back to indexEntitlement
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And in this episode, I want to share a breakthrough because for the longest time, I have been 00:00:09.620 |
wondering why are there so many privileged people out there who are so angry and entitled. 00:00:18.000 |
Since 2009, when I started Financial Samurai, I've been trying to battle entitlement mentality 00:00:23.880 |
in my own head and in readers' heads because I truly believed then and I still believe 00:00:29.520 |
now that if we get rid of entitlement mentality, we'll be happier and wealthier because we 00:00:35.840 |
will put in the work and we won't expect anything from anybody. 00:00:40.440 |
I remember starting work off in banking in New York City and it was a grind. 00:00:44.760 |
We'd get in at 5.30 a.m., we'd leave at 7.30 p.m. 00:00:48.480 |
There was no such thing as working less than 40 hours a week or single-digit workdays. 00:00:54.440 |
And because of my experience, I've taken this attitude to everything I do. 00:00:59.800 |
And it's probably not healthy, always grinding and grinding, but I'm trying to give you some 00:01:04.280 |
background as to why I think entitlement mentality is really dangerous. 00:01:08.980 |
Because if you come into your job and you expect to go straight to the corner office 00:01:12.940 |
without putting in your dues, well, you're going to have something coming for you. 00:01:17.720 |
You're going to be disappointed, you're going to be angry, you're going to be frustrated. 00:01:25.960 |
In a previous post entitled "Entitlement Mentality is a Sneaky Wealth Destroyer," I wrote that 00:01:32.840 |
after a three-year COVID pause, student loan interest will resume starting on September 00:01:37.320 |
1st, 2023, and payments will be due starting in October, according to the Department of 00:01:44.920 |
And as we recently heard, the Supreme Court struck down Biden's plan for eliminating $400 00:01:57.960 |
Some are just like, "Well, thank you for the three-year reprieve." 00:02:00.640 |
Personally, I think I would be thankful for a three-year reprieve, and I would be anxious 00:02:05.380 |
to start paying back my student debt because it just feels really uncomfortable. 00:02:11.380 |
Like my internals just don't feel right if I don't pay someone back ASAP. 00:02:17.360 |
And if I don't pay someone back at all, that's just a non-starter for me. 00:02:23.600 |
We always pay back our debts, and we always follow through with what we promise. 00:02:29.160 |
So there was this viral tweet that went out from a woman who complained about her student 00:02:36.180 |
She highlighted her estimated monthly payment amount after the forbearance ends is $1,298.83 00:02:47.640 |
She writes in her tweet, "Student loans and their interests are a class tax on people 00:02:58.760 |
And I had to look up how to pronounce antithetical because I was saying anti-ethical, antithetical, 00:03:03.560 |
antithetical, I don't know who writes antithetical. 00:03:09.160 |
So anyway, so I was thinking to myself, "Okay, I understand that. 00:03:13.040 |
I understand the cost of student loan debt is a lot even though that is what you agreed 00:03:22.280 |
So I was curious to understand what was this person's educational background because having 00:03:27.200 |
to pay that much, you know, $1,300 a month is a lot. 00:03:30.560 |
You probably had to take out $100,000 to $200,000 in student loans. 00:03:34.240 |
So it looks like, actually, it's true that the Twitter person went to Champlain College, 00:03:41.160 |
a private university I have never heard of, which costs about $45,000 a year today, which 00:03:47.840 |
is actually not that bad for a private university, many of which cost about $60,000. 00:03:52.520 |
And then she went on to get a writing master's in fine arts from Columbia University, which 00:03:58.400 |
costs $76,000 a year in tuition and fees alone. 00:04:02.680 |
And Columbia University is an Ivy League university. 00:04:06.880 |
So in other words, this person was able to go to two private universities. 00:04:12.080 |
Don't know whether she also went to a private grade school. 00:04:15.600 |
So it means that she probably is wealthier than the average person, the average family 00:04:21.740 |
And then she decided to study writing, poetry, fine arts, right, which is notoriously a low-paying 00:04:33.920 |
I would say it's very hard to support my family on my e-book on how to engineer your layoff, 00:04:39.480 |
as well as my Wall Street Journal bestseller, Buy This, Not That. 00:04:46.340 |
