Too Cool For School

[ScottyB]

After three years at JMU, it's finally starting to sink in that I won't be here too much longer.

first of all, congrats.  you're gonna love being out there making your own way.  

i graduated in 2005 and immediately married my wife (we'd been dating for 5 years).  no ragrets but it took me down a much different path than most of you since we decided to locate ourselves based on her grad school prospects and continued pursuit of a PhD instead of my job or where our families were based in Roanoke.  because of that, instead of my plan of going to the DC job market, like all of my friends, i ended up in Atlanta, with no connections and a full day's drive from my family safety net.  scary but it forced me to face the realities of getting my life together.

i was fortunate to start out with no debt and each of us had our car from college.  we had each had a credit card for about a year prior but not much activity on them so our credit history was weak and i needed my dad to cosign our first apartment.  our furniture was basically whatever few things we had from our apartments in college, and a couple beat up ancient hand-me-downs that our parents were happy to offload to us so they could upgrade their own places.

first year out was real lean.  i had grand delusions of my lifestyle (oh boy! i'm making REAL money now!) but my pay along with my wife's stipend was just enough to live with stuff like cable TV and have insurance but the idea of eating out or concerts or vacations was a luxury and anything car related was just to keep it running. after the first year, it got better, i landed a nice job starting at 36k with good bennies and while staying at that same company, within 4 years had almost doubled that through annual raises by consistently making myself an indispensable asset - always finding ways to be able to do stuff other people couldn't, delivering ahead of schedule, taking up opportunities to do company-paid courses in the evenings, making friends (not ass-kissing, just getting to know people) in every department i could. in 2008, when the market crashed and the industry my company was in tanked overnight, i watched a lot of buddies leave their offices with their stuff in a cardboard box, and i think i got to stay because of those reasons i mentioned.

5 years later we left Atlanta for Raleigh and i went freelance when my wife took on her postdoctorate at UNC. that was a hit to our income but we had saved up enough to weather it and then the business got a foothold. another 4 years later, had a kid, and now we're back in GA (Augusta) where we finally bought a house. she has a teaching job and i'm still doing my thing. i'm on my third car, did an HPDE, bunch of autocross and rallycross, and acquired a pile of tools and a garage to go with it. life's pretty rad. long term, hoping to move back close to VA though.

stuff i learned
• i didn't know shit about finance in high school, or most of my way through college. i was ignorant and just decided i'd figure it out later. that was dumb. you guys are so lucky nowadays to have such vast internet resources for that but as others have mentioned, get a credit card and use it wisely to establish a credit history and acquire reward points. invest heavily in your 401k and track your expenses if for no other reason than to budget the best way to blow your money on fun things. do your best to pay off the credit card(s) every month...debt is a bitch.

• have savings, have an emergency fund. life's unpredictable and you WILL need to dip into that at sometime or another.

• i had a reliable and kinda fun honda accord in college that i basically traded+cash back to my dad for his audi A4 1.8T which was cooler and faster when i graduated. totally blinded by the turbo noises and fancy german mystique to realize the long game - which is that it became a disaster in repairs like most early audis. by the end i had dumped something like $8k into a $3k car along with some stupid mods. took me a long time to dig out of that hole. have something reliable for a while, don't mod it too much, get a second car for the track. i should have kept the accord, sold it for a nice chunk, and gotten something better and cooler than the 2.5RS.

• don't be afraid to co-drive with someone if you need that speed fix but are wary of using your own car. it can be a lot of fun to show up and drive someone's car while putting less wear or risk on your own stuff. also a good way to make friends.

• i'm VERY glad i lived in a metro area when i was young. it gave me a chance to see what i liked and didn't like about that lifestyle, and i was able to experience and enjoy the city offerings much more in my 20's while being able to tolerate the pace and congestion. by the time we moved i was fed up with it all. i'm glad i got the perspective.

• move and explore when you're fresh out and there isn't anything keeping you tied to one area. there is such a huge vast array of things to see in this country. i wish i had the chance to experience more of the US instead of being so locked into the southeast, but i'm fixing that over the next few years with some family travel vacations. the longer you wait, the harder it gets.

• i feel like i really didn't hit my career stride until i was in my late 20's early 30's. don't burn yourself out too hard trying to climb the ladder early on. that's not to say don't work hard - but if you're being asked to work overtime be sure you're getting properly compensated for it. don't let your boss push you around outside reasonable bounds of your job expectations. i've experienced what happens to your body if you push too hard for too long and the stress is not fun.

• once you have a couple years experience under your belt and can use that to your benefit, don't be afraid to negotiate a little with employers. be that travel, hours, pay, bennies, etc. i should have asked for better vacation when i interviewed for my second job but i was just so happy to be hired i kind of glossed over it.

• enjoy being young. if you're athletic, or want to be, do those crazy physical things now. you can take the hits, and will likely never be as strong and fast as you are right now, later. try to stay active around your work schedule, if for no other reason than your long term health.

• don't rush to fill your place with the biggest flatscreen or nice furniture until you've been out a few years. nobody will care if you're watching netflix on a craigslist couch.

• it'll be tempting to Keep Up With The Joneses. your coworkers will get baller cars, ring up big tabs, have the latest and greatest whatever. stay in your comfort zone, whatever that may be. truth is, many of them are living that way in crippling debt, or getting outside help that might be unrealistic for anyone else.