Am I reaching here or can we declare it ironic that it took a Freedom of Information Act and two years to obtain copies of NSA security posters from the 50s and 60s some of which laud freedom and liberty?
Category: general (Page 13 of 17)
In a previous post, I took lots of notes of a short podcast series I found on planning for college. I think I’m going to continue doing that as the host drops valuable nuggets of information in each episode he’s recorded. Here are my notes on his “Return on Investment” episode.
The first part of the episode seems to be a recap of his previous one–which I haven’t listened to yet. He speeds through a number of questions the student should ask himself when deciding on college and career:
1. For what you want to do, is a degree even necessary?
The host references a finding by The Center for College Affordability and Productivity that asserts 48% of 2010 graduates are working in jobs that don’t require a four year degree. Later in the podcast, he points out efforts by Mike Rowe and others to sway people from the “credentialist arms race” that college has become to less debt-riddled paths.
2. What will the job pay?
As I’ve told my child, consider your current circumstances: nice house in the suburbs, a couple of cars, summer vacations and so forth. Do you like that lifestyle? Do you want an even better one when you’re on your own? Then you’ll need to find a job that can support such a lifestyle. The host suggests visiting Payscale.com which apparently has tools to help you find a college that meets your budget and will even give you a projected income for when you graduate.
3. Will your income support the cost of your student loans?
Sure, you have lifestyle expectations that your future career will need to support, but you’ll need to add to that the cost of paying back your student loans. Will your career support both? To get an idea of what those student loans might look like, the host recommends visiting FinAid.org which has a calculator to help you estimate your potential, monthly student loan bills. He also mentioned two other tools for estimating your potential costs that look to be pretty good:
4. Is your chosen degree too general?
A degree in “business” may be too general for your intended career. Here is where more research is warranted where you start with your chosen career and work backward toward the degree(s) that best feed that career.
5. Does the brand name school really matter?
Occasionally, attending that elite school may be the path you need to take for your chosen career, but, chances are, the degree is more important than the stationary it’s printed on. Again, your research should bring such points to light.
6. Does the college itself have a lot of debt? Will it stay in business?
I thought this point was interesting and one I’ve never considered. What would happen if you received a degree from a college that went out of business? Would that negatively influence your standing with potential employers? I have no idea. As I think about it, I recall hearing about some for-profit colleges going out-of-business, but I don’t recall ever hearing about a traditional school closing its doors.
7. Inquire about the college graduation rate, the average number of years to graduate, the percentage of students that graduate, and the student loan balance.
All great questions you should ask of a potential college. He also mentioned Wallethub’s 2018’s Cities with the Most & Least Student Debt as a good resource for identifying what States (and likely State schools) pose the most risk for high student debt.
After his recap, the host then dove into the main points of thinking about your Return on Investment for the cost of your degree. He called out four important considerations:
- What’s the total price of your intended college?
- How much student loan do you plan on obtaining?
- Consider the income potential of your chosen career field. Is it worth the investment?
- Consider if the income you make will cover your loans and expenses.
You can increase your ROI by decreasing your up-front costs. Consider these ways to save “thousands” on your tuition bill (for both parents and student):
- Parents should set limits. Set a limit to the total amount you’ll contribute each year. Set a limit to the total number of years you’ll contribute to your child’s college journey. He noted, sadly, that due to the fact that parents are the usual co-signers to federal and private student loans, people in their 60s are now becoming the largest demographic paying back student loans.
- Apply to the FAFSA
- Explore scholarships and grants
- Get in-state tuition. Even if the student attends an out-of-state school, there are ways to still pay in-state prices.
- Look into CLEP exams and test out of subjects you’re already familiar with to reduce your costs.
Great series of podcasts for those of you, like me, looking at that bright light at the end of the tunnel.
Across my gym’s parking lot sits a great American icon: McDonalds. Twenty feet to the West is Burger King. Every time I leave the gym after a hard workout, I look across the parking lot and see the drive-throughs of both establishments stacked four-to-six cars deep. What irony.
