STOCK MARKET WATCH - Thursday, 26 January 2012

[AnneD]

89. This is possibly the best financial/career advice....

I have every read for students (and their parents) EVER. This gets bookmarked and sent to all the social workers and counselors I know. Thanks so much for posting this.

I was the first in my family to ever go to college. I had no mentor and learned by trial and error. As a poor kid from the other side of the tracks, I was all to aware of class-even in the 70's. I had wealthy friends in college so I circulated and saws thing close up. I did not get as far as I could have, but what I learned, I taught and mentored my daughter. She had talent in music (runs in the family) and was pretty smart. With training and taking advantage of opportunities that came our way, we parlayed that into an education at an elite university. They recognized her talent and gave her as much aid as they could find. She will come out this May with some debt, but she now has the connections and skill to pay that debt off and do better than I ever could dream of. Time will tell, but she has recieved the benefit of my hard earned knowlege.

Every child has skills. The important thing is to guide and mentor them. I have as much respect for a mechanical engineering mind as an artistic or academic mind. As kids come in the clinic, I often talk to them about what they like and what are their dreams. I try to encougage real dreams that can be achieved-not pie in-the-sky fantasies.

Everyone pushes a college bound culture but that is foolish and wasteful. I am a firm believer in education to make you a better person-but education, not necessarily getting a piece of paper but no job, skill or hope of any prospects. That is just cruel.

If my hubby got the paper to match his skill as a musician-he would have a PhD on the wall now and I would be working for Elizabeth Warren.