Tips on how to become smarter with money and how to accumulate wealth?

So my dream job of becoming a physiotherapist and making a modest living couldn't come into fruition as I got booted from my program. I have around 40 something thousand in government student loan debt as well and I don't think I can afford to return back to school to take another program. I'm also living with a room mate right now however my lease is done at the end of the summer and I also can't stand this prick so I'll definitely be moving out. Plus they increased my rent for the new lease. Moving back home with my parents isn't an option, as they will drive me crazy and turned me into an extreme case of a blue pill guy through my upbringing and only now after moving out have I begun to turn things around and fix areas of my life.

I'm kind of lost right now as to how best to make a lot of money. I could maybe get a entry level job with my undergrad degree but I would be earning a measly 35-40k a year if I'm lucky, and like what a 2-3% raise a year. I would be making peanuts and barely have anything saved up after paying off my student loans. I hope to someday own a nice house, and travel around the world, however in Canada, were given a measly 2 weeks of vacation a year. What the hell can you do with 2 $hitty weeks out of the year? Most people spend 2-3 decades working in their fields making less then 6 figures making someone else rich while they struggle financially to make ends meet. I don't want to end up like these people. I want to be able to have financial independence and security, but seems like in today's age this is nearly impossible. I feel like university and the educational system in this country never really teaches you about how to actually make money and become successful, instead focusing on education that is quite useless and meaningless for getting ahead in life.

I just started reading the book "rich dad, poor dad" and I'm intending on reading several other financial paperbacks to educate me a bit more. I also looked into working in the canadian oil fields, but it seems very depressing working in ice cold temperatures in the Canadian north, without any social life, living like a hermit for years just to make some decent money. I'm also looking towards perhaps trying day trading, however I don't know anything about investing and stocks. Also property prices in the greater Toronto area is way out of whack and a $hitty house right in the city will run you about $700,000, which is a huge amount of capital to be able to possess. It will take me like 10 years or so of living like a cheakskate saving up my earnings to be able to even afford the capital to invest in property that costs this much, and who knows by that time, with artficial inflation the properties would costs even more . I was always taught by my father to be successful you need to study hard, get into university, get a good job, and you would be set to return with a modest lifestyle. However, he grew up in a third world country and things are a lot different in today's age and time.

Mauser96 said:

How old are you now?

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29 turning 30 in 2 months.

Mauser96 said:

May I suggest a potash mine in Saskatchewan. There are about 7 of them, a friend of mine made $100,000 in his first year. There are smaller communities you can live in, where a smaller modest house can be purchased for $70,000.Your life won't be overly exciting, but you WILL make money. FWIW, the oil fields in Canada and worldwide are basically dead right now.


I live near these mines, and my job is associated with them. I know of what I speak.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (several mines)
Mosaic Potash (several mines)
Agrium


New Players (not yet in production) are
BHP Billiton
K+S Potash

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What are the qualifications to get a job at these mines? I would also assume the working conditions is terrible and I wouldn't have a social life either.

I'm considering right now to just get a full-time entry level job and then save up as much as I can and invest it in the stock market or something, rinse and repeat and then once I've accumulated enough money start investing in real estate.

dont waste your time and money on the house and utiities. live in a van and invest the 10-20k per year that you save. You'll be way, way ahead, able to retire from that weird, hard sort of life in a very few years, maybe just one year, if you know what to do with the money that you've made.

prison/con.net said:

dont waste your time and money on the house and utiities. live in a van and invest the 10-20k per year that you save. You'll be way, way ahead, able to retire from that weird, hard sort of life in a very few years, maybe just one year, if you know what to do with the money that you've made.

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I also suggest a gym. More room and possibly cheaper than a van, as well as the potential Internet access. You can also workout instead of wasting time when you have nothing to do.

prison/con.net said:

dont waste your time and money on the house and utiities. live in a van and invest the 10-20k per year that you save. You'll be way, way ahead, able to retire from that weird, hard sort of life in a very few years, maybe just one year, if you know what to do with the money that you've made.

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How would you suggest I invest the money saved? Stocks, mutual funds, bonds ?

Day trading is dead. Swing trading, which is a holding period of days to weeks, will never go away.

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2261764&postcount=9

Bible_Belt said:

Day trading is dead. Swing trading, which is a holding period of days to weeks, will never go away.

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2261764&postcount=9

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What's your thoughts on purchasing dividend stocks?

