ABC's of Money with Alan Akina - Lesson 7: College & Career Choices

All right, kids, we are gonna get started. And welcome back to lesson number 7. Wow, you've been through 7 lessons. Congratulations, and I hope you are learning a lot. And so I gave you 2 projects to do. Remember the projects? The first project was to do a ride-by or a drive-by. The other project that I gave you was to research your family's Home. Now again, we we appreciate all the entries. I know a lot of you trying hard to win these gift cards and have some really great entries. And we're giving out these $25 gift cards from Stockpile to buy any stock that you want and start your investment portfolio. But today's winner is Mr. Noah. Okay, we have Mr. Noah here. Here's his post. So we can see Mr. Noah there. And here's what Noah said. Hold this. Okay. So this house— so he bought this house, or excuse me, he didn't buy this house, but this house was 10 years ago valued at $270,000. Okay. That was 10 years ago. Today, that house is at $360,000. So if his parents own that, that would be about $90,000 in equity or value that That he has. All right. Now let's get started. We're going to talk about college and careers. So I like to say there's 3 major decisions that you will make in your life. And I want you to write this down. And there's going to be more, but 3 big ones. Okay. 3 big ones. They might not be the biggest, but they're big. I'm going to talk about 2 of them today. Okay. The first major decision that you'll, you'll have to make at an early age is, what college or university should I attend? Why is this a big deal? Because the, the type of learning environment you'll be in, the connections that you'll make while at school, the professors and the other students will have a major impact on the rest of your life. The second major decision or big decision that you'll make is What career will I go into in my future? Okay, so these are 2 big ones. Now, how many of you know what the 3rd big decision is? Go ahead and comment down below if you, if you know what the 3rd big decision is. I'm not going to talk about it today, but it is a pretty big deal. Go ahead and comment. Now, did anybody find a comment on what the 3rd big decision is?

Marriage.

Yes. Good job. Who said marriage? A lot of people.

Yeah, a lot of people.

