Finally finished High school

as of the 17th I am officially done with high school and can now play BC2 and vietnam all day erry day mang

Hurray!

Good for you, sir!

Um... dare I ask... graduated, yes?

yes I graduated

I finished a month or so ago.

I still got 2 and half years left then off to the corps !

Yeah.. I just finished High School too... it was just last... century....

Don't sweat it Ria, I graduated in 2001.

BEAST6699 wrote:I still got 2 and half years left then off to the corps !

Good for you, my friend. 0311 all the way!

Then congrats, so what are your upcomming plans? just gaming? :P

Glad to hear you've finished high school and you are supporting your country!! but i'm just curious as to whether or not you will be going to college at some point in your future. Here in the United States of America, a Bachelor's degree in a math or science related field is where the money is at. I plan on recieveing a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Music Production. I love designing surround sound systems and microphones, etc. and i would love to have a career designing musical and audio equipment (especially since I have my own recording studio).

Anyway, enough about me. What is everyone else doing or planning on doing for a career?

The Year I graduated High School:
> Nintendo releases Metroid by Makoto Kano, the first in the Metroid series. Nintendo also releases The Legend of Zelda.

> Sega releases the Sega Master System home console in the United States.

> Top Two Songs of that year were:
1. "That's What Friends Are For".....Dionne & Friends
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian".....Bangles

Man, does time fly!

revsfan313 wrote:What is everyone else doing or planning on doing for a career?

I am getting my International Baccalaureate diploma in May 2011, and have just finished my applications to US universities. I have applied to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Harvard, Boston University, Clark University, FIT (Florida...) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I plan on getting a bachelor's degree in civil engineering or economics, and then get a master's degree in Business Administration (most likely).

gdead65 wrote:The Year I graduated High School:
Nintendo also releases The Legend of Zelda.

Ocarina of Time shares the spot as the best game of all times with the Mass Effect series in my opinion.

wow it is nice to see that you (Moliat) have big plans as well. I wanted to be a civil engineer when i was younger but after becoming a music enthusiast who desires better sound quality, i decided to research electrical engineering. Here in the US there is a company called Bose. They make the best speaker systems and headphones in the world. It is my dream to work as an engineer for them.

And as a side note, my 13 year old brother is already a video game designer. He literally creates video games and he wants to work for Bungie (the company that produced the Halo series).

Sennheiser >_>

DUDE MOLIAT I AM APPLYING TO ERAU AS MY MAIN COLLEGE

Moliat wrote:I have applied to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Harvard, Boston University, Clark University, FIT (Florida...) and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

How about BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) - you'd be about 15 minutes away...

I am graduating my Junior year, what now suckers! :P

gdead65 wrote:The Year I graduated High School:
> Nintendo releases Metroid by Makoto Kano, the first in the Metroid series. Nintendo also releases The Legend of Zelda.

> Sega releases the Sega Master System home console in the United States.

> Top Two Songs of that year were:
1. "That's What Friends Are For".....Dionne & Friends
2. "Walk Like An Egyptian".....Bangles

Man, does time fly!

I hear you gdead! I graduated in 1990, and joined the Navy for 5years. Been working for the United States Post Office ever since. My advice to you young guys:

• Finish Highschool
  
• Go to College
  
• Stay Focused
  
• Save Money
  

Time flys faster than you know, and yes I heard the same things when I was young too. Obviously when you keep hearing the same advice from generation to gerneration, there has to be some truth to it!

If college is not for you, the there is obviously a career in the military (which is not bad way to go), or a specialized field. If your more of the blue collar type (such as myself), then getting a certificate and advanced training in: Carpentry, Automotive Technician, Heating and Air, or plumbing is the way to go.

Work hard, play hard!

Just my advice, because I've been there!

More sagely advice: RRSP's (or whatever they are called in your country)

We have a 'decent' pension/old-age security system here (where the gov't pays if you can't when you are old). All the same, it is not very much at all, and to help offload the cost from the taxpayers, there are great incentives (which I imagine MOST gov't have) for you to save for your own retirement. And if you do it right, you can retire early, instead of having to work until you are 65.

Basically, we have (here) RRSPs (Register Retirement Savings Plan). The way it works is, every dollar you put into it is subtracted from your Gross Income before calculating taxes, with an upper limit (of course) to how much you can claim, based on a percentage of your income.

The very first time I ever made $45,000 one year, I realized that over $10,000 of that went to taxes (and that $45K income put me into a higher tax bracket). So you can either pay the money to them, or you can pay the money to yourself.