My family has busy schedules and lots of needs, financially and otherwise. To be as supportive as possible, I know I must be as healthy as possible. Gym, yes. Fast food, no. Now, I’m no Jim Jupiter and I’ve had my share of health concerns, but I try to place a high priority on staying healthy. Here are some of the ways I try to maintain and improve my health:
1. Weightlift
The book, The Abs Diet, places a high premium on weightlifting to promote fat burning and overall health:
“It turns out that while lifters didn’t burn as many calories during their workouts as the folks who ran or biked, they burned far more calories over the course of the next several hours. This phenomenon is known as the afterburn–the additional calories your body burns off in the hours and days after a workout. When researchers looked at the metabolic increases after exercise, they found that the increased metabolic effect of aerobics lasted only 30 to 60 minutes. The effects of weight training lasted as long as 48 hours (p46).”
With our schedule, I’m lucky to weightlift about 3-4 times per week. I try to practice a four-day split so I can give each body part appropriate attention and break my workouts down into “warm up” sets (3-5 sets of 20 repetitions each of a lower, warm-up weight) and “working” sets (3-5 sets of 4-8 repetitions of a much higher weight).
2. Run
Aerobic work is still important–your heart is a muscle, after all–so I try to run or use one of the elliptical machines at the gym as much as possible. I do wuss-out a bit if the temperature is under 40 degrees, but otherwise I try to get 2-3 three-mile runs in per week.
3. Eat right
In a recent interview, renown physicist Michio Kaku discussed his interest in the paleo diet. While I think that diet makes a lot of sense, I haven’t quite committed to it. Instead, I simply try to keep the carbs low and protein high.
4. Drink water
I have an app on my phone to remind me to periodically drink water. Admittedly, I tend to turn it off after a few annoying reminders, but one part of my diet I’ve been fairly successful at is nearly eliminating drinking sodas. For me, it’s water, tea, and coffee.
5. Garden
The fitness industry loves to talk about developing a healthy diet, but I rarely hear them discuss where the foods that compose a healthy diet come from. What sort of pesticides were sprayed on those foods as they were grown? What sort of preservatives coat those foods to give them longer shelf life in the grocery store? Why does no one in the fitness industry talk about growing your own healthy food–at least a fraction of it, anyway?
Cultivating a garden is a great way to grow foods you like and know for a fact what pesticides you apply, or withhold, from those foods. Every year, I plant a small raised bed and several containers with tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, strawberries, and other plants. I also grow raspberries, blackberries, pears, and even paw-paws on my small suburban lot.
With gardening, not only can I grow the food I like and keep it chemical free, but I find it a bit of a stress relief, as well.
6. Mow my own grass, take the dog for a walk, and other sundries
Mowing the lawn can be grueling in the hot summer sun, but I consider it a small workout. It also helps me keep in touch with my property, noting if that side hedge needs trimming or if there’s some trash under one of my pine trees. Also, it affords me another opportunity to listen to my podcasts!
Another necessary choir is taking the family dog for a walk. I struggle getting the kids to take on this responsibility, so I often find myself and my four-legged friend out for a stroll, but I count that as a small workout, too, and I know he appreciates getting out of the house a little.
7. Martial Arts/Boxing
In my younger days, I participated extensively in martial arts and boxing–great forms of exercise that provide the added benefit of teaching self defense. These days, I’ve had to back away from that regimen, but I still do occasional bag and shadow boxing work and will hopefully get to someday pass on some of my knowledge to my children.
8. Train my brain
Staying healthy isn’t entirely about the physical body. I love to learn and always try to learn something new everyday. Podcasts are great in this effort. Also, I often attend both free and pay training sessions such as those at EdX and DataCamp.
9. Sleep?
Experts seem to suggest 7-9 hours of sleep for old dads like me. Unfortunately, I’m more in the 5-6 hour camp. So, this is definitely one point of fitness I need to improve upon.
10. Stretch
I tore my calf a few years ago playing soccer with my boy. The recovery was long and painful and directly impacted our schedules. Since then, I’ve tried to be more thoughtful about stretching, but certainly need to do a better job working this into my daily routine.
11. Meditate
A lot of people I listen to are big advocates of meditation. Meditation was a part of my martial arts experience, but I could never get the hang of it. I really want to give the practice another go, I’m just struggling to figure out a proper time and place amongst the hustle and bustle that is my home life.
Whatever you do, try to do some form of physical activity every day. If you’re like me, a lot of people are depending on you to be at top performance now and years to come!
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