But these payments, they are spread out over three to four tranches over two to three years. 00:04:52.320 |
It is not easy making a living as a writer or teaching writing. 00:05:00.000 |
So if you're able to attend private universities that cost way more annually than the median 00:05:05.880 |
household income in the United States after tax, and if you have the opportunity to get 00:05:12.120 |
a degree in a low-paying field, then clearly it means you are wealthier than average, or 00:05:22.240 |
So to then take out student loans and then complain why you have to pay them back doesn't 00:05:29.840 |
I mean, when I was in high school, you know, I was 16, 17 years old thinking about college. 00:05:38.600 |
And I thought to myself, "Well, I'm going to go attend the College of William & Mary 00:05:41.360 |
because it's $2,800 a year, and worst-case scenario, I'm going to be able to pay my parents 00:05:48.760 |
And then I decided, "Well, I need to study something that hopefully will get me a well-paying 00:05:54.240 |
So I studied economics, and then I minored in Mandarin. 00:05:57.720 |
And the idea was economics was relatable to many fields. 00:06:01.600 |
I could work in finance, maybe law, technology. 00:06:06.000 |
I was a college student, but it sounded logical because I looked at the income for economics 00:06:13.280 |
And I studied Mandarin because I had studied abroad in China in 1997. 00:06:19.480 |
I lived in Taiwan for four years, and if I got shut out from America for getting a job, 00:06:25.040 |
then maybe I can go to China or Taiwan and use my Mandarin minor degree as well as my 00:06:31.640 |
This was my thinking, and I think most people are logical and most people are rational long-term. 00:06:37.040 |
So I don't believe in the narrative that people for the long-term do dumb, irrational, low 00:06:45.440 |
Maybe I have too much faith in humanity, but this is what I think because I've been trained 00:06:50.240 |
to think as an economist that everything is rational long-term. 00:06:55.080 |
And some people figure it out sooner than others, but at the end of the day, we're going 00:06:59.600 |
to do things that improve our lifestyles, improve our happiness, and we're going to 00:07:04.040 |
stop doing things that hurt our lifestyles and cause us to be miserable. 00:07:09.040 |
Now it would be one thing to complain on Twitter, because we all like to complain on social 00:07:13.360 |
media sometimes, that student loan debt is expensive and it's an attack on working-class 00:07:20.400 |
And it would be one thing to say that and attend a private university, elite private 00:07:25.560 |
universities, and work at Columbia University or whatever. 00:07:30.500 |
But it would be another thing to do all that and then to follow up your tweet and say, 00:07:34.260 |
I just finished my library and it's a beautiful looking library and it's a dedicated room 00:07:41.400 |
So how many people who live in New York City can afford a dedicated room, office, with 00:07:47.560 |
massive stacks of books in New York City, but then say, I can't afford to pay my student 00:07:56.960 |
It's just this conundrum that bothered me so much that I went for a walk and I thought 00:08:01.100 |
to myself, why do privileged, somewhat wealthy or wealthy people have this entitlement mentality? 00:08:10.740 |
Maybe the reason why some don't feel it is fair to pay back what they owe is because 00:08:15.620 |
they don't fully appreciate the value of what they got. 00:08:23.460 |
If you don't recognize the full value of a college degree, then you may take it for granted. 00:08:29.440 |
It's similar to treating your spouse or partner poorly. 00:08:33.100 |
You take them for granted because you don't recognize and appreciate all that they do 00:08:40.080 |
It's like getting a new pair of jeans or a new pair of shoes for free. 00:08:44.960 |
You know, you'd like it, but you don't appreciate it as much if you had to slave away over a 00:08:53.800 |
Because if you put in those dues, then you really appreciate what you can buy or what 00:09:03.000 |
Personally, I don't want things just given to me because it takes away the pride and 00:09:09.800 |
the joy of the struggle to finally achieve that something. 00:09:13.880 |
It is unbelievable how good it feels to start from nothing or to start from zero and just 00:09:21.840 |
That is a priceless feeling of joy that I don't want anybody to take away from me. 00:09:28.240 |
I don't want to just give them something because it takes away that meaning, that purpose, 00:09:34.240 |
