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if you read around on the internet, in various and sundry forums, there is a rising acknowledgement among people that maybe their friends who accidentally got t

if you read around on the internet, in various and sundry forums, there is a rising acknowledgement among people that maybe their friends who accidentally got their girlfriend pregnant in high school and then got married and started working right away were the lucky ones... at the time it seemed as if those friends had messed up royally, but in hindsight, looking back over time and it seems as if the ones who got a girl pregnant in high school, dropped out and started working and got married often had the best outcomes...anecdotal evidence...but there is some logic behind it...

polishdude20 4y ago
Turns out, starting work 4 years earlier in your life helps with compound interest.
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  Yes, if you're saving. But if you have no degree or work experience and a kid to support, your money isn't staying in your pocket unless your parents are willing to help out.
  - anonymoushn 4y ago
    We should perhaps compare having a kid to support and having a job to having a kid to support and using loans to go to film school.
- mypalmike 4y ago
  https://xkcd.com/947/ https://xkcd.com/947/
mtVessel 4y ago
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything more than anecdotal that supports this conclusion.
snow_mac 4y ago
"Best outcomes" by what metric? My dad did that in college and dropped out, joined the military. We were always poor growing up. Every person I know who did not go to college and got someone pregnant is very poor. Trailer park poor. I was trailer park poor growing up... I'm the lucky one. I went to college, graduated at the bottom of my class because I was working 40 hours a week trying to stay afloat. I was the first of my class to get a job, the only one with a job before graduation. After about 2 years, I was making six figures and have for the last 8 years. I'm lucky. Today I'm closing on my second house. The first one I bought 6 years ago with only $9,000 down on a 3% conventional loan has ballooned in value to give us a home 2.5x the space with over $240,000 down. $9000 into $240,000 in 6 years. Magic. I have a wife and a kid. Lucky. Waited until I was 30 to have a kid. He's almost 3 now. The best outcomes? If I had a kid at 18, he'd be 12 and I'd be poor, never had gone to college. I would have either worked a full time job, retail or restaurants only in my small colorado town and never had the opportunity to go to college, to get internships and work part time. After community college, I went to state school and started working 40-50 hours a week. Multiple internships to reduce the debt.
vsareto 4y ago
There's a larger determinant in the US depending on what you chose to go into; entry-level or not, children or not. If you were self-taught in IT or development, then you essentially won. Even the junior worker does well. You could self teach way faster than a degree program. If you were stuck to retail just trying to make ends meet, then you were fucked, comparatively. If you were former enlisted military and did IT/dev/security and have a clearance, you can easily beat out civilian IT or development with salary and probably work twice as less. I bet it's even more ludicrous for former officers. So does that mean military is better than college? Even though there were studies on lifetime incomes for degree-holders vs. not, there are a wide number of options so that you can avoid being a statistic. College would have been great if internet education had never been a thing.
qiskit 4y ago
That would be true if they got married, got a job, stayed married and stayed employed. But isn't that more of a fairy tale than the norm. It takes immense amount of maturity, courage, discipline, etc. Things that are not taught or encouraged anymore in this country. I'm guessing the norm is a dead-beat dad/single-mom situation, welfare, section 8 housing, poverty, etc.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  I think you're a bit too pessimistic. I think it's about a wash currently - half the people get married and stay married, and half either don't get married or marry and then divorce. I don't have statistics handy, so that's just my feel...
mitchdoogle 4y ago
Anecdotes are fun, but the statistics paint a better picture. It's not as interesting to say "My friend graduated college in 4 years, got a good job, and now he owns a 4BR house, and his wife stays at home raising their two kids"

polishdude20 4y ago

Turns out, starting work 4 years earlier in your life helps with compound interest.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago
Yes, if you're saving. But if you have no degree or work experience and a kid to support, your money isn't staying in your pocket unless your parents are willing to help out.
- anonymoushn 4y ago
  We should perhaps compare having a kid to support and having a job to having a kid to support and using loans to go to film school.
mypalmike 4y ago
https://xkcd.com/947/ https://xkcd.com/947/

mtVessel 4y ago

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything more than anecdotal that supports this conclusion.

snow_mac 4y ago

"Best outcomes" by what metric? My dad did that in college and dropped out, joined the military. We were always poor growing up. Every person I know who did not go to college and got someone pregnant is very poor. Trailer park poor. I was trailer park poor growing up... I'm the lucky one. I went to college, graduated at the bottom of my class because I was working 40 hours a week trying to stay afloat. I was the first of my class to get a job, the only one with a job before graduation. After about 2 years, I was making six figures and have for the last 8 years. I'm lucky. Today I'm closing on my second house. The first one I bought 6 years ago with only $9,000 down on a 3% conventional loan has ballooned in value to give us a home 2.5x the space with over $240,000 down. $9000 into $240,000 in 6 years. Magic. I have a wife and a kid. Lucky. Waited until I was 30 to have a kid. He's almost 3 now. The best outcomes? If I had a kid at 18, he'd be 12 and I'd be poor, never had gone to college. I would have either worked a full time job, retail or restaurants only in my small colorado town and never had the opportunity to go to college, to get internships and work part time. After community college, I went to state school and started working 40-50 hours a week. Multiple internships to reduce the debt.

vsareto 4y ago

There's a larger determinant in the US depending on what you chose to go into; entry-level or not, children or not. If you were self-taught in IT or development, then you essentially won. Even the junior worker does well. You could self teach way faster than a degree program. If you were stuck to retail just trying to make ends meet, then you were fucked, comparatively. If you were former enlisted military and did IT/dev/security and have a clearance, you can easily beat out civilian IT or development with salary and probably work twice as less. I bet it's even more ludicrous for former officers. So does that mean military is better than college? Even though there were studies on lifetime incomes for degree-holders vs. not, there are a wide number of options so that you can avoid being a statistic. College would have been great if internet education had never been a thing.

qiskit 4y ago

That would be true if they got married, got a job, stayed married and stayed employed. But isn't that more of a fairy tale than the norm. It takes immense amount of maturity, courage, discipline, etc. Things that are not taught or encouraged anymore in this country. I'm guessing the norm is a dead-beat dad/single-mom situation, welfare, section 8 housing, poverty, etc.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
I think you're a bit too pessimistic. I think it's about a wash currently - half the people get married and stay married, and half either don't get married or marry and then divorce. I don't have statistics handy, so that's just my feel...

mitchdoogle 4y ago

Anecdotes are fun, but the statistics paint a better picture. It's not as interesting to say "My friend graduated college in 4 years, got a good job, and now he owns a 4BR house, and his wife stays at home raising their two kids"