You mean to collect the dividend as income? That's an old lady strategy. It's fine for generating income from a decent-sized account, without too much market risk. The stocks that pay dividends tend to be utilities and established energy companies, which are low-risk investments, but they're never going to have massive upside potential, either.

For a small account, you want something with a little risk, but with big upside potential. That's why I like $2-10 stocks, especially if they have been a lot higher before. There is a lot of upside.

Let me tell you a core idea behind trading - forget about the idea of your "batting average," ie, how often you make money on a trade. I once ran a computer program that analyzed all my company's accounts. Percentage of profitable trades was inversely related to overall account profitability. My own trades were typically 60-75% losers, and yet I never had an account in the red. Trading is about small loss, small loss, big gain. If you can do that, and handle being a loser most of them time, then you can make money.

Bible_Belt said:

You mean to collect the dividend as income? That's an old lady strategy. It's fine for generating income from a decent-sized account, without too much market risk. The stocks that pay dividends tend to be utilities and established energy companies, which are low-risk investments, but they're never going to have massive upside potential, either.

For a small account, you want something with a little risk, but with big upside potential. That's why I like $2-10 stocks, especially if they have been a lot higher before. There is a lot of upside.

Let me tell you a core idea behind trading - forget about the idea of your "batting average," ie, how often you make money on a trade. I once ran a computer program that analyzed all my company's accounts. Percentage of profitable trades was inversely related to overall account profitability. My own trades were typically 60-75% losers, and yet I never had an account in the red. Trading is about small loss, small loss, big gain. If you can do that, and handle being a loser most of them time, then you can make money.

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Right now I'm really scratching my head in regards to how to tackle this financial issue. Starting from this month, I will have 6 months before the government starts asking for me to start repaying back my student loans. Even though my loan payments aren't due yet, interest is still accrued. I have about 40k in student debt from university. I have started job hunting for a full time entry level job but that may take months before I land it. Also I'm not expecting to be making more then 35-40k on the job if I'm lucky. I'm thinking I should also apply for part-time or temporary work as I'm looking for the full time job.

Also I intend on moving out of my current apartment and looking for a cheaper apartment or sharing a place with someone to cut down costs. I'm only interested in looking for places that are all-inclusive of utilities, internet, and hopefully provide laundry machines as well. I'm budgeting around $800 a month for this. In addition, I'm hoping I can find the place close to the job I will get to save on purchasing monthly subway passes. I will also go on kijiji/craigslist and look for people selling their gym memberships at a discount so that I can avoid paying full price for a gym membership. I will also have to slash my entertainment spending, and try to save money by cooking most of my meals, and trying to eat out only once a week spending no more then $20 a meal, although I really struggle with the eating out because I love food and have terrible willpower to resist food.

Assuming I get a job that pays me 35k a year, I will be able to save around $800-1200 a month living frugally. Now I'm not sure if I should just use this money to pay back my student loans right away or invest it into something else. I was told by several of my friends that I can Bull$hit to have the interest on my student loans deferred for anywhere from 6 months to 1.5 years depending on how good of a bull$hitter I am or even defer payments on my student loans for 6 months to a year. I was thinking if I can do that, then I can save up a large chunk and then pay them back in this large sum at a time. If I can get the interest deferred and even the loan payments deferred or make very small monthly payments like $50, then I can invest all the money I saved up during this time making some money.

Mauser96 said:

In bold


Ok then. Hope it works out for you.

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Can you give me an idea of the wages for these jobs? Perhaps I will consider sucking it up for 6 months to 1 year working 10-12 hrs a day and saving up most of my earnings. Do they provide free accommodations for their employees like the oil companies do in Alberta? Maybe I can bank around 40k after paying off my student loans and income taxes, and then use that for investing in something.

Instead of asking how much will I earn, you should ask what will I become...

A guy once said, if you divided all the money in the world equally, it wouldn't take long for it all to end back in the same pockets...

Instead of focussing on the cash, I think you should focus on skills. If you think working 10-12 hours for 6 months is sucking it up, I highly doubt you'll end up with the rich folks. The trick is working more on yourself then on your job. Get a 40 hour job and in the evening start working on yourself...

I'm working 14 hours 6 days out off seven, because I don't want to miss the moment success passes by my door. I'll be waiting...

You can't tell opportunity to wait when it's at your door... You gotta be ready to strike hard when it comes knocking at your door, else somebody else will take it from you.

There's so many books to read and classes to take, and lot of stuff is online for free...

