What should my college major be? 35 posts by 24 users

Posted: 07/02/2008 at 06:06AM

Here is some unorthodox advice that I am sure many of the old timers around here will disagree with.

Speaking from experience and 40K in debt with student loans. I discovered property investing toward the end of my degree program and realize that it was a huge waste of money. I do not want to be part of corp. life, as I am now. I have no interest in climbing anyone's ladder but my own.

My advice is to finish your RN, keep your license current, whether you work as a nurse or not and forget about obtaining your degree. Your backup is nursing, if you should need to rely on someone else for a paycheck. The time of our parents telling us that a degree is a necessity are over.

I have been in the corporate world now as a software tools expert and computer programmer for several years without a degree and I can tell you now that I have a degree, that my BSB/M means nothing . My company, like many others are shipping their work over sea's for an extra buck. I have seen many of my degreed co-workers walked out the door after giving the company their life.

The best advice I can give you is to save your money and time and focus that on creating yourself a job that you love to do. There is nothing worse then to sit at a job that you hate every day, working 24/7, making someone else rich, only to be walked out the door one day due to downsizing when you're in your 50's. T

here is no loyalty from either side anymore. There is no job security. The days of working your butt off and being rewarded and recognized by the company are over. There is nothing that you will learn in college that will help you be successful at running your own business. You can learn more by on the job experience or by teaming up with someone who has done it in the real world.

It has taken me 30+ years to realize that my parents advice was based upon their understanding of the world around them. Some of it reflected reality, while much of it did not. Their advice is no longer relevant in our times and I am not to sure that it was when I was a kid either, considering where they are both today.

Good luck

Posted: 07/02/2008 at 08:29AM

Hey Ad
I am a Mainframe Systems Programmer. Only recently (about 1 1/2 years bk) did I get in to RE investing and have been learning since. I have a computer science bachelor's degree that is useful ONLY for my current day-job.

I have not done any RE courses neither am I planning to. Crunching numbers in RE is simple math. You do not need a Finance degree to do the numbers in RE as far as I see it. As for accounting, learn how they file your taxes using Itemized deductions, Sch E, A, 10-99, etc. and have a CPA who can do the work for you.

I believe in doing MY work (responsibly) and seek appropriate help from my Attorney, CPA, RE Agent, etc. I do not mind paying them a fee because they are part of my RE investing team. I am a beginner and have no investments yet, but starting out with the same structure that I explained above.

In summary, CopyBook style doesnt help in the long run. We are in the Information Age and person 'X' can learn the same Finance, RE, Accounting and Economics on the internet while you are searching for such courses in your city.

Good Luck!
Ram

Posted: 07/03/2008 at 09:38AM

AD,

I kind of agree with TC. I would say do nursing until your REI pick up enough for you to make the complete transition. If you absolutely do not want to go into nursing...

I would do Finance. Actually, I did do Finance here at the Univ. Of Floirda.

Some of the other biz degrees are a little on the fluffy side and offer very little " real world" experience (at least here at UF). In my opinion, finance at least teaches you the bigger skill sets that can be applied to your RE career.

Accounting is good if you want to be an accountant. Hopefully you will be making enough money in your REI that you will just hire one, no questions asked.

So I would go with Finance, just if you are interested in what will help you in your commercial investment career.

Posted: 07/03/2008 at 11:03AM

Well, I would do Economics as that gives a worldwide view of how things work between countries and esp. we being in the 'World is Flat' phase... That's my opinion.

Good Luck!
Ram

Posted: 07/07/2008 at 04:52PM

As someone who actually has a degree in Real Estate, and works in the real estate investment industry, it all depends on how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole. Choose the red pill, or the blue pill. I took the red one.

For me it was simply that I wanted to broaden my horizons far beyond what was in my face. If your goal is to own SFR's and 2-4 units, then no degree is required, real estate or otherwise. If the interest in multi million dollar deals and commercial development peaks your interest, then a degree is a must. My business partners have finance degrees and are able to pick up the concepts of real estate finance very easily. How I was able to determine the difference in the two fields is one you learn to valuate a business, and the other you learn to valuate real estate.

The big thing for me is that I started my education with the end goal of being a real estate investor. That gave me a completely different outlook on the subjects that we covered, and greatly broadened my horizons.

Economics will definitely give you a world view on things, but you will need to learn many more concepts to make that jump into the world of finance. In the big game of real estate, it is all about financial concepts.

In the end, the choice is yours. Do you take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and invest in whatever you want to invest. Or do you take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and you see how deep the rabbit-hole goes?

Posted: 07/08/2008 at 01:30PM

As long as you get a degree that is all that really matters. If you are an entrepreneur and are not going to work for the " man" I wouldn't worry too much about what it is.....however here is my two cents....get a degree in marketing, since this is the most important aspect in business (yes, I know that in college what they teach you about marketing is pretty worthless, but it's better than nothing.)

Posted: 07/09/2008 at 12:11AM

Primo is on the money here. Think about the basic business elements. Real Estate is a business, no different than any other really.

All businesses must market, must sell, must have accounting principles, etc. Go in one of those basic directions. Philosophy, History, English, these are ridiculous majors. Ooh maybe Art History will help you in life. ha

Go with the fundamentals of business because regardless of what you do in life, you will need these!

Posted: 07/09/2008 at 10:13AM

I did business, but specialized in small business.

There is a lot of value there: learn how advertising works. Learn how accounting works. Take a bunch of economics classes. Learn how to manage your employees. Get a degree that can actually land you a job if you need one.

I also seriously suggest a foreign language.

You don't need a degree to do real esate if your ultimate goal is to wear jeans with holes in the knees and hang out with small time contractors as you do small deals.

That fix and flip stuff gets mighty old when you are old enough that your knees hurt and your back is screaming by the end of the day.

If you expect to get up to bigger things and swim with the big fish in real estate, lacking education puts you at a real disadvantage. Knowledge is power and you don't want to be doing big money deals with aggressive people who have a lot more knowledge than you do.

Posted: 07/10/2008 at 05:00AM

" That fix and flip stuff gets mighty old when you are old enough that your knees hurt and your back is screaming by the end of the day. "

Heck, I am only 38 yrs old and I have this problem.. :)

Posted: 07/10/2008 at 12:24PM

Musicians have a tendency to be excellent mathemeticians and vice versa so that may be part of it as well. He probably would have been successful had he not even gone to college but music (he even got a Masters Degree in Music) contributed greatly to him.

His first business about 5 years after college was writing a set of music books with my mom (also got a Masters in Music....lol) and self publishing them. That turned out to be a very successful venture for them.

Tim