I'll take the $5M any day. I wouldn't care who has a PhD
Having a title doesn't mean bugger all in life. If you go on to do something special in your field then yes thats something.
Somebody please hit my head hard
- Thread starter devank
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I'll take the $5M any day. I wouldn't care who has a PhD
Having a title doesn't mean bugger all in life. If you go on to do something special in your field then yes thats something.
Each to their own. If everybody have same ideas, the world would be so boring
IMO building a 5M asset base is easy compared to getting a phd. It is not about title, but about academic achievement. You do what makes you feel fulfilled. If I am asked to choose between 50k retirement today and 100k retirement in 5 years, 50k is enough for me. It is not about instant gratification but about what you want to achieve in life.
I dont get why so many people are so anti education,
if its going to make you happy, or earn you more $$$ or even develop your career whcih may lead to happiness, then why not!
Money isnt everything
if its going to make you happy, or earn you more $$$ or even develop your career whcih may lead to happiness, then why not!
Money isnt everything
Now there's an oxymoron for you. Classing as 'achievement' writing a thesis that will be read by three people who have no idea what the real world looks like. My cousin did her Doctorate in Statistics at Melbourne Uni, so she's pretty sharp. You know what she does now? Stays at home to raise her children while the thesis she wrote sits on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. I'm sure that is far more valuable than $5 million.
The only thing academics excel at is sitting in their ivory towers pretending they are better than us plebs. Meanwhile, there are literally millions of people out here in the real world actually producing things of value, whether they are inventors or entrepreneurs or investors or whatever else.
You know what I mean? People that actually give something back to the world instead of sitting around doing nothing. You might think that building a $5 million portfolio is easier than attaining a PhD, but try telling that to the guy that spent 20 years of his life building a $5 million portfolio.
You know what's funny though? Of all the people that I come across who own businesses or are generally entrepreneurial, very few of them attribute their success to a Uni degree or some variant thereof. In fact, most of them state flat out that going to University is a complete waste of time. A view that I wholeheartedly share. The only people that place value on a Uni degree are people with a wage slave mindset.
Universities are a finely tuned pickpocketing machine designed for the exclusive purpose of taking your money to provide you with an education you could get for nothing.
I don't think people are anti education. I think it's more the way the question was framed ie asking a question and then giving reasons why you shouldn't do it.
devank if you want my honest opinion if you're doing it for a 'Dr' in front of your name then I think that's pathetic. If you're doing it because it will progress your career or simply because you love to learn or then go for it! I'm doing a Masters at the moment and it's purely because I want to keep learning and pushing myself.
Given there are 7,000 PhD graduates produced in Australia every year, and only 55,000 households nationally with net worth of $4-$5million, achieving a PhD would seem to be much more attainable.
http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/FB162A8CBB41033DCA257BCD001A5725/$File/65540_2011_12.pdf
Sorry, thought you meant owning not owing. Agreed, it's much easier to borrow lots of money than get a PhD.
Hi Devank
I'm in a similar situation to yourself. For the time being I am not going to venture down the Phd path but the door is open.
My reasons for not heading down that path at the present time are my children are young and I feel I need to be spending more time with them than in the books and shooing them away. Investing will net me more $ than any potential pay increase or job opportunity from completing my Phd. My studies are also in an area that I don't believe contributes significantly to making a difference in the world. There is a big divide between academia and what happens in the real world of work and unfortunately never enough time to bring them both closer together.
If for example if my Phd involved researching a cure for a disease then I would probably do it.
In regards to your liking the idea of a Dr title - it also represents pushing yourself to the highest academic level you can. It is a personal goal. Really no different from those who aspire to complete an Iron Man event.
Good luck with your decision.
I'm in a similar situation to yourself. For the time being I am not going to venture down the Phd path but the door is open.
My reasons for not heading down that path at the present time are my children are young and I feel I need to be spending more time with them than in the books and shooing them away. Investing will net me more $ than any potential pay increase or job opportunity from completing my Phd. My studies are also in an area that I don't believe contributes significantly to making a difference in the world. There is a big divide between academia and what happens in the real world of work and unfortunately never enough time to bring them both closer together.
If for example if my Phd involved researching a cure for a disease then I would probably do it.