I know I'm like the poor uncle giving richman's advice here, but I'm taking my own medicine, so here's what I think your should do:

- Write down your goals for the next 10 years and list them in priorities, then start working on them, from today on
- keep a journal, write down the good and the bad and you'll soon learn that your mind messes with your reality, often things were a lot less worse than they first seemed. At times of reflection it's also nice to read what you've already accomplished
- make a daily gameplan, weekly gameplan, monthly gameplan
- don't sit on your ass, try hard or don't try at all...

sorry, but overtime is NOT doubletime, at least, it is not for less than 60 hours per week or less than 12 hours per day. OT is 1.5x base pay. for $45 an hour base pay, OT would thus be $67 per hour, not $90 per hour. if you don't even know THAT much, I don't believe a damned word that you say about anything that's job-related.

as for the guy who wants to know about how to invest, i suggest that you find a trustworthy vet and "employ' him as your go-fer, long enough to qualify him for a VA home loan. Then turn some big old house into 20+ weekly room rentals. In the right place and if you go at it properly, you can get 5k per year per person, even if the "room' is just a divider and a locker for his valuables. you can have a waiting list if tenants, too. yes, over 100k per year of income, from a 20k or less investment, IF you live there and run it for the first year. Then you can let some other tenant run it, while you start up another such building.

VA loans based house/mortgages (later) can be sold to anyone. VA loans don't require a 20% deposit, or good credit, or 6k worth of closing costs. No, you don't have to fix up the entire house in order to move in SOME tenants, who can then "work off' some of their rent by helping you fix up the rest of the house.

prison/con.net said:

sorry, but overtime is NOT doubletime, at least, it is not for less than 60 hours per week or less than 12 hours per day. OT is 1.5x base pay. for $45 an hour base pay, OT would thus be $67 per hour, not $90 per hour. if you don't even know THAT much, I don't believe a damned word that you say about anything that's job-related.

as for the guy who wants to know about how to invest, i suggest that you find a trustworthy vet and "employ' him as your go-fer, long enough to qualify him for a VA home loan. Then turn some big old house into 20+ weekly room rentals. In the right place and if you go at it properly, you can get 5k per year per person, even if the "room' is just a divider and a locker for his valuables. you can have a waiting list if tenants, too. yes, over 100k per year of income, from a 20k or less investment, IF you live there and run it for the first year. Then you can let some other tenant run it, while you start up another such building.

VA loans based house/mortgages (later) can be sold to anyone. VA loans don't require a 20% deposit, or good credit, or 6k worth of closing costs. No, you don't have to fix up the entire house in order to move in SOME tenants, who can then "work off' some of their rent by helping you fix up the rest of the house.

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We don't have VA loans in Canada

prison/con.net said:

sorry, but overtime is NOT doubletime, at least, it is not for less than 60 hours per week or less than 12 hours per day. OT is 1.5x base pay. for $45 an hour base pay, OT would thus be $67 per hour, not $90 per hour. if you don't even know THAT much, I don't believe a damned word that you say about anything that's job-related.

as for the guy who wants to know about how to invest, i suggest that you find a trustworthy vet and "employ' him as your go-fer, long enough to qualify him for a VA home loan. Then turn some big old house into 20+ weekly room rentals. In the right place and if you go at it properly, you can get 5k per year per person, even if the "room' is just a divider and a locker for his valuables. you can have a waiting list if tenants, too. yes, over 100k per year of income, from a 20k or less investment, IF you live there and run it for the first year. Then you can let some other tenant run it, while you start up another such building.

VA loans based house/mortgages (later) can be sold to anyone. VA loans don't require a 20% deposit, or good credit, or 6k worth of closing costs. No, you don't have to fix up the entire house in order to move in SOME tenants, who can then "work off' some of their rent by helping you fix up the rest of the house.

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double quoted by accident.

Credos said:

Instead of asking how much will I earn, you should ask what will I become...

A guy once said, if you divided all the money in the world equally, it wouldn't take long for it all to end back in the same pockets...

Instead of focussing on the cash, I think you should focus on skills. If you think working 10-12 hours for 6 months is sucking it up, I highly doubt you'll end up with the rich folks. The trick is working more on yourself then on your job. Get a 40 hour job and in the evening start working on yourself...

I'm working 14 hours 6 days out off seven, because I don't want to miss the moment success passes by my door. I'll be waiting...

You can't tell opportunity to wait when it's at your door... You gotta be ready to strike hard when it comes knocking at your door, else somebody else will take it from you.

There's so many books to read and classes to take, and lot of stuff is online for free...

