A different type of virus

Welcome to another weeks episode of man tries to help people live a different life. A better life? Well I will let the fruits of this blog and my life help you with that answer.

In today’s episode I will be discussing a different type of virus. Namely student debt. Now if you like ‘these’ types of blogs you will know that many times they writer takes the approach of “student loan = bad and entrepreneurship = good”

I won’t be leading you down this path, however I will be pointing to some things that have been revealed in our country with regards to student loans. I mean you would hate to be arrested for not paying your student loans right “Student loan arrest: Debt at ‘crisis level'”. You read that right someone was arrested as per this Stuff article.

Now this isn’t supposed to scare you straight or tell you that you are a bad person for having loans and the big bad government is coming to collect, no. I am merely pointing out that this is a lot more serious than most people are lead to believe. Going in to a large amount of student loan debt (even if it is tax free) might not be the right option for the average Kiwi.

As of June 2019 we have approximately 750 000 people that are paying back their student loans which is roughly 1 out of every 7 Kiwi’s. The graph below shows us the figures. The median repayments for people now moving out of Nz is 6.8 years.

With all of this being said, I will give you my opinion on the matter. Well since you are reading this you must somewhat value my opinion? I finished my my degree and I attained my bachelors degree. I am being vague on purpose because if I could redo it I would have never studied. I would have worked for free or potentially do paid internships across my industry and through that get hired for my first ‘real’ job.

Of course looking back is always easy right… I will be paying off my student loan in about 3.3 years from today. The thing is, this is the reality for a very large amount of Kiwi’s. I am merely trying to show people that unless you are looking to be something extremely specialized a.k.a a doctor or a lawyer you should consider working for free, gaining zero debt and then enter the industry. This benefits you in two ways. You get to see the industry first hand and you don’t spend 3 + years in getting a degree, which if an employer were to choose they would choose the person with experience anyways…

Now again that is my opinion on the matter. I very much appreciate any craft that needs specialized study and I think the world is better off for them. The thing I do not agree with is that the average person is sold “the dream” of study then work until you die. The problem is these figures don’t show you how many people have failed or haven’t completed a degree. They still are required to pay the student debt they have accrued. So all of the debt and none of the ‘reward’.

If you are at this stage of your life where you need to choose whether to study or not, please take my advice. We live in an age where almost anything you could dream of is available on the internet. Information is extremely readily available. Do research on what you want to do, go work for FREE that is right for FREE. You gain experience and you will know after working there for a couple of months if you would like to dedicate an extended period of your life to this.

If you need any help with this or you are wondering if study is for you and you want my opinion email me : questions@firelife.co.nz

Well thats enough about that, I really hope this helps someone. Here is our current portfolio. Mr Warren Buffett did his annual Berkshire shareholders report. Have a look at it here

Anything Mr Buffett says is gold. I would highly recommend

Here is our investment portfolio, we’re in the green and guess what I have not changed our strategy at all.

That is going to do it for another week friends. Very happy to be back in the green!