This is a multi-layered and complex show that only seems to be simplistic (to those who have not really watched it, in order, from season 1).

It makes NO sense for you to watch Season 3 at all. Seriously.

Finish season 2 and record Season 3. THEN watch Season 3 at your leisure–after you’ve watched Season 2.

Mad Men is all about context–to the previous seasons’ shows and plot lines.

Can you learn those subjects on your own? Sure, MIT open course! But it takes an unreal amount of discipline to learn four solid years of material on your own.

“Just get a degree, any degree!” is certainly outdated though. Not everyone should be pushed to get a degree. Also, there are a lot of low cost (and some very good!) state schools in the USA as well.

But I just want to note: My degree is worth far more than just the experience of going to college. (Though that was pretty sweet too). It didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and my student loans are very very very easy to pay on my salary (while saving in a 401k, etc)

If you are heavily in debt from the moment you graduate and you have no hope of paying it off until you are forty, it will greatly change your career outlook. There is no experimentation in careers; there is no ‘gap year’; there is no travel; there is no taking chances; there is no ‘finding yourself’. Those harassing phone calls start six months after graduation. You take what you can get, and you don’t leave. Does that sound good to you? What if you decide to take a year off? What if you want to switch to a lower-paying job that you like more? Too bad, payments are due every month.

The elites benefit greatly from unaffordable education. Thus education will remain so in the United States. Banks make profits off of struggling students, employers know that their workers need to take what they get and can’t leave because the loans are due, and the elites have less people to compete against for lucrative positions.

The knowledge work jobs people are supposed to train for no longer exist. Downsizing, offshoring, automation and consolidation have eliminated them. High-paying jobs will go to those with the right connections. The average middle class family cannot compete with the children of the elites who can get into the best universities (on merit or ‘legacy’), stay in school indefinitely and forge the necessary social connections without batting an eyelash about cost (another PhD, why not?) *That* is who will get the ‘knowledge work.’ Everyone else will get nothing but debt.

Admittedly students are in a bind with employers demanding more and more education for even the simplest jobs. A smart, capable person has little chance against someone who has infinite funds to get whatever degrees from wherever they want to, since entry-level jobs are determined by how you look on paper. Yes, this advantage diminishes somewhat over time. Also, many of the jobs that do not require a degree do not pay enough to live on (why should any full-time job not pay enough to live on)? Employers blithely shift the burdens onto their employees, while contributing less and less to the tax coffers that once subsidized affordable education. Why should they care? No matter what they require, there will be those able to pay it.

Put simply – a large number of occupations will be unavailable to the middle class, period. Some already are. No it’s not fair, but that’s the society we are evolving into in the U.S. Sure, there are academic superstars who show their promise early; they will have chances to advance (although many of them are the beneficiaries of a privileged background anyway), and the well-coordinated and athletic who, for some reason, we give free educations to. Everyone else will have to settle. That’s where frugality comes in. Eventually, you won’t have a choice in the matter.

There seems to be a frank acknowledgment dawning among our leadership. Obama has recently touted community colleges for worker retraining. Blue collar jobs that cannot be offshored are probably your best bets. If you don’t have someone footing the bill for your college, the hole you’ll be in will be too deep to dig your way out of. As often pointed out on this site, positive funds=choice, negative funds=no choice.

Whether or not you should go to college is another matter. Personally I wouldn’t go to college unless I had a clear career path in mind and was planning on a profession that would pay my bills.

A friend of mine actually calls her “emergency fund” a “surprise fund” it covers both positive and negative emergencies!

FYI – Bridges must first be built before you can worry about burning them and people that respect you and your work will not think poorly of you because you ended something with a reason.

In fact, if you quit maybe that will signal someone to review your boss, etc.

One more thing to remember: If your company can replace you with someone cheaper that has similiar knowledge, then they will. You will get the speech, “It’s business, it’s not personal…I hope you understand.”

FYI – I have never been fired. I have never needed any of those so called “burnt bridges.”

For the folks talking about college tuition, most of the numbers being tossed around are too low. If you want to go out of state, you will spend a fortune, even at a public school. 3 years ago, we toured UCLA and they stated the number $45,000. I was thinking – 12,000 per year that’s not too bad. But no, that was $45,000 PER YEAR and it’s gone up since then. Same price at USC, NYU, Harvard, and Boston University. A college degree out of state will cost upwards of $200,000 a year. Oh, and since we have been frugal all these years (paid off our house, huge savings/emergency/brokerage accounts), we don’t get any financial aid. Co-workers making the same (rather high) wage spent all their money all along and are getting quite lovely packages from the financial aid dept.

And, for the person who doesn’t understand the “absolutely no debt” philosophy, most often I hear that with “except a mortgage” tacked onto the back of it. So while there may be people who really believe in NO debt, I think the vast majority think it’s better to have very little debt and that is only for a mortgage.

I think the concept that emergency isn’t necessarily negative is something a lot of people should consider. Then again, until the fund is sufficiently built up, it could be a problem for some people to be in that mindset. When the good opportunity comes along, sure, they have the cash, but then if they lose their job the next day or something of the sort, they potentially have a very depleted EF.

Perhaps for most of us, once we’ve built up a sufficient actual emergency fund, maybe there can be a supplemental “opportunity”/Emergency II fund – that way, if a horrible, horrible emergency pops up, you have extra funds, but can also use those funds for the good type of “need cash now” emergencies – and when you spend it on an opportunity and lose your job the next day, you still have your untouched primary, sufficient EF to use.

One of the reasons why I have stuck with The Simple Dollar is that your blog is not commercialized — so unlike many bloggers. I honor your integrity and am showing my appreciation by supporting you in my own little way.

May I know what you consider as the best personal finance book for people in their 30s that you have read so far?

I would say that it is more like $3,000 per semester for Canadian universities. At least now, in 2009 . So 4 years (or 8 semesters) would be more like $24,000 plus books & living expenses.

2 or 3 years colleges are much cheaper though (about $1,500 per semester), and one could argue that they offer almost as many job opportunities.

as for Pete Rose, if he bet against his team, I’d say no, If he bet for his team or on other games he should be in with out a doubt.

My sister says raising kids and paying for college is expensive, and that amount of money invested wisely could pay for a great deal of home health care when the time comes. Does that work? We have a family friend in her 90′s, never married, who has had a home health care aide (let’s call her Jane) for years, who does all the cooking, cleaning, personal care and PT. How do you estimate how much to save for that? I suppose it’s like planning for retirement, but sadder.