Author Topic: Can a college student retire early?  (Read 5217 times)

tdawg00100

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Can a college student retire early?
« on: August 30, 2014, 11:43:13 PM »
I'm currently a junior majoring in business. I've realized I don't want to do the 9-5 thing my whole life. Is there any way I can retire early without ever having to enter the corporate life. I don't mind hard work but sitting indoors in an office like a rat is intolerable to me. I've gone to university on a full scholarship while living at home, so I have no debt to worry about. I also have no children to take care of. I already live very frugally. What do you guys think? What are my options?

Sdsailing

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2014, 12:07:36 AM »

Yes, you only need to get your parents to agree !


tdawg00100

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2014, 12:11:34 AM »
Haha good point. However, I don't think I want to live at home my whole life. :P I guess I just need to find another way to make money besides the rat race.

Exflyboy

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2014, 12:15:42 AM »
Um.. I think I'd be thinking about switching my major for a career that means you don't sit in a cube.

What else are you interested in?

Frank

Sdsailing

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2014, 12:16:05 AM »
Well that is self employment / entrepreneurship.  Of course it is possible, but i would not equate this with retirement.

tdawg00100

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2014, 12:32:11 AM »
Um.. I think I'd be thinking about switching my major for a career that means you don't sit in a cube.

What else are you interested in?

Frank

I'm interested more in healthcare than business. I started off as a nursing major but that was too much crap to deal with. My college didn't have too many options other than that besides teaching, engineering, and the sciences (chem and bio).

lakemom

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2014, 06:32:10 AM »
Um.. I think I'd be thinking about switching my major for a career that means you don't sit in a cube.

What else are you interested in?

Frank
+1  You are still early enough in your college career to do this.  It may mean you switch colleges/universities and maybe have to go an extra semester or two BUT that is a cost well worth it (even if you have to resort to some student loans) when compared to a decade or two of sheer misery!  If you were my child I would be recommending you do some serious soul searching accompanied by some in depth career research and come up with a plan that will make you happier and ensure you can support yourself upon graduation.  One of the reasons to go to college is to help you grown and mature and figure out how you want to spend your life.  Every year you read statistics saying that some huge percentage of students change their major between 1st semester freshman and declaring at the beginning of the junior year.  Be one of them!

Retired To Win

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2014, 06:55:10 AM »
Well that is self employment / entrepreneurship.  Of course it is possible, but i would not equate this with retirement.

Right.

Dawg, to FIRE you need to have passive income to cover your living expenses.  To have that passive income, you need to accumulate capital that will generate that income.  To accumulate the capital, you need to do something productive that will generate money.  You need to work at something, whether you work for yourself or someone else.

So, no, you cannot retire given that you have not even begun.  (Unless, of course, your parents can carry you now and leave you a big inheritance later.)

Goldielocks

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2014, 09:43:09 AM »
Look into professional sales.  Your business education should be useful, and you spend your time meeting people, making presentations, meeting more people....  The good ones are in the cube 20% of the time. Work for on home or the road, etc.

Think pharmaceuticals, machine parts, even construction estimators, etc.

CollegeStache

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2014, 11:06:15 AM »
Um.. I think I'd be thinking about switching my major for a career that means you don't sit in a cube.

What else are you interested in?

Frank

I'm interested more in healthcare than business. I started off as a nursing major but that was too much crap to deal with. My college didn't have too many options other than that besides teaching, engineering, and the sciences (chem and bio).

Well, if a nursing major was "too much crap" and you don't like the idea of doing business, it sounds like maybe you should re-think the whole idea of college.  If you didn't like nursing, what was it about healthcare that interested you (maybe it's knowing that people are making tons of money in healthcare right now?).  Healthcare seems to be split up in patient care, managing a place that cares for patients, developing equipment that hospitals used, or pharmaceuticals. 

One thing I will offer is that many of my fellow college classmates (myself included) had trepidation around graduation time about doing a "9 to 5" job since most people don't experience that until they actually get their first job out of school.  The adjustment for most people I knew (myself included) was fairly easy.  It seems that people handle the routine job in a few ways: really pour their heart into it to advance themselves in that career path, mail it in and just sort of float through (and do nothing outside of their regular job or they expend effort on side gigs and other interests outside of work), or they just get out of the 9 to 5 altogether and work for themselves (or not at all). 

MrsPete

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Re: Can a college student retire early?
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2014, 10:05:40 AM »
I'm currently a junior majoring in business. I've realized I don't want to do the 9-5 thing my whole life. Is there any way I can retire early without ever having to enter the corporate life.
No.
I'm interested more in healthcare than business. I started off as a nursing major but that was too much crap to deal with. My college didn't have too many options other than that besides teaching, engineering, and the sciences (chem and bio).
So I'm hearing that you're attending this college because it means you can live at home /be frugal. 
But the college doesn't offer a major that really appeals to you.
That makes no sense.  What are you going to have when you're done? 

What you really need to do is decide what you want to do as a career -- and then find out where you can get the training for that career. 

Next, you walked away from nursing because it was "too much crap to deal with".  I know exactly what you're talking about:  My daughter is a nursing major, and she had to jump through quite a few hoops to get into the nursing program -- then more hoops to prepare herself for clincials.  Buy the school-colors scrubs with the school logo from this specific store, these shoes from that other place, TB test, drug test, proof of vaccinations, criminal background check so she'd have hospital clearance (and, yeah, every one of those medical tests and the background test cost money), summer school, go in between classes to be "signed off" on various skills, arrive at the hospital 6:30 in the morning -- and the hospital's an hour from the university, stay after 'til the nursing advisor has approved your daily work.  Oh, yes.  I hear her talking about the "too much crap"; however, this is the path to becoming an RN. 

I did similar things when I was a student teacher. 
My husband did similar things when he was an engineering student /intern. 

Trying to prepare for a professional career without "too much crap" is the very definition of being penny-wise and pound foolish.  It's a matter of proving yourself.  Once you're in the job, maintaining all those credentials isn't so much work, but you have to reach that point first.  What I'm hearing is that you're searching for shortcuts.  That won't work.