that struggle that we should all go through to appreciate more of what we have. 00:09:39.080 |
Nothing is given, everything is earned is a better mentality to have. 00:09:43.720 |
If you adopt this mentality, then you will approach life from a position of strength. 00:09:49.980 |
When entitlement mentality takes hold, you might end up doing curious things such as 00:09:54.120 |
complaining about having to pay back your student loan debt while posting on Twitter 00:09:57.560 |
how you turned down five job offers, wrote a best-selling book, and built a dedicated 00:10:06.120 |
Entitlement mentality reduces self-awareness, or maybe people who lack self-awareness have 00:10:14.580 |
If you think about all the poverty in the world, the children who are starving, people 00:10:20.440 |
with disabilities, if you know what's going on, you will reduce your chances of maybe 00:10:27.080 |
overeating, of maybe taking your lodging for granted, your health for granted, your vision 00:10:35.080 |
All these things we will appreciate more if we are more aware of the suffering and the 00:10:43.000 |
Now, I want to conclude this episode by sharing with you how to calculate the value of a college 00:10:48.800 |
degree because there is a student loan debt issue, two trillion plus, right? 00:10:54.720 |
People are graduating college with no jobs or they're underemployed and they have student 00:11:02.800 |
So this is why, one of the reasons why I've been talking for over 10 years about trying 00:11:11.800 |
Get some scholarships, apply, take the effort. 00:11:15.600 |
Don't really just focus on prestige and shiny degrees. 00:11:23.440 |
However, if it's too late for you in the sense that you've already graduated college and 00:11:28.080 |
you have some debt or you're struggling, this calculation of how to value college degree 00:11:35.320 |
So we know that net worth equals assets minus liabilities. 00:11:39.080 |
We also know the net present value of an asset is equal to its future cash flows discounted 00:11:47.160 |
In this case, the future cash flows of a college degree is equal to the college graduates lifetime 00:11:55.440 |
And to understand this calculation, you must also believe a college degree is a valuable 00:12:01.560 |
Millions of people are willing to dedicate four to six years of their lives and hundreds 00:12:05.600 |
of thousands of dollars to get a college degree. 00:12:08.960 |
Therefore, of course, a college degree is an asset because rationally, you wouldn't 00:12:14.360 |
do something if you didn't think there was a return. 00:12:21.660 |
To start, the first way to calculate the value of a college degree is to calculate the cost 00:12:27.080 |
of a college degree plus a conservative rate of return on the money you would have made 00:12:32.560 |
if you didn't go to college, and to assume that the cost of college increases every single 00:12:39.480 |
So in my post, I highlight Boston University, an expensive private university, that for 00:12:48.440 |
And then I bump that up by 5% a year and for a full four year total cost of $372,259. 00:12:59.160 |
And if you assume a 5% annual investment return, had you invested the money instead, the total 00:13:04.560 |
cost of college for four years is about $534,000. 00:13:12.720 |
So choose wisely where you want to go to school. 00:13:16.760 |
You were willing to pay that much money to attend Boston University because you believe 00:13:22.800 |
it's going to give you a greater return in terms of your earnings power going forward. 00:13:26.880 |
If you didn't believe, you wouldn't pay that price. 00:13:29.920 |
Or you would still go to that college if you got free money in terms of grants and scholarships. 00:13:34.840 |
Or you'd have gone to a different university because we are all rational actors. 00:13:40.180 |
This is a fundamental variable that we must accept. 00:13:44.760 |
So let's say you graduate Boston University with debt of $120,000, right? 00:13:52.920 |
So your net worth is actually equal to $534,000, which is the value of your college degree, 00:13:58.360 |
minus $120,000, which means a positive net worth of $414,000. 00:14:05.560 |
And I know some of you guys are thinking, "Well, you're crazy. 00:14:08.080 |
You're not worth $414,000 if you pay the full price to attend Boston University." 00:14:15.140 |
Am I really crazy when we pay 40x revenue for stocks like Nvidia, we pay 100 times earnings 00:14:23.520 |
multiples for nascent companies that pay no dividends? 00:14:28.460 |
