How Should You Think About Money? – James Citrin

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 Let’s talk about money. Money’s a tricky topic when it comes to jobs. And it’s also a sensitive topic between a parent and a child. And money is never really polite to talk about. But it is foolish to think that it’s not important in the context of thinking about your jobs and your careers. So there’re two ways to think about money. First of all money is one of the three forces at work that are often at war with one another in a job. And being armed with this knowledge will be helpful as you think about your job opportunities and your career.

You can maximize money but sometimes you do that at the cost of having a horrible lifestyle. You have to work 100 hours a week or you have to move to a city you don’t want to work in or you have no control over your life and or you can be working on work that is inherently not satisfying or it’s grunt work even in a highly compensated situation. You have to think about what is important to you between money, job satisfaction and lifestyle. And different people will have different weightings of that.

It’s possible to have it all. A great job where you’re really proud of the brand. You’re working on meaningful work with people that you like and respect. You’re growing, you’re learning, you’re contributing. That job satisfaction stuff. It’s possible to make a lot of money and it’s possible to have a great lifestyle but it’s challenging to have all three at the same time and especially in your early year or two coming out of college. So understanding that those three things are trade offs, is powerful in itself. Here’s the way to think about money and it’s really important to be honest with yourself about how important money is to you and what you need to do to live the lifestyle you want to live, pay back student debts.

If money is the primary factor for you this is going to sound so obvious, and it is obvious. But it’s so obvious that many people overlook it. The best way to make a lot of money is to go into a field that pays well. It’s really hard to make money as an artist or in a not-for-profit or working in things that supply and demand don’t allow for money to be made. All sorts of things that are wonderful things if you want to make a lot of money go into finance, go into professional services, go into technology, go into oil and gas, go into biotech.

The obvious point is if you want to make a lot of money go into a field that pays well.