Learn a Trade

One of the problems our country has is that it doesn't value enough tradesmen and tradeswomen. I talked to my neighbor about his straight A student grandson who graduated with an English Degree from UC Berkeley, a very prestigious school. He said his grandson is now working as a carpenter. I told him that being a carpenter is the best path to becoming a General Contractor eventually, in good times a very well paying profession, for a general Contractor is who you hire to build the whole house. He helps you hire all the others contractors to do the Electrical work, plumbing, cement work etc. and usually a General contractor has his own company do all the carpentry and framing of the house and sometimes builds all your cabinets and doors or at least installs them already made by someone else who specializes in that.

My neighbor was saying that his grandson is keeping busy doing remodels especially. when I was 12 to 17 I worked in my father's Electrical Contracting business in Los Angeles county for him during the summers and for one year during my junior year on something that was then called the 4-4 plan, which meant that I took 4 subjects and worked four hours for work credit with my Dad learning a trade. So during that summer I had to take a history course so I had my 5 subjects completed. But this also allowed me to pay off my car, go on dates, go scuba diving and surfing all I wanted to on weekends which was what I loved then  to do the most or sometimes I would just drive 400 miles a weekend because gas was only 17 cents a gallon then. So, I would get some friends or a girlfriend and just drive out into the desert or up into the mountains or even drive to San Diego from Glendale where I then lived and go snorkeling at the Cove in La Jolla with all the Golden Garibaldi which were there then and plentiful in the ocean there.

So, even though there is so much pressure to go to college there isn't much hiring now at the end of college so you likely won't be able to pay off your student loans. So, learning a trade which can make you money right now while you go to school at night and studying on weekends so you can "pay as you go" through college makes a lot more sense these days. Otherwise, if you owe 40,000 to 120,000 dollars or more even going bankrupt doesn't end what you owe to student loans. So if you don't have a job to be able to live and pay off your student loans they will haunt you for years and years and interfere with your life, getting married, having children, traveling and anything else you want to do. So, maybe learning a trade days while going to college nights might be the better long term idea for your future financial survival. In this way you can pay as you go and not ever get into debt which can ruin your life ongoing.