We do that because we expect the future earnings to be discounted back and worth something 00:14:39.840 |
So when you graduate college, we expect you to grow into a worker who earns more and more 00:14:46.360 |
And the longer you work, the greater the value of your investment and your assets, right? 00:14:51.520 |
Because if your investment continues to spit out income for a million years, of course 00:14:56.620 |
it's going to be worth more than an investment that spits out income for only 10 years. 00:15:02.080 |
So what are the implications of the cost method of valuing a college degree? 00:15:08.280 |
The more you pay for college, the greater your net worth. 00:15:11.280 |
So hooray for those of you who spend tons and tons of money on a college education. 00:15:17.040 |
I don't recommend it, but this is a different way of thinking because you're building that 00:15:23.520 |
Wealthier families who can afford to pay more for college end up having college graduates 00:15:27.760 |
with higher net worths based on this formula. 00:15:32.020 |
Students who reduce the cost of college by getting grants or scholarships are able to 00:15:35.760 |
quote "free ride" and benefit from the full value of a college degree. 00:15:41.600 |
Because employers don't pay candidates less because candidates paid less for college. 00:15:47.840 |
And then finally, overall, private university graduates are wealthier than public university 00:15:54.620 |
You look at the study on the makeup of household income earners who attend Harvard University. 00:16:01.800 |
Something like 15.3% of the students have household incomes that are in the top 1%. 00:16:08.880 |
Now that is not a good reflection of society. 00:16:13.960 |
We know that private universities attract wealthier families because wealthier families 00:16:21.440 |
The second way to calculate the value of a college degree is to estimate the lifetime 00:16:28.720 |
According to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, it estimates 00:16:32.760 |
the lifetime earnings of a bachelor's degree holder is about $2.3 million. 00:16:37.280 |
Therefore, we can assume the value of a college degree is worth about $2.3 million. 00:16:43.240 |
So suddenly paying the outrageous sum of $372,000 to attend four years at expensive Boston University 00:16:50.160 |
doesn't sound that bad because that is a relatively good rate of return. 00:16:55.720 |
Unfortunately, in order to earn the $2.3 million, you'll have to work until the assumed 00:17:02.040 |
And we're talking 40 years of work post-college, which is about $57,000 a year. 00:17:08.280 |
So if you truncate your work, if you join the FIRE movement that I helped start and 00:17:12.520 |
talk about in 2009, the value of your college education diminishes. 00:17:18.320 |
And if you decide to work longer, let's say until you're 80 years old, as some doctors 00:17:23.080 |
mention, well, the value of your college degree increases. 00:17:26.840 |
However, given it takes 40 years to earn $2.3 million in the study, it is not fair to use 00:17:33.760 |
the estimated lifetime earnings of a college graduate to calculate a college's value. 00:17:39.880 |
Because it's due to the expected real investment returns, we should discount the value of $2.3 00:17:45.200 |
million to come up with the value in today's dollars, right? 00:17:49.360 |
Because we all know that if inflation is going at 1,000% a year in 10 years, the value of 00:17:56.240 |
your dollar is going to be worth almost nothing. 00:18:00.000 |
But if inflation was worth only 1%, well, the value of your dollar is worth more today. 00:18:05.240 |
Now, the third way to value a college degree is basically to calculate its net present 00:18:13.440 |
And I know I'm going to lose some of you in this. 00:18:21.360 |
NPV, net present value, equals all future cash flows over some holding period discounted 00:18:32.760 |
Discounting if you think about it is merely the inverse of growing. 00:18:36.040 |
So in this calculation, let's assume a discount rate of 5%. 00:18:40.080 |
You can also think about it as the rate of return on your investment, right? 00:18:47.620 |
You've got the variable of 40 years, because that is the period of time the college graduate 00:18:55.080 |
You've got earnings of $56,700 a year, and the total value of the earnings over 40 years 00:19:03.400 |
So if you input these figures in an NPV calculator, just check it out in the post or go online, 00:19:11.760 |
Therefore, for this Boston University graduate who paid full freight, the value of their 00:19:20.760 |
