Suggestions On Career Path

[MattSuwak]

I've been doing a lot of thinking on how to lead the rest of my life, because I'm 22 and not getting any younger. I need to have a solid investment plan and start getting ready for retirement, and more importantly making sure that I'm happy until I get there. I have a good idea of what to do, but wanted to run it by you people, since you're all so wonderful and helpful

===

The first stage of this plan is enlisting in the Air Force for SERE Instruction. This would require, at minimum, a 4-year commitment. In the Air Force I would be making better money than I am now, but not enough to consider it great. The major upside to this is the free college I would recieve. The job that I would do, which is basically teaching high-risk air crew how to survive in any wilderness, and to evade and escape from hostile forces (busting out of POW camps), would give me an associate's degree in Survival and/or Search and Rescue. The strongest point of this is that I will have a few years teaching experience for Air Force Special Operations Command, which is pretty intense.

With the free tuition I would recieve, I was considering taking courses either in economics or business. I want to study languages as well, but I can do that with the free Rosetta Stone software the military provides. Those college courses are what I would take while in the military. Afterwards, with the new GI bill they just passed, I would have 4 years of college tuition completely paid for me. That's another degree I could take, or I could use the money for a mortgage, etc.

This is considering that I don't go career in the AF and retire when I'm 42!

Anyway, if I decide not to re-up my enlistment, I have the opportunity with my business degree to open up a survival school for people. These things pay big money, like two weeks for US$1900 or four weeks for US$3700. If I take a group of 5 people out for a four week course, three times a year, I would have made $55,500 in three months time. That gives me 9 months of the year to do pretty much anything else I want, not including other work. This job also opens me up for a career as an adventure guide, a teacher for almost anything, and being paid as a civilian contractor to keep doing my same job in the AF (that pays big bucks).

Basically, it opens up the life that I've always wanted to lead, which is like the old explorers. I've always wanted to take people on grizzly bear hunts, or hunting cape buffalo in Africa, fishing off of Mexico. I've always wanted to build my own cabin in the Yukon and mine gold for a few years. This career path opens up so much that I've always wanted to do.



Now for the hard part. Am I being young and idealistic by saying I can do these things? I know you should always be determined and set yourself up for awesome goals, I'm just curious about the business end of my idea. Would that really work itself out like I think it would?

Thanks so much if you've read through all this hoo-hah!

[Marty McFly]

You have a lot going for you for a 22 year old. Well done! Nobody can answer this for you but I know it helps to just ask anyway and bounce ideas off of people. The bottom line is, follow your heart and the money will show up. What is your life purpose? And if it is about going where the money is, I'd say that the business route is always the best. What inspires you most?