Jun said:
Hi everyone, my first post.
Some background, I am 19 years old, currently doing IT at uni and basically earn enough money to get myself to the next paycheck. Im not enjoying my course and dont believe I find it "totally rewarding".
I am deciding to deffer uni for a year (or longer) to persue fulltime work to save enough money for my first IP. I know I want to be in the IP game, and my goal is to own 10 properties by 25, which I feel is possible IF i start now. I eventaully plan on finishing my uni course. University doesnt seem like the "solution" to my problem, I only did it because it seemed to be the thing to do after high school. I know a degree can open doors and is worthwhile to have, so I plan on having one eventaully. But I believe working hard now to set myself up while I am young seems more rewarding....what are your thoughts?
So the question is, what advice would you give to the budding young investor. do you think it is worthwhile to work fulltime now (mind you Im basically starting from nothing) and get into the game as early as possible and dedicate myself to it. My reasoning for this is I am learning and gainging the knowledge everyday, have no dependants, I have only a smallish hecs debt and believe I am in a great position to start young once I start earning a decent salary.
Any thoughts, suggestions, feedback would be great!
Hi Jun,
I am also 19, at uni, and was in a similar situation to you in my first year. I thought I wanted to get into IT, and enrolled in a course, and in the first week I decided it really wasn't for me so i cancelled my enrolement. You may say a week isn't long enough but I just knew that the course wasn't right for me.
At this point I was trying to decide whether I wanted to defer uni and give it a go the next year, look for another course or start full time work.
After thinking about it for a while I ended up choosing to try another course, Commerce. I honestly didn't really know whether I wanted to do this, but had always liked finance and thought this would be a decent option for me. I’m now in my final year and am really glad I chose the course as I have really enjoyed it.
Here was my rationale for deciding to continue with uni instead of try full time work just after I cancelled my enrolment in the IT course –
- I was still really young after I finished high school (17 and a half), and really didn’t think I wanted the responsibility of full time work.
-I thought I’d give uni a try, if I didn’t like it the most would have lost was 6 months or a year, and a relatively small amount of money in HECS/lost income.
-I know I will be a very committed investor in the future, but I think you always need to balance investing with the other aspects of life. Uni can be hard but it’s not as stressful as a full time job. If I chose to work full time instead I wouldn’t have been able to go out as much, have fun with the people I’ve met, or get the university experience. True I now have less money, but there is so much time to work hard in the future, but you’re only young once and I was willing to delay my road to financial independence by a few years for this.
-If you go to uni you will probably graduate by the time you’re say 21-22. Then you can start looking for a job on much better pay than if you didn’t have a degree, in the mean time you’ve experienced the good times of uni life. You may think 3 or 4 years is a long time, but uni goes so fast it's unbelievable, time will pass and you'll be finished before you even know it.
Everyone is different and I’m not trying to persuade you either way, because ultimately it will be your decision where you end up and you need to do something you enjoy. I’m just giving you my perspective from someone who was recently in a similar situation as you. Hope i've been of some help.