Best Life Plan

campgottagopee wrote

"If you were giving advice to a kid who just graduated and wanted to live a life with most/best skiing possible, which would you tell him?"

I would tell him/her that there's more to life than skiing.

That said if the kid was hell bent on going my advise would to do it while your young and never look back. Moreover enjoy every second of it. I know I did.

Yup.

How many kids graduate from high school and want to do nothing but ski? The few that actually are like that don't need to be told what to do nor do they need advice because they are already packing before they graduate and are already dead set on making it happen.

If anyone really wants to go all in, it is pretty easy to do. But it comes with trade offs. Best to go all in before you reach the age when the trade offs start to matter. My advice to anyone that is young would be don't get comfortable, doubly so if you want to go all in on a skiing lifestyle.

I could have checked out and skied every day but there is so much more to life, but that’s just me. I had a friend who ran a saw mill in the summer in the south, shut it down on Jan 1 and went to SLC where he and his wife work at the bird from then to usually May 1, he was a ski instructor, she worked in marketing. This was the yearly routine. That’s probably a good trade off if you want that life style.

Denver and Seattle are two of my favorite cities, both have great economies, and are close to amazing skiing.  A graduating college kid could both get the first career job, and do a lot of weekend and PTO skiing.  I'd move out there now if it wasn't for my wife.

My only reservation is if I had a son who isn't a stud.  Tough dating scene in both of those cities for a guy.   But of skiing is more important then getting laid they're great options

This is tough. If you want to be on the mountain there aren’t many options that don’t require you to live like a monk. If the idea is to live a normal life and just maximize your skiing, #4 is probably your best bet.

witch hobble wrote

Still need more data. What’s the kid’s actual cost of attendance gonna be after merit aid? What is the parents’ fafsa efc? Who is paying? Mom and dad? Or future self?

Let's say, for sake of argument, he has to foot $30,000 of the bill, either through jobs or loans or a combination.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

witch hobble wrote

Still need more data. What’s the kid’s actual cost of attendance gonna be after merit aid? What is the parents’ fafsa efc? Who is paying? Mom and dad? Or future self?

Let's say, for sake of argument, he has to foot $30,000 of the bill, either through jobs or loans or a combination.

In this example I would suggest 3 or 4 - weekend warrior path or go to college in a city close to skiing. Going to college and accumulating 30k in debt might make it hard to ski bum after you graduate (choice 2).

riverc0il wrote

campgottagopee wrote

"If you were giving advice to a kid who just graduated and wanted to live a life with most/best skiing possible, which would you tell him?"

I would tell him/her that there's more to life than skiing.

That said if the kid was hell bent on going my advise would to do it while your young and never look back. Moreover enjoy every second of it. I know I did.

Yup.

How many kids graduate from high school and want to do nothing but ski? The few that actually are like that don't need to be told what to do nor do they need advice because they are already packing before they graduate and are already dead set on making it happen.

If anyone really wants to go all in, it is pretty easy to do. But it comes with trade offs. Best to go all in before you reach the age when the trade offs start to matter. My advice to anyone that is young would be don't get comfortable, doubly so if you want to go all in on a skiing lifestyle.

Exactly. My mom would joke she had my address written down in pencil. The other thing I'd add is be prepared to go without. Some aren't willing to do that.

You can't ski bum with debt. There's no way to do it.

I agree with you guys that ski bumming with debt won’t work. If you go in deep, you need to make generating income the top priority.

So you guys are all voting for 1 & 4, then? If you're gonna ski bum (and you didn't get a full scholarship or a full ride from your parents) then you should do it right away, before college, so you don't take on debt?

Or you're saying go to college and work to pay off the debt (while trying to save for a house, a car, retirement, etc.), then we can talk about ski bumming?

Ski bumming has always been a bit of a thing that relatively wealthy kids did (trustafarians, etc.), but it feels like it's moving even more in that direction as the labor in ski towns starts stratifying (jobs for these wealthier kids vs. jobs for Argentinians on H2B visas).

