on starting salaries.</p>
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<p>A job and work are different things. A job in a vernacular sense is typically something that involves wages. Work is more commonly used to describe some task that is not necessarily linked to earnings. For example I might have school work, but being a student is not a job and few would argue that it is. </p>
<p>So being a parent is work (and probably a lot of it) but it is not a job. People were trying to make a conflation that doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>" . . . but being a student is not a job and few would argue that it is."</p>
<p>To the contrary, I think you will find a significant number of parents who consider their children’s concentration on being a successful student to be their job. Me included.</p>
<p>And just try helping (when asked) your child through the college admissions process. I can attest that it IS a job. You are simply hair-splitting. Again, good luck.</p>