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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You don't have to starve simply because you choose a college and a career based on criteria other than money.  I sincerely hope my daughter (who graduates this year and has already accepted a teaching position) wii not starve as a special ed teacher.  Would she have more money as a physician?  Certainly.  But there are so many things more important than money.  I'm so glad my children understand that.[/quote]

But what if she wanted to be an actress? Or college professor? Or a chess player? It looks like she chose something which, while not necessarily glamorous, still makes her employable. There are many many passions for which this is not the case.[/quote]

The aspect that gets overlooked when it comes to choosing a major and deciding what one would like to do down the line, is at that young age one really does not have much of an idea as to the right career path. I had no clue what I really wanted to do when I completed high school and was influenced by my parents - as were my siblings.

I am totally with the PP who said the "follow your passion movement" is a crock and, frankly, it does a disservice to young people who often don't have a clue as to what income is needed to maintain a certain lifestyle.

When it came to our children, we did not push them or even influence them into any particular career. But what we did do was to tell them that if they chose a career that did not pay much, it would affect the lifestyle they had been used to growing up. We told them what our average expenditure was to maintain the lifestyle they had experienced growing up. They were shocked at how much one needed and it was not as if we lived a life of luxury. One wanted to be a teacher and we told her what she was likely to make as a teacher and to figure out what it would cost to rent a place, maintain a car, vacation, etc - and this did not even include the costs entailed in raising a family.

Years later she told us that she had decided on a different career because she did not want to have to be skimping on basics that she had gotten used to growing up. She was influenced by the conversation we had with her. She went on to do her MBA from a top ten school and is today a senior executive with a NYSE company. Would she have been happier as a teacher? Perhaps - but does she have any regrets about the career path she pursued? Not a bit.

Our other two children knew they wanted to be physicians and that is what they pursued and are happy with their choice because they like their work AND because they make a good income and have stable employment.

There is nothing wrong with pursuing a career which enables one to have a comfortable lifestyle even if one is not passionate about it.

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