We must know different ski bums.

 All the ones I lived/worked with were broke and lived like Kings on 12K/year.

While I suppose arguments can be made for the merits of ski-bumming (or surf/mtb/hike/yoga/socmedia/influencer/political demonstration/pornwatching/whatever-bumming)....I’m not sure “bumming” and “best life” really belong in the same sentence.

I’ll have supported my kids for some 21 years each and will have put them through college and will do my best to provide assistance should they struggle in their good faith efforts to be what I consider to be employed, productive members of society when they start their adult lives.....but I’m glad none of them (so far) seem to want me to support them whilst they go dick around, have fun, and “find themselves”.  

Seriously, I’m sure some kids “need” that.  For them it’s probably better to do that and figure themselves out before they or their parents waste anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000 on college.  I’m just glad my kids don’t seem to fall into that category.....

campgottagopee wrote

We must know different ski bums.

 All the ones I lived/worked with were broke and lived like Kings on 12K/year.

Yeah, that’s more like what I remember too. I think there’s two different ways to go. If you really want to be a “ski bum”, you have to be ready for the “bum” part. Living an otherwise normal life with a normal career but doing it near enough to a mountain that you can get in a ton of skiing is awesome but it’s not quite “ski bumming”.

JTG4eva! wrote

While I suppose arguments can be made for the merits of ski-bumming (or surf/mtb/hike/yoga/socmedia/influencer/political demonstration/pornwatching/whatever-bumming)....I’m not sure “bumming” and “best life” really belong in the same sentence.

I’ll have supported my kids for some 21 years each and will have put them through college and will do my best to provide assistance should they struggle in their good faith efforts to be what I consider to be employed, productive members of society when they start their adult lives.....but I’m glad none of them (so far) seem to want me to support them whilst they go dick around, have fun, and “find themselves”.  

Seriously, I’m sure some kids “need” that.  For them it’s probably better to do that and figure themselves out before they or their parents waste anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000 on college.  I’m just glad my kids don’t seem to fall into that category.....

How would you feel if one of them delayed starting their career for maybe two or three years and then proceeded normally?

Giving a big middle finger to that whole “productive member of society” other than washing dishes (or whatever crappy evening job it was at any point) at night, doing some photo work for free gear and a little bit of cash and selling weed was the best time of my life. That sort of freedom is something most people will never understand. And if you’re lucky and/or resourceful you can actually make some decent coin in a resort town, it’s a hustle but doable.

The human experience is different for each one of us and thank goodness, it keeps this world interesting. If I stayed in New Jersey chasing money I’d be absolutely miserable. Like ready to eat lead miserable.

Jesus though.....I hope my daughter doesn’t want those sorts of guys when she gets older :D

raisingarizona wrote

  washing dishes  

We called it working in the field of Hydro Ceramic Engineering

campgottagopee wrote

raisingarizona wrote

  washing dishes  

We called it working in the field of Hydro Ceramic Engineering

Haha!

I was a dive station technician with a medicinal organics sales side gig.

raisingarizona wrote

campgottagopee wrote

raisingarizona wrote

  washing dishes  

We called it working in the field of Hydro Ceramic Engineering

Haha!

I was a dive station technician with a medicinal organics sales side gig.

Definitely do it before you’re in debt if you plan on doing it. I guess that would be my advice.  

Brownski wrote

How would you feel if one of them delayed starting their career for maybe two or three years and then proceeded normally?

Delayed.....or disrupted?  Hmmm...

Honestly, I don’t know how I’d ultimately feel.  One of those “you don’t know what you’d do until put in that situation” kind of things.  I can say initially I wouldn’t be too happy about it.  I don’t want to see my kids struggle, or find me in a position of having to support them, with no food on the table, no health insurance, no means of building towards my vision of a stable future, all