When in college I had trouble adjusting because in highschool I only averaged 1.31 minutes of homework per night. (thats right I kept records and made an average) I had trouble focusing on one subject for an extended period of time. Even today I have this huge range of random (mostly useful, I think) knowledge, but I haven’t been able to nail down exaqctly what my forte is. Unfortunatley, I think we live a society which too highly values the specialist and under values the utility player.

If people can get a chance, I recommend living/working overseas in a country dissimilar to the US for a year or two. It’ll open your eyes to many things.

As far as the perspective thing: what comes to mind for me is basically discovering as I grew up that my mother and father, teachers, doctors etc are people who don’t know everything, and in some cases don’t even know as much as they should to be in their position. IE question everything! As far as perspectives being “right” or “wrong” I believe there is such a thing. Simply put: your perspective is a collection of assumptions and beliefs that may or may not match up with reality. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself if the perspective of Charles Manson is just as valid as anyone else’s.

Somethings are subjective and some things are objective … perspective is a mix of both if you ask me and therefore, some of it can be just plain wrong.

This is not necessarily always true. If so, maybe just a little true–meaning, maybe there is room for you to make money doing it also.

Wth all of the “spin-off” success stories out there, if you see a concept you think you could make work for you–why not go for it?

Of ocurse, do your homework, maybe stick your toe in the water at first rather than diving in head first, but think about trying it. It could always work!

From everything I’ve read at TSD, Trent and his wife have a great relationship, and shared, agreed upon goals. I have that kind of relationship with my husband… it’s called supportive, and it’s a great type of relationship to have with your spouse or significant other. It seems a few here don’t have that, which is sad.

The statement accusing Trent of “chasing my dreams instead of seeking the good-paying stable job.” might be the most ridiculous comment I’ve ever read here, and there have been A LOT of those! Last time I checked, the TSD is a MAJOR personal finance blog that is wildly successful. Oh yeah, then there’s the fact that Trent has written a book. A published book. Hmmm… sounds like he’s living his dream, not chasing them. Jealous much? I’d call that a pretty successful career, and kudos to him for making it happen through sheer hard work and determination. I’m going to go out on a limb and bet that his wife is 100% proud of him, and not resentful in the least. I know I would be.

I agree with post number 13. A job that you might consider boring or tedious or distasteful much just be someone else’s passion. I’m reminded of the bricklayer, who, when asked what he did for a living, replied “I build cathedrals”.

What I learned along the way is that life should be continually re-examined to find ways which are better for you. For instance, I’d alter your last statement:

Whenever you read something or hear something, stop and ask yourself this: why is it right or wrong?

Focusing just on stuff that’s “wrong” eliminates the introspection that comes from “being like everyone else”. Financially, if I lived like many people in this country, I’d have a car payment for the rest of my life, something like $8K in a credit card balance, lots of toys, home renovations funded through a HELOC and so on. I’d be living paycheck to paycheck, with no real thought given to strategic planning or life goal. And I’d be doing things “right” — according to most people in the US who live like this. Instead, we are following Dave Ramsey’s version of “right” and getting the finances in order so we can be “weird” and “different”.

Also, I completely disagree with this statement:
“If you’re in a stable career, you’re often surrounded by complacent people, which makes it difficult to get things done and exciting projects are hard to come by.”

This is a very sweeping generalization. One person’s exciting project could be building a bridge, working on the design of a new passenger jet or sending a rover to Mars. These types of projects are years in the making and require an enormous amount of capital investment, not to mention planning, testing and development.

I’m also relatively sure that anyone needs to deal with complacent people and workday drudgery — if you work in a corporation of 50,000 or are your own boss.

The far more important thing is to like your work and do well at it. If that’s bring a blogger, then great — I’m happy for you. But don’t stereotype people who work in stable careers as being unable to come by exciting projects. Companies like Google, 3M and many others go out of their way to give employees time to work on whatever they want, knowing that self-interested employees generate new products.

Undoubtedly our background shapes our financial and life decisions, but hopefully we are all continuing to mold that.

“..the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment… that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong….

..few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said “I don’t know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that’s always in the right — Il n’y a que moi qui a toujours raison.”…

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me,
on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility,…”
Ben Franklin…Speech to the Continental Congress

Most people aren’t willing to open up unless you have some ability to understand where they are coming from. Even just some minor connection allows a person to feel like they can open up. This is why you see politicians lie about their previous experiences just to make a connection with a crowd.

I really hope I’m misunderstanding here. Long-term, the stock market is one of the best ways for generating a return. Of course, it’s also volatile and risky — but someone in their 20’s or 30’s has an outlook of 30 or 40 years till retirement. Of course, as you age I agree that the investments should switch to lower-risk vehicles like bonds, cd’s, etc, and when you retire it should all be in very low-risk stuff.

Should the statement be “Don’t rely on the stock market for anything you’ll need short term”?

Well, I would have to say that living close to the city (no further than a suburb) has made it hard for me to imagine living too far away from a large metro area. I love Minneapolis-St. Paul because within the metro there is dang near anything you could want to do. I couldn’t imagine living 100 miles north in “the middle of nowhere” where options are slimmer.

That’s just my perspective, perhaps it will change as I grow older and have new and different experiences.