In regards to your liking the idea of a Dr title - it also represents pushing yourself to the highest academic level you can. It is a personal goal. Really no different from those who aspire to complete an Iron Man event.
Good luck with your decision.
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My wife will do a PHD soon. It really won't have an employment outcome, but there is something she wants to know more about and write about. She likes doing that sort of stuff. She has two undergraduate degrees and three Masters, so this will be the sixth thing. Good on her, I reckon. Everybody should have the opportunity to pursue stuff that interests them.
"I am not a Mister....call me Doctor.... Doctor Devan K, thank you very much"
...yeah why not!!
...yeah why not!!
It's not that hard. Stick around in uni for 10 years....
I agree with Richard to hold off til you are retired. If you go hard for the next few years you could set yourself up to retire in the not too distant future.
A university teacher once said that we come to university for our "lust for knowledge". As 18 year olds there was no lust, just wanting the big bucks when we finished. Now that I'm older I understand where he was coming from, that's there always a bit of passion to get back to the books.
I'm your age and have been thinking about doing a law degree (I have post grad law quals but not undergrad). but then I realise that life with toddlers is busy enough without throwing study into the mix.
How does your wife feel about it? Is she supportive or is she fine to go with what makes you happy?
A university teacher once said that we come to university for our "lust for knowledge". As 18 year olds there was no lust, just wanting the big bucks when we finished. Now that I'm older I understand where he was coming from, that's there always a bit of passion to get back to the books.
I'm your age and have been thinking about doing a law degree (I have post grad law quals but not undergrad). but then I realise that life with toddlers is busy enough without throwing study into the mix.
How does your wife feel about it? Is she supportive or is she fine to go with what makes you happy?
- Will your investments continue to thrive while you do something else? As Mark_B mentioned, it would take away 3 years of possibly purchasing. Existing IPs would live on extracted equity.
- Are you willing to do the extra study just for 'pleasure'? I never thought I would say this.. but yes
- Even if you never made money from the PhD - and even lived on less while studying - is it still something that interests/excites you?
I don't really mind if I don't money from the PhD. Living on less will have a bit of impact on the family.
- Can you all survive happily with the one salary? (you've already answered that.)
We can just survive
- Most important, is your partner genuinely happy for you to go ahead with it?
She is. Her point is that we shouldn't regret doing or not doing it later in life.
It is not going to be changing the world. It would be more like 'Estimating and predicting ripple effect after a boom or bust' or to that effect.
Yes.. I fall under the 'Data Scientist' category. I don't like that terminology though. It is kind of misusing the term 'scientist'. I do panel econometric modelling. It is kind of two dimensional modelling compared to time-series. Thanks for that site. It is interesting.
It is not really about what others think. More about what other 'property investors' think as I also fall under that group. More about 'regrets' in life who are older than me. Like Mark_B said "life is not a practice run" so I better learn from who have been in similar this situation (not necessarily study related).
I also have 3 kids under 6. I thought I would have flexibility so I can spend more time with kids
Please keep me updated with what you are going to do.
I think you answered one of Mr. Fabulous's question "are you contemplating it because you want the PhD or do you want to do it for the education?"
I think Mr. Fabulous few others also expressed similar opinion. I think we need about 20 years to comfortably not work. May be it is something I could do when I hit 55 or 60 (about 20 years time).How long til you should enable to retire? Might be a great post-work project
PhD?
Hiya
My hubby was offered a full scholarship to do a Phd in Pure Mathematics....he thought hard and decided against it ....
His career path would have decidedly be different if he had gone that way....he would probably have ended up in Finance instead which may not have suited him...
So IMHO think a little further on what your end goal is rather than Phd for Phd's sake...
On a side note, my best friend's husband 's phone msg bank has this msg..."This is Dr..XXX (non medical) residence pls leave a msg" ...makes me cringe each time ..
Hiya
My hubby was offered a full scholarship to do a Phd in Pure Mathematics....he thought hard and decided against it ....
His career path would have decidedly be different if he had gone that way....he would probably have ended up in Finance instead which may not have suited him...
So IMHO think a little further on what your end goal is rather than Phd for Phd's sake...
On a side note, my best friend's husband 's phone msg bank has this msg..."This is Dr..XXX (non medical) residence pls leave a msg" ...makes me cringe each time ..