And this includes the person's cost, initial outlay of paying $372,000. 00:19:27.000 |
And what one commenter pointed out very smartly is that you should take the calculation a 00:19:31.440 |
step further by subtracting the NPV of a high school degree from the NPV of a college degree, 00:19:39.880 |
because the idea is high school is generally free for all if you want, and going to college 00:19:47.120 |
So you want to think about what is the incremental return on your earnings if you go to college. 00:19:52.880 |
So the bottom line here is that any of you listeners who went to college can now increase 00:19:57.980 |
your net worth, because your college degree is an asset. 00:20:04.440 |
Using the cost plus methodology to valuing college degrees, I personally will be able 00:20:09.800 |
to add $122,000 to my net worth if I want to. 00:20:13.120 |
The College of William & Mary cost about $44,000 for four years from 1995 to 1999 when I attended. 00:20:20.160 |
And then UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business cost $78,000 over three years when I attended 00:20:35.120 |
And maybe I should increase the worth of my college degree even further because my income 00:20:39.760 |
grew in banking over 13 years, and I retired with about a $3 million net worth. 00:20:48.580 |
If I ascribe all of my earnings power to college, then the value of the college degree is higher. 00:20:56.760 |
But you can't ascribe all your earnings power to college, right? 00:21:01.560 |
Because over time, you grow, you learn, maybe you become entrepreneurial, or you read things 00:21:10.360 |
Or you watch something on TV, or you take other classes. 00:21:14.120 |
And that also helps improve your earnings power. 00:21:23.120 |
We all like to complain about the cost of college. 00:21:27.200 |
Going higher faster than the rate of CPI every single year. 00:21:31.760 |
How can this be when everything is free online? 00:21:34.680 |
Well, the good thing is if you already have a college degree, then the value of your college 00:21:39.080 |
degree also increases every single year, thanks to cost inflation. 00:21:46.480 |
Every year we're getting richer thanks to our college degree. 00:21:49.160 |
You know, it only cost me $44,000 to go to William & Mary for four years back when I 00:21:56.260 |
It costs $270,000 all in for an out-of-state student today. 00:22:01.080 |
And why can't I assign the value of an out-of-state student's cost? 00:22:05.960 |
So essentially I've earned a 6x return on my investment over 24 years later. 00:22:11.940 |
And that's a healthy 12% compound annual return. 00:22:15.300 |
And I know some of you guys are thinking, "Man, Sam, you're crazy for thinking this 00:22:24.060 |
But what we say it's worth and what kind of income it produces for us over time. 00:22:32.280 |
I hope this episode has helped explain why some people have entitlement mentality. 00:22:37.880 |
And I think it's because they simply don't understand the full value of what they get 00:22:48.000 |
Education is the key to a happier life, to more wealth, and more freedom. 00:22:52.760 |
And if you want to have an easy way to keep boosting your net worth, keep reading books. 00:22:57.940 |
Every book you finish adds to your net worth by at least the cost of the book and at most 00:23:03.160 |
how much more wealth you can build because of the book. 00:23:07.200 |
Some books, like my book, Buy This, Not That, at financialsamurai.com/buy-this-not-that, 00:23:13.200 |
will give you actionable advice that will make you more money. 00:23:17.400 |
That could make you far wealthier than the average person over time. 00:23:20.760 |
But you gotta read it and you gotta take action. 00:23:23.320 |
So do not discount the value of your education, your college degree, and do not discount the 00:23:33.260 |
I hope you appreciate all the posts and all the newsletters I've written over the years. 00:23:38.180 |
And I'm going to continue writing because I think we should all be learning. 00:23:44.580 |
Please share, subscribe, and rate the podcast. 00:23:48.020 |
I'm trying to get to over 500 reviews by the end of the year. 00:23:52.660 |
It's really a great motivator for me to keep on recording. 00:23:56.140 |
It's been a lot of fun, folks, and I appreciate your listening. 00:24:00.020 |
Don't forget to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter at financialsamurai.com/news. 00:24:05.820 |
Everything is written based off first-hand experience so you don't miss a thing. 00:24:10.100 |
And also, don't forget to check out the show notes for the related links.