May 30th, 2008
Vital things to know that the college grad did not learn at college
As I have progressed from college, to post college, to whatever the this next stage is, there are quite a few things that Ive picked up that I thought “man, they sure don’t teach that in college, or high school, or anywhere.” Things that would have been good to know YEARS ago.
1) Start saving for retirement yesterday
I don’t care how old you are, the earlier you start, the better off you will be. I wish I had started when I got my first paper route. I would have a huge amount saved if I had been putting away even 5-10% of what I was making. The lovely thing I like to call “compound interest” is your friend. Trust me.
2) Go to work. On time.
I skipped a lot of classes in college…and Im hardly abnormal in that regard. The problem is, for many people, that attitude can carry over into the good ol real world. I was lucky in that I have been working fulltime (hmmm is that lucky?) during college so I didn’t exactly hit a wall when I came into the real world, but its a shock for some.
3) You need health insurance
The one point in my life when I didn’t have health insurance is when I had a bad accident and racked up a ton of medical bills. Health insurance (at least catastrophic) is not just about being healthy: accidents happen, and trust me, you don’t want tens of thousands in medical bills.
4) Get enough sleep
Ok I know, cramming for exams, playing video games until early hours and falling asleep in class is part of college for most people, but that kind of thing does not work out well in the business world. Staying up late playing around makes for a miserable work day the next day, and the next day, and the next day. Seriously, even one night of not sleeping can really wreck a week when you cant take a nap at 2 PM.
5) Dont rack up debt
One of the most common themes is the idea of “well Ill buy this now, and then pay for it when I have a job after college.” Thats the kind of thinking that has gotten the majority of us in America in debt. This seems to continue after graduation too… “I will buy this now and pay it back when I get my bonus.” Don’t. In fact, heres a little trick: think about how many hours of work (post taxes) it will take you to pay for something. That really puts it in perspective.


The Celebrity Apprentice finished up and and the celebrity apprentice winner was announced. One more season is down in the books. Admittedly, I like the apprentice to a degree…its fun seeing terrible candidates or B list celebrities getting whats coming to them after having tried to rat on team members and in laughing at the depths of humiliation people will go to to try and win.
When you’re in college, you are either:
Networking is one of the most trite terms floating around right now, mostly due to social networking sites exploding. There is myspace, facebook, twitter, linked in etc etc. As much as I hate to use the word, its one of the most important things you can do for your career and your life. So lets dive in.
There is an episode of the TV show South Park where there are a group of “underpants gnomes.” The “Underpants Gnomes” are a community of underground gnomes who steal underpants, notably from Tweek (one of the characters).
The Worse Career Plan:
Next up on our list of “plans people don’t seem to think they need, but they are so wrong I want to give them the business end of a cattle prod” is retirement planning. Most peoples retirement model looks like the picture on the right. This one is both simple and extremely complex at the same time. The simple part: download my 401k/Roth IRA calculator and go to town assuming 8% rate of return (conservative). The complex part: deciding how to setup your portfolio, deciding what age you want to retire at. If you want to retire early, deciding how you are going to get by before you can withdraw from your retirement accounts (and don’t tell me you WANT to pay those huge tax penalties unless your retirement portfolio contains the united states treasury). Next make a plan (just like the career plan….how’d you guess I was heading that way). Ask yourself the following questions:
“Beyond its entertainment value, Baywatch has enriched and, in many cases, helped save lives. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to continue with a project which has has such a significance for so many.”