China232.com Blog

I was born in 1979.

When I was growing up, I remember everyone around me saying that I NEED a university education if I don’t want to have a terrible life.  I believed it.  Almost everyone I knew believed it too.

At that time, university wasn’t SOOO expensive.  Students could pay for school with a good part time job.  They didn’t graduate with a huge debt and crazy student loans.

Things are very different now.  University is unbelievably expensive, and more and more students are going to school.  It seems that everyone believes that having a university degree will somehow just “magically” give them a good job when they graduate.  Well, with so many people having degrees, the “good jobs” are getting harder and harder to find.  Students in the US are paying an average of $27 000 USD per YEAR just to go to school.  Some students are paying a lot more.  When they graduate, they have an insane amount of pressure to pay back a crazy student loan, and it’s harder and harder to find a high paying job just by showing people your degree.  A lot of employers now realize that A) too many people have the same thing, and B) It’s really just a “fancy” piece of paper.

With technology changing so fast as well, colleges and universities aren’t really able to “keep up” with it all, and really prepare students with the proper knowledge they will need for the jobs of the future.

Chinese students have been going to the US in HUGE numbers over the past 10 years or so.  They are growing so fast.  I just read in a really interesting article from the Wall Street Journal that about 70% of them return to China after graduating to find a job, and less and less of them can find a good job.  They’ve almost “wasted” their parent’s hard earned money, and it’s not their fault either.

The price of education is going up fast, the quality is going down fast, and more and more people are joining the workforce with the same degree, the same piece of paper.

They have a huge debt/loan to pay off.  It’s almost like they have a mortgage, but NO HOUSE!

Students in America owe a total of over 1 trillion dollars in student loans.  That is $1 000 000 000 000.  Insane.  Thousands and thousands of students in the US owe more money just in student loans, than the price of a pretty decent house!  I’m not joking.

REAL skills (like learning high level English, computers/internet, and networking) are becoming more important (and not expensive)

Anyway……  Do I think that it’s a terrible idea to get a university education?  Of course not!  But I absolutely think that you should really think about this carefully, and don’t just be a sheep and think that your insanely expensive piece of paper will just magically help you.  You need to think ahead and think “smarter” than most of the other people who just believe whatever they are told by society.

I’d love to know where you are from, how old you are, and what your thoughts are about this topic.  Please share your thoughts about this important topic in the comments below.

I also just watched an AWESOME documentary about this situation and I put that video and the article about international students studying in China here in the VIP community for you guys to enjoy.  You will love both.  There is a lot of great stuff in there that is both really interesting AND will help your English.  I spend so much of my time looking for this kind of stuff for you guys.  I’m sure you’ll love it

Again, please let me know your situation, and your exact opinion on this.  If you completely agree or totally disagree with me, that’s totally fine.  It’s great practice for your English to get your thoughts down in writing, and it’s great for all of us (including me) to learn and think about different perspectives.  We can all learn from each other.

I’ve already told you guys about my favorite stock pick of the year a couple blogs ago. I just wrote an article talking about 11 of my favorite stock picks for 2012.

I’m wearing my K-Swiss tubes and absolutely loving them by the way. Best workout shoes I’ve ever had for comfort and style. I’d highly recommend ordering a pair online at kswiss.com. I think it’s free shipping and you won’t be disappointed.

All of the stocks I recommended are stocks that I actually own myself. A lot of people write about stocks that they don’t really believe in but that doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m not sure if I’m going to be correct with all my choices, but I think that this collection of stocks will be safe and earn you some good money over the next few years.

Obviously, any investor should use their own brain and make up their own mind when investing, but it’s good to read some other people’s thinking and see if it makes sense to you. Love to hear your thoughts as always. Any other stocks you own that you’d recommend? Why do you think they are a good buy now?

I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t really see the future but for the first time in a really long while I truly believe that there is an absolutely amazing stock to buy right now. It’s Kswiss.

Years ago, it was a boring tennis shoe brand. Now, Kswiss is the coolest brand of shoes. The company has changed the game with it’s unbelievable advertising campaign. I read that a guy who was the vice president of Adidas marketing started to work for Kswiss and made a viral video on youtube that I will link to. They are doing different marketing campaigns in different countries and all of them are pretty cool. I just found out about it last week and Add and I decided to put some money into this company. We really believe strongly in it and think that 24 months later, this stock will be up over 500%. It sounds crazy but it’s very possible. If you are at all interested in investing, check out my latest blog post, with some interesting article links and a pretty crazy video in there. I can’t promise anything but I really think these guys are super smart and this advice will make you money. There is some risk like with all investments but its super exciting and I would suggest buying it if you can afford to. Anyone from any country can buy this stock. It’s sold on the US and the symbol is KSWS.

Here is my honest opinion about the best stock for 2012.

I’ve always been really into investing. My dad and I used to talk about it a lot even when I was 8 years old. I find it very interesting. I find most of the stuff written about financial advice is just pure garbage. I just made some big trades today, at least for me. I really like Apple, Google, and Starbucks. I think the developing world is going to keep doing well with more and more people going into the middle class and buying stuff. Google is a whole other story as to why I like it. It dropped about 5% on the big Motorola trade because people got scared. I don’t think any analyst even knows if it was smart or not yet. I am writing a financial blog that I thought some of you might be interested in. It’s higher level English, and I don’t allow for comments yet, because of spam. We will soon though. I think most people are sheep. That means they can’t think for themselves and follow the crowd without thinking. I call the blog, “land of sheep”. Add made the cartoon sheep. You can comment here if you read it. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Here it is: International Investing Advice

We’re going to change the design and make it look sweet in the future. You guys are the first ones to know who is writing it!