Okay. So you probably watched my, my video that I posted last night. So marriage is a huge one, right? Picking the right spouse, the right husband or wife is crucial as well. Unfortunately, I'm not going to talk about that today. You should probably talk to my wife about that. So first off, with college, I just want to put out this disclaimer. And I want to say that college is not necessary for everyone, and there's all different types of choices of schools to go to. And some, some people can do fine without college, and some need college. Now, what do I recommend? I love the opportunity to go to college, and I highly recommend it for, for all kids to find the best college setting for you, and I'm going to talk about why in just a little bit. So again, it's not for everybody, and you can, you can do great things in just a little bit. But that's just a quick disclaimer. Now let's talk about why college, and I have 4 reasons why I suggest going to college. Okay. Number one is obviously the education. The education that you'll receive will help you. Any time you get education, you become smarter. It helps you to get— remember, we talked about jobs, buying good investments, starting your own business and different things in life. Education is crucial. Okay. The second reason is because of connections. Connections. Being able to be in an environment Whether it's 2 years or 4 years with kids your age, young adults your age that are striving for the same thing and being in these classrooms and environments and doing projects together really helps you to develop these relationships that you'll have for the rest of your life. Ask your parents and those around you that went to college if they're still friends with those in college. I, I'm still friends. Some of my best friends came from college. Not high school. I still have some friends from high school, but more from college. And I have— I've done business with a lot of them. So this is a huge part of being in college, probably almost as important, almost as important as education piece. Now, the third piece is for your experiences. Experiences. So the experiences that you'll get in college are going to be valuable. They'll help you to develop in your life. So experiences such as maybe travel abroad or being able to play on a sports team, being able to do a project, or in a lot of colleges, they're able to start businesses and enter into business plan competitions. So you'll have access to these experiences that you couldn't get anywhere else. Okay, this, this is a really cool piece of college. And then the last thing, income. I almost forgot it. Income. Okay, here's the deal with college, and these are reports as, as they studied people that went through college and they do these charts. So those that did not graduate from high school, did not do high school Income level is going to cap about here. And those that have a high school degree, they start to go up and then they have a 2-year degree and then a 4-year and then graduate school. So typically, and this is on average, is not for everyone because I didn't really fall into that category as well. But in general, across our population, the higher up you go in education, the higher income you'll, you'll be able to provide for your family. Okay, that's just a general rule. Okay, so, um, now we're going to talk about number 3, the types of colleges. So, so really we're going to break down colleges into 2 groups because there's a lot of different variety of colleges. So the first group is what we call the 2-year college. So a 2-year college is like, uh, like a junior college, but or a community college. And these are a little more accessible. They're around the country. Typically they're lower cost than a bigger university. So tuition is cheaper. And it's usually for people that work in the— or live in that community. They don't necessarily live on campus and they go, they work and they come to class and they're trying to earn an associate's degree. Okay. So an associate's degree is a 2-year degree. Year degree. Also in this category would be like, like trade school. So if you're going for like to learn a certain type of tech. Now the other bucket is what we call the 4-year or university. So college and university, basically the same, 4 years. This is the one that you're probably more familiar with. Like you hear of the Harvards, the Michigans, UCLA. For those of you in Hawaii, University of Hawaii. Our Pennsylvania folks that are on today, Penn State. These are all the big schools, 4-year colleges. They're pretty popular. And of course, there's smaller schools, and then there's private and there's public colleges and universities. There's all-women, there's all-black schools, there's, um, yeah, different types of, uh, like liberal arts colleges. that just focus on a certain field. So there's many, many, many choices, and they all fit within those 2 buckets. Okay, now there's also another type of college that I want to talk about, which is what we call online schools. So online would be like— you probably see the commercials— University of Phoenix. There's schools that you can do online programs and be able to get an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree. And then they're starting to be more prevalent now where you can go on and get a master's and other things, and then you'll do part of your work on campus. So online is continuing to grow, and that's also another good option depending on where you live. And then the, the last one I want to talk about is graduate schools. Okay, graduate schools typically come after 4-year colleges. Where you go on to go get a master's degree, an MBA, you go on to get your doctorate or a PhD. These are schools that— or you go, maybe you're going to go to medical school to become a doctor or a dentist. Those are graduate-type schools. Okay. Now, I want to talk about leveling up, right? Yeah. Every one of you play games. And so we're going to talk about leveling up here. And here is the, the chart of how things work. Okay. So typically you'll have your associate's, associate's degree, which is your 2-year. And then the next level up is your bachelor's, your 4-year degree. They call them BS. Sometimes they're BS. Bachelor's degree. Then you go up to your master's, or you might be able to get an MBA for business. And then after that is your doctorate or PhD. Those— that's how you level up in the education game. Okay. Associate's, bachelor's, master's or MBA, graduate school, and then you can go on to get a doctorate or a PhD. It's kind of like what I outlined here. Okay. So I have a friend of mine, he works for us at One On One Financial. His name is Dr. Stamp. He's a really, really cool guy. He has 2 PhDs. It's toothpaste teeth. So I call him the walking Google. He's so smart, he actually invented, you know, the Lay's baked potato chips. He did those. He invented that. He's invented many, many things. So education can really pay off. Like I said earlier, I, I'm a huge believer in education. So my challenge is to you is try to get into the best school that you possibly can. You're going to shoot for it. So we're going to talk about that now. Okay. So, um, actually we're going to talk about how to pay for college first. Number 4, how do we pay for college? Because it's college getting more expensive today. Absolutely. College is growing faster. The tuition is going up faster than the economy, faster than inflation. And so these schools like to charge a lot for, for what they offer. So I have 5 ways that you can pay for college. Number one is what we call grants. Grants are funds for college that don't need to be paid off, and, and that's typically based on your needs, right, your financial situation of your parents. Okay, so grants are really good, and there's a ton of different grants besides just government grants. There's other grants or smaller grants that people create In these different communities or schools. Your school might offer a grant, and I would say go for all of them. That's, that's like your number one is try to go for the grants, because in essence, that's like free money. Okay, the second way to pay for college is through scholarships. So scholarships, and probably the one that you think of the most is like athletic scholarships, whether you play football or basketball or tennis or golf or or rugby or whatever it is. A lot of people think about getting into college and having it paid for with a sports team, sports scholarship, which is great. And I think those are, those are awesome. But there's also academic scholarships. There's tons of different scholarships that are out there. And if you go online, you can search for the schools that you're going to talk to your counselor when you, once you get to high school. And if you're, if you're not in high school yet, keep these notes, but remember to talk to your counselor when you start to get into like your sophomore year, for sure your junior year, so you can be aware even earlier if you can. Okay, so tons of different scholarships, academic, ethnic, and more. And again, scholarships don't need to be paid back. This is again free money. The next thing I want to talk about Is work. That's another good way to pay for your college. You might be able to work in the summer, save up some money for your, for your college education, and then during college you can also work. Working is not a bad thing and a great way to do it. Um, the next is student loans. Now student loans is a little tricky. Student loans are getting really bad now. The interest rates are going up. And students are carrying this debt burden forever. I work with a lot of doctors and chiropractors in my company, and these guys, they make good money, but they're in their 50s and 60s and they still have student loans. Why? Because they don't put a priority on paying it off. So the thing with student loans, it's a necessary evil to be able to get your education. So I'm not opposed to it. But what I'm saying with student loans is take the least amount possible. They try to give you— say, hey, take as much as you can. I think that's unnecessary, and I think that's bad practice for those that are trying to sell you these loans. I say take the least amount possible to be able to cover your school. Whatever you can't cover with grants, scholarships, and your work hours, then you fill in the rest with student loans. And then the goal of student loans is to pay it off as quickly as you possibly can. That's one thing that can drag you down after, after you get out of college. All right. The next is financial aid. So this is like needs-based or merit-based financial aid. There's different programs. Some schools offer financial aid if your parents make below a certain income level. And so there's like great schools. That you can go to. We're talking about one is Harvard, that if your parents make under a certain income level, that the entire tuition would be paid for. It's a lot of kids don't know that they can get this money from the school. They have large endowments. I think the endowment at Harvard is like $40 billion. That's what they're sitting on, and they use some of that money to help kids that can't afford to get in to, to pay for their schooling. So lots of opportunities with financial aid. And then the last one I want to talk about is what we call a 529 college savings plan. So college savings plan, a 529 college savings plan is, is like a stock investment program that your parents can start for you when you're young, and they can invest a little bit of money every month. It'll grow tax-free and you can pull it out Without having to pay any taxes for only use of things for school, right, for tuition and books and different things. So this is another way to fund your college. It does take time to grow. It is based on the stock market, so it can go up and it can go down. So, you know, be, be aware of that. You can actually, if you do this right, kids, If you do it right and you take the time, do the things that most people aren't willing to do, you might be able to make money. So in Uncle's case, I actually brought in more money from my grants, my scholarships, and basketball and work than I had to pay for college. And that included everything— my tuition, my books, it included my housing and food. And so every semester I would have some extra money. And back then, my family was having a hard time. My dad was still going to school and work, so I would be able to send money home for Christmas as a college student for my younger siblings. So this is a very big thing that you need to plan for and work with your parents and any support system that you have at your local schools to help guide you through this. Okay. Now we're going to do some work here. We're going to talk about your top 5 dream schools. Okay. So I want you to write that down. And if you can comment in there what your number 1 dream school would be, where would you go if you can choose any college in this world? If money wasn't an issue, if admissions wasn't an issue, where would you go? I want to see

