graduated from college but not working.
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Anonymous
| My DS graduated from college one semester early in December '23 with a degree in CS from University of Florida and received several offers. He turned down all of them and decided to use the money he saved from three previous internships, 50K, to travel the world and work on his physical appearance (i.e. working with a physical fitness instructor) and pick up his guitar hobby again. He doesn't plan to get a job until December '24. His exact words to me were "I want to be the best version of myself physically and emotionally in the next twelve months". Is it normal for young people these days to take a break for a year before entering the workforce or grad school? |
Anonymous
| lol |
Anonymous
| Keep him on your health insurance but other than that don’t give him any money |
Anonymous
| Does “traveling the world” mean he is not in your house eating your food? If he can afford this lifestyle, go for it. |
Anonymous
|
It sounds healthy to me.
The job market for computer sciences is awful and only going to get worse. He might want to consider graduate school in something that might make him more employable down the road, ideally something in the humanities. |
Anonymous
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The 50k won't last long if he is traveling the world and working on his appearance.
Is he staying at your house in between travels? Charge rent and run the vacuum at 6:00 am outside is bedroom door every morning. |
Anonymous
| Yes, they used to call it backpacking Europe. |
Anonymous
He and three of his friends will travel to Vietnam and live there for at least six months, where I was born and raised. It costs less than 2K per month per person to live very well in Vietnam. After that, he and his friends will travel to Argentina, where the economy is in pretty bad shape and the US dollars go a long way. I think his 50K savings will go a long way in both Vietnam and Argentina. Yes, he will stay on my insurance and will live with us between travels. I will not provide him with any more money, but I don't know about my wealthy FIL. He has already bought DS a brand new RAV-4 for graduation and paid for his car insurance. He wakes up every morning at 5:30 to go to Lifetime fitness. |
Anonymous
| Oh my. |
Anonymous
Sounds like your kids got it made. As long as you’re not shelling out any cash, I see nothing wrong with it. |
Anonymous
| It's not normal, because most kids can't afford it. It's not unheard of, though. |
Anonymous
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I'd be surprised if he didn't start picking up projects to stretch his budget as he sees his bank account dwindle.
In the long run, it sounds like there's a reasonable chance that he's going to choose gig work over a corporate job, potentially even working from abroad as he travels. This is pretty easy to do until he needs health insurance or starts thinking about retirement savings or starting a family. |
Anonymous
| I think this is awesome....and I am very jealous!! |
Anonymous
| His life, his choice regardless of what other people do. And as long as he pays for it, it sounds like a great life experience. |
Anonymous
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He's taking his gap year after college. If he has a plan then honor the plan (okay to be on your insurance, maybe you charge him for that).
He has a CS degree so this is very normal and he will find work the minute he wants to. Whoever said the CS market is not good is lying - entry level is always there and will he make $250k out the gate, no. But he will earn a livable wage for a 22 year old |