Higher Education Can Be A Financial Disaster
Tue 17 Mar 2009 – 23.27
In what is fast becoming a recurring meme on this blog, we have to take a look, yet again, at the absurd financial implications of paying for a university education in this day in age. This article from Thinking on the Margin focuses on a couple who both attended law school on credit, and it didn’t really work out.
Whether you’re looking at an MBA, JD, or PhD — if you’re pursuing an advanced degree for financial reasons, chances are you’re better off either going part-time or else not at all. Otherwise, you may end-up financially strapping yourself for life.
I can relate. After finishing my MA, I’ve been pretty much unemployed for three years and counting. All the while, my student loans are still present and I still have to pay every month for that “priceless” knowledge and skills. Aside from rent (and I assume a mortgage, if I ever get one), my student loan payments are the largest bill each I have to endure each month.
There is some debatement about whether or not it’s urgent to pay off that debt. Most financial advisors will tell you that your student loans are ‘good’ debt, because you education, generally speaking, is an asset that will appreciate in value. That’s sort of a perverse way to look at it, but it makes sense. Nothing is guaranteed, of course. But the flip-side of that argument is that no matter how ‘good’ a debt is, it’s still a debt. It can affect your ability to get a mortgage, to get small business financing, and as we see from the case above, can be hell on a marriage.
I fear that soon we’ll be disclosing our debts on the third date — would you want to be with someone buried in debt? After all, if you end up married, it’s now your debt too.
Not to mention that whole net worth thing. Mine will be strongly negative for the next twenty years or so (at this rate, probably more than that).
posted by Scott in careers, education, life, personal finance.
For Girls, Binge Drinking Not Sexy
Wed 11 Mar 2009 – 17.26
Finally, other men are coming around to what I’ve been saying since age 16: girls who drink aren’t attractive at all. (trust me, that’s an understatement compared to the colourful rants of my teen years.)
A recent study from two American universities concludes that women have in their heads the wrong ideas about drinking to impress a fella. Truth is we prefer you sober.
It turns out 71% of these female co-eds were vastly overestimating the amount males wanted them to drink. On average, they overestimated by one-and-a-half drinks. Over a quarter of the women thought men were more likely to buddy up with a women who drinks five or more drinks. The true answer? Men expect women to consume around 2.5 drinks. 16 percent of women thought men would be most sexually attracted to women who downed the 5+ servings of their choice poison. In actuality? Men prefer nearly half that amount.
I think that whether we admit it or not, men want a women who is graceful and elegant, even when being “one of the guys.” Where a taste of male-like bonding may be playful, too much is not a good thing. For example, we never want to carry you home — women are tough to carry because their weight is distributed different. Plus you look like a creep carrying off some helpless woman. When a women drinks too much, she becomes louder, less funny, less witty, and more of a burden than anything else. No thanks.
Head over to PopSci for the full article »
posted by Scott in health & fitness, relationships.