Put $10,000 into RRSPs, and you're only paying taxes on $35,000, and you've got a nice nest egg...

So who can afford to put that much into an RRSP? You'd be surprised.

I started out slow. $50 a paycheck; never miss it. 52 weeks a year, if you are paid every 2 weeks, works out to 26 paydays. That's $1300 by year end, kids. Many companies will also match some or all of your contributions.

The following year, in January, I went to payroll and told them to increase it to $100 per paycheck (again, a $50 difference from the year before - never missed it). Bingo, that's $2600 by year end.

The same the next year, and the next year, and so on, up until it was $300 per paycheck. By doing it in $50 increments, the effect was negligible. In fact, at a certain point (because tax is calculated and deducted by payroll, at the source) I actually found myself getting more money back on my paychecks, because my tax was now being calculated at a lower tax bracket. Like I said before, you can either pay the money to them, or pay it to yourself. Getting more back on my paychecks only proved this point to me...

$300 a paycheck for 26 paychecks works out to $7800 a year.

Now markets go up and down, charts waver and all that. But generally speaking, over the long haul, due to inflation and other factors, the value of these things (historically speaking) doubles every 10 years.

So if you are 20 and spend 5 years mucking about and finding your way and figuring it out, you've basically got (from 25 to 65) 40 years to make money. So if at 25 you manage to put, say... (conservative estimate) $3000 a year into Retirement Savings, after 10 years you will have $30,000 saved up, and that's without interest.

But from 35 to 45, that $30K will (should) double to 60K, plus the $30K you've added over those 10 years. That's $90K, kids.

From 45 to 55, your $90K should double to $180K, plus the $30K you've added once again, for a whopping total of... $210K

For your last 10 years (assuming you don't retire already...), your money should double and become $420K, plus the $30K you made that last decade of working, for a grand total of $450,000.

You get to retire with almost a half million to live off of. Nice.

Remember this. And start early.

Sound advice, and very relevant to me as I am to start with this in a few years.

riafomh wrote:
Now markets go up and down, charts waver and all that. But generally speaking, over the long haul, due to inflation and other factors, the value of these things (historically speaking) doubles every 10 years.

While the value of the money increases over time, so does the value of all the goods you can buy with it. It doesn't always happen at the same rate, however. Definition of inflation: a steady increase in the average price levels in an economy. Wages are just one factor here, so while the value of your money increases over time due to inflation, their purchasing power does not increase nearly as much (if anything at all, in many cases).

Moliat wrote:Sound advice, and very relevant to me as I am to start with this in a few years.

riafomh wrote:
Now markets go up and down, charts waver and all that. But generally speaking, over the long haul, due to inflation and other factors, the value of these things (historically speaking) doubles every 10 years.

While the value of the money increases over time, so does the value of all the goods you can buy with it. It doesn't always happen at the same rate, however. Definition of inflation: a steady increase in the average price levels in an economy. Wages are just one factor here, so while the value of your money increases over time due to inflation, their purchasing power does not increase nearly as much (if anything at all, in many cases).

You're absolutely right, of course. But the complexities of inflation are a whole other diatribe in itself. Regardless, it doesn't change the basis of what I've said here, and whether money is more valuable or less valuable, it is still generally better to have more of it.

riafomh wrote:
You're absolutely right, of course. But the complexities of inflation are a whole other diatribe in itself. Regardless, it doesn't change the basis of what I've said here, and whether money is more valuable or less valuable, it is still generally better to have more of it.

Naturally. Interest rates and savings in general helps the economy on micro- as well as macro-levels, and as you said: it certainly doesn't harm having more money when your income is reduced / removed by retiring.

Sorry to sound sour, but i live in Britain and the government make bad investments with our money over here.Recently they fucked up by investing public money by putting the money in some Icelandic banks that went bust,pensioners went mad!! If you didnt know about a bank called Northern Rock,alot of investers nealry lost everything until the Government bought out the bank,which didnt please the majority of the country because Government (public) money bailed out a private owned bank.

The next 50 years will be the time of great sorrow. They say the oil reserves have 50 years left, so within those 50 years we'll see and feel alot of SHIT happening.

My biggest hope is that USA stays intact, and the Federal Reserve doesnt Love the western markets,because if all this shit(recession) keeps on going on society as we know will be lost.

Bewise with what you do with your cash,especially with where you keep it.