I know I'm like the poor uncle giving richman's advice here, but I'm taking my own medicine, so here's what I think your should do:

- Write down your goals for the next 10 years and list them in priorities, then start working on them, from today on
- keep a journal, write down the good and the bad and you'll soon learn that your mind messes with your reality, often things were a lot less worse than they first seemed. At times of reflection it's also nice to read what you've already accomplished
- make a daily gameplan, weekly gameplan, monthly gameplan
- don't sit on your ass, try hard or don't try at all...

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Bro I already do this. I keep a semi-regular journal here on sosuave plus my own personal goals list that I check off items everyday.

Don't even think about day trading unless you are a very experienced investor. Chances are greater than 50% that you'll lose your shirt.

Do not use your student loan money to try and invest or make a quick buck.

Find a job first - you have a couple of degrees, and anything IT-related these days is considered gold. Then worry about investing. In the meantime, read dividendmantra.com about dividend growth investing. For dividend stocks, in Canada the banks are as sure a thing as you can get in the stock market, though of course everything has their risks. Try and get a job with a big corp or a university, or a government job such as office job with Hydro. Big union, and with your degrees chance for promotion. Think about doing your CGA.

Mauser is correct about the jobs he's writing about. I am from the prairie provinces, and have friends that work in these industries - they make six figures though I think times may be better when the commodity cycle ramps up again.

Intuition said:

Don't even think about day trading unless you are a very experienced investor. Chances are greater than 50% that you'll lose your shirt.

Do not use your student loan money to try and invest or make a quick buck.

Find a job first - you have a couple of degrees, and anything IT-related these days is considered gold. Then worry about investing. In the meantime, read dividendmantra.com about dividend growth investing. For dividend stocks, in Canada the banks are as sure a thing as you can get in the stock market, though of course everything has their risks. Try and get a job with a big corp or a university, or a government job such as office job with Hydro. Big union, and with your degrees chance for promotion. Think about doing your CGA.

Mauser is correct about the jobs he's writing about. I am from the prairie provinces, and have friends that work in these industries - they make six figures though I think times may be better when the commodity cycle ramps up again.

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Ya I have no intention of touching my student loans from this point onwards. Right now I'm even thinking about teaching english as a second language abroad like in asia or even eastern europe or something. Only thing is I would need to fork over 1k to get certified to teach it. I've seen salary listings for teaching jobs in asia ranging from 35-45k a year plus free accomodations and airfare which is pretty decent. I'm not sure how much they pay in europe though. If I go this root, I can bank most of my salary since I won't need to pay for accommodations and the living expenses in these countries is pretty low.

thunder_god said:

Ya I have no intention of touching my student loans from this point onwards. Right now I'm even thinking about teaching english as a second language abroad like in asia or even eastern europe or something. Only thing is I would need to fork over 1k to get certified to teach it. I've seen salary listings for teaching jobs in asia ranging from 35-45k a year plus free accomodations and airfare which is pretty decent. I'm not sure how much they pay in europe though. If I go this root, I can bank most of my salary since I won't need to pay for accommodations and the living expenses in these countries is pretty low.

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I would be careful with the teaching english in asia route unless it's a decent country like South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan.

I've read some horror stories online about college grads teaching in China, Vietnam, and the Phillipines where they were sent to some remote rural location with horrible conditions and they were kept as virtual hostages by the communist government.

Also keep in mind that while these overseas english gigs pays money in the present, it offers no future negeotiating power when you look for other work because teaching overseas doesn't have transferable skill sets in a North American economy.

My best advice would be for you to just get an easy office type of job by hooking up with a staffing agency and working a short term contract to get some office experience.

If you have ANY kind of college experience or degree it'll make it easier. You can get hooked up with a short 3 month contract that pays around $15 ~ $20 per hour doing general office work. Companies actually prefer hiring men for this type of general office work because it requires physical strength for lifting and filing and men cause less drama than women.

Once you get your foot in the door try to transition to something like Accounts Payable and you'll be earning around $25/hr. It's not nearly as much as the oil jobs but the plus is that it's easy work and you wont' have to relocate to a remote region.

The great thing about office experience is that it gives you a lot of resume negeotiating power once you move on to another contract. It's a lot easier to break into than people make it out to be.

Also, no disrespect, but from reading your posts you seem to have a defeatist mentality and you focus too much on negative ~ guys are giving you advice about oil jobs and you're concerned with a social life.... really bruh? You care more about chasing women than chasing money? That's beta male mentality...

Money supersedes all other priorities in life.

I'd get the hell OUT of Canada. Canucks can live and work in the US, ya know.