<story><title>Buyer&apos;s Remorse: High Debt and Low Pay Leave Some College Grads Rueful</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/buyer-s-remorse-high-debt-and-low-pay-leave-some-grads-rueful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>I’ve told this story before on here, but most of my social circle went to college. In general, most of those I’ve stayed in touch with are doing alright for themselves.&lt;p&gt;But we graduated college between 2007-2010, so it was a rough economy to be looking for a first job.&lt;p&gt;One friend skipped college and joined the local electrician union. He did his 10 years to get his lifetime card, and started his own business a few years ago.&lt;p&gt;Not only is he already making a ton of money, he has zero debt, and more importantly charges close to whatever he wants an hour because of how in demand he is.&lt;p&gt;He jokes that he’s going to be the only electrician in the city in the next ten years because all the old guard is retiring, and way fewer millennials went into trades.&lt;p&gt;College would have been a bad idea for him and he knew it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tsss</author><text>The common denominator for making a lot of money is not &amp;quot;the trades&amp;quot; but owning a business. Of course he&amp;#x27;s gonna make more if he doesn&amp;#x27;t have to relinquish the majority of his profits to a boss.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people here and on reddit like to romanticize the trades while sitting in an air-conditioned office like it&amp;#x27;s some secret tip to instant wealth without the need to study for years. But the reality is grim for the majority of salaried tradesmen. It&amp;#x27;s a job that is very hard on your body and the heralded &amp;quot;fresh air&amp;quot; suddenly sounds a lot less nice when you have to do physical labor in intense heat or cold.&lt;p&gt;Those who go above and beyond will always succeed no matter the field but for the average Joe a solid education is a much better bet and you are doing them a disservice by spreading these second-hand anecdotes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Buyer&apos;s Remorse: High Debt and Low Pay Leave Some College Grads Rueful</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/buyer-s-remorse-high-debt-and-low-pay-leave-some-grads-rueful</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sharkweek</author><text>I’ve told this story before on here, but most of my social circle went to college. In general, most of those I’ve stayed in touch with are doing alright for themselves.&lt;p&gt;But we graduated college between 2007-2010, so it was a rough economy to be looking for a first job.&lt;p&gt;One friend skipped college and joined the local electrician union. He did his 10 years to get his lifetime card, and started his own business a few years ago.&lt;p&gt;Not only is he already making a ton of money, he has zero debt, and more importantly charges close to whatever he wants an hour because of how in demand he is.&lt;p&gt;He jokes that he’s going to be the only electrician in the city in the next ten years because all the old guard is retiring, and way fewer millennials went into trades.&lt;p&gt;College would have been a bad idea for him and he knew it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mywittyname</author><text>&amp;gt;  way fewer millennials went into trades.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not that we didn&amp;#x27;t want to, but that we never had the opportunity.  The Great Recession destroyed basically every trade job out there.  Nobody was going to hire a young buck when you could get really smart, experienced guy for the same price.&lt;p&gt;So us millennials went to college instead.  In 2009, people my age with no degree had an unemployment rate of like 20-25% while people with degrees had an unemployment rate of maybe 5-6%.&lt;p&gt;A lot of my friends growing up that started in trades (myself include) ended up in the military and&amp;#x2F;or college because you still had to show up for work every day, just to sit around for a few hours to learn you weren&amp;#x27;t getting paid.&lt;p&gt;Not that I&amp;#x27;m complaining, my life certainty worked is better as a result.  But I don&amp;#x27;t think people with office job realize how bad The Great Recession was for people at the bottom.</text></comment>