Um, Harvard or New York University, Cambridge University, Stanford, Oklahoma, UCLA,

Biola. Biola. Very good. I played against them.

BYU-H, UCLA or USC, homeschool.

Very good. Good colleges, guys. Very, very good. So what I want you to do is make a list of your top 5 dream schools. Those are the ones if you could do it, you go any school like you want to try to go to the best schools. What would those schools be? Write those down. That's going to be part of your, your assignment. OK. The second thing I want you to do at colleges is list your top 5 target schools. So these are schools that you can target because, you know, this, this would be a good fit. So it's almost like a backup school that, you know, hey, if I don't get into any of my dream schools, this would be another great choice. We need to come up with this list. Okay, why? Because once you have this list, now I want you to start to research it. You start to research those colleges and look at it. So we got to start early and we need to be prepared when it comes to our colleges. So looking for schools that fit you, right? Is that what you want to look for? That have the programs, the degrees, the The bachelor's degrees, associate's degrees, the maybe even the, the graduate degrees, the master's or MBAs that you want to get. And that's one of your reasons why you're going to choose that college. And then you're going to see if you can maybe play sports or music or other things. So it just so happens that, you know, my oldest son is going to be playing golf. He just got awarded an academic scholarship after his first year for his grades. So You know, all these different sources of ways to pay for college is huge. Now my daughter, I bring my daughter up because she's in the middle of preparing for college. Cameron County, she's 17. So tell the kids about your, what you're doing.

So for my dream colleges, I want to go to an Ivy League school. So right now I'm looking at Harvard and Brown and Dartmouth as my main dream schools. And for my target schools, I'm looking at BYU-Provo, Stanford, and I've been talking to Penn State too. So those are my dream schools and my target schools. And to get to that point where I can even get the opportunity to get into those schools, I've been doing my ACT studying. I've just been trying to do at least 2 to 3 hours every day and get studying with that so I can get my score up. And then since Ever since I started 7th grade, my parents have always told me and my siblings that we have to get the best grades we can get and always get A's and just try our best. And so I've done my best to keep my GPA up and get my good grades. And then on top of that, just my extracurriculars. I dance hula, I do rugby, I do a lot of service, and I have a club that I started at my school. So all of that, just making myself well-rounded to be able to— What about you? get into colleges.

Thank you, Kiani. She's a very good example for you kids, especially if you're going through that process or will be going through that process now. Once you start to get closer to Kiani's age, you're going to want to hone in your research. You look at everything online, anything you can find online. You're going to want to talk to alumni, those that have gone to that college or have Kids go to that college. Find out as much as you can about that school, and if it looks like it's a fit, then you set up a visit. You go out there and walk around the campus, spend a day or two going to some classes, you know, going to some— if you're playing sports, you might, might go to some games. Take those opportunities to prepare yourself to get into the best college. Okay, so that's it on our college thing, and that was the biggest piece. Okay. Because careers will come down the road. And to be honest, it's a little difficult to talk about careers because we're not really sure yet. We're still young and we don't have to decide on a career. We don't even have to decide on a college yet. Let the process happen. But for number 8, we're going to pick careers that we think might be good for us. And I'll tell you that for me, my degree was a biology degree. So I didn't get a business degree or a finance degree. It was biology, and I ended up not going into biology, but I still have that degree. I'm going to talk about 5 things in your career. So write this down. Number 1, don't feel like you got to pick one right away. It's not necessary. Okay. Number 2, try different things. over in your working life at your early stages to see if you really like it. Because the worst thing you might do is go into a career and you start and you don't like it, but you force yourself to be in there for the next 30 years, 40 years. You're not going to be happy. So try different things early on that will give you a feel for life and a feel for yourself and what you like. Next is what does the future— once you kind of settle in on some careers or you're looking at it, What does the future look like for your field, your potential field? Is it going to be around? Is technology, technology going to change the way we do things? Right. Eventually, you want to find something that you love, something you absolutely love to do and that you're passionate about. And we talked about this earlier. So when you find something that you absolutely love, you will never work another day in your life. You will never work in it again. Why? Because you love it so much. It's not considered work. And then lastly, there's a million different careers that you literally can choose from, like a million. Okay. What I want you to do is read about these careers. So settle in on a few that you think are interesting. Read about it. There's tons of information online that you can read for free. Next is talk to people in that career, that occupation. Find out, you know, about, about it. How, what do they like about it? What do they don't like about it? What, what is the pay like? What are the advancement opportunities like? And then the last thing is check with your connections, your network of people. So your, your family and some of your friends and their parents, you might be able to get access to. To get in with some of these people that are in the careers that you're looking at. And if you use that, you'll start to get a good feel for what's out there and what's available. But now, as a young kid, I just want you to imagine the world. The world is out there for you and to be able to do whatever it is you want. If you are a hard worker and you're smart, you're always challenging yourself. There's going to be opportunities for you anywhere you go. Okay. But you have to be open to it and keep your mind open. I know we covered quite a bit. And so we're going to start to wrap things up by giving you your financial projects. Okay. Financial projects today for your chance to win more gift cards. We're going to give you some gift cards today. Tesla, Disney, Apple, and more. So your first financial project is this, kids. I want you to research your number one dream school. What is at the top of your list? The number one dream school. I want you to research it. So go online, check out their website. They have videos for new incoming students and they have student life. Maybe they have some sports teams that you want to look at. Okay. And then find out what majors they offer, what degrees they offer. So if you're younger, those are different subjects that you can get a degree in, an associate's, bachelor's. Do they have master's degrees or doctorates? You want to take a look at that. Okay. And, and then look at the cost. Try to find out what the cost is. And there's several things that we want you to look at. Number one is tuition, or what does it cost to go to school? Then you look at books and fees. They're going to give you an estimate. It's all on the site. It's very easy to find. Okay. Books and fees, and then room and board. Okay. Room and board means your housing. What is a typical dorm room cost? Food, right, for your meal card, or if you're renting an apartment, you're cooking out, what are they Expect you to pay for that. So you can find all of that on their website. Very, very easy. Okay. Now I want you to post a picture of yourself and the logo, or yeah, I would love to see you in that picture if you can. If not, just put the logo of the school that you are looking at and just say current tuition is tuition. And books and fees is $20,000 a year. And, you know, put all the costs that we're looking for and then tag me in it. So tag Uncle Alan on my Instagram or my Facebook and then hashtag Money ABCs and hashtag One on One Financial to enter into the, the Stock Card giveaway. Okay. The second financial project is Pick one career that you might be interested in. Pick one career. So let's say you want to be a pilot. Okay, you pick a career that interests you and then find out a little bit more about what they do and the average salary or income that you can make. Now you don't need to do any posting about that, just the colleges for now. I want to see that. But those are the 2 projects that you have for this weekend. But I thank you for coming, kids. Parents, I hope, hope you have a blessed weekend. Please stay safe, be smart. God bless you. Aloha.