As the title says I recently started my senior year of high school. The past year or two have really been all about thinking about my future. I figured I'd ask here – the guys who know what bad jobs are like – to see if I'm about to fuck up my life forever by going to college. I'll be clear: my number one goal in life is financial security. I just want enough to be comfortable and not have the stress of bills bring me to an early grave, running the rat race making just enough to get by until I'm in my 50's only to retire on just enough money to cover 1 hospital trip in case my old ass happens to fall down in the year 2060something
While it would greatly anger my parents, I can still choose to not attend college at this point even though I've applied to my #1 choice school. And I DO genuinely want to go to college, but only if it will pay off. Horror stories regarding student loans, interest that builds faster than you can pay it off, and working until 45 or longer to pay the debt off have made me uneasy about college, though. I definitely wont be accepting any student loans, but my #1 choice school is a public university anyway and they actually aren't super expensive either. When it comes to life after high school though, I don't want to go to college to learn. I want to go to college to build up a network of people who can get me a high-paying job. Is that nepotism? If it is, I don't really care, because again my #1 goal in life is financial security. There's also a program of distinction in the business school of my #1 choice school that's all about networking. Besides, the United States is definitely an individualism culture instead of a collectivism culture. The system says that that's okay as long as I succeed, what happens to others doesn't matter.
Now for the specifics, the what of my college experience. I actually want 2 bachelor's degrees. Not that “double major” shit but 2 whole degrees, and no master's degrees. I want a Bachelor's degree in Finance, and a Bachelor's degree in sociology. The Finance degree would be my money-making degree. This is how I'd get my money and attain my #1 goal. I want to work with the stock market, invest and make money and all that. One of the professors on a tour of my #1 choice school said that I could be a financial manager. They gave us a tour of the Bloomberg terminals too. I had known I wanted to be a guy working with money to make money for a while, but that was the moment I knew I made the right choice. I'm just asking here for confirmation – because the truth is, nobody knows what the stock market will look like in 2026 or 2027 when I graduate. The second degree, the sociology one, will be my degree of passion. That gives me an out in case the stock market crashes and I can't get a job in the field of investing & finance anymore, and I could become a therapist or something with that sociology degree, as a backup.
I was just wondering if there was an alternative to college you guys here could recommend me just in case college isn't a fit for me. Can I get into the field of finance and investing with a high school diploma and a night class certification or something? Do you recommend college for me specifically? I don't want to end up one of the abused, overworked and underpaid people like so many tales I read here, so I want to get some thoughts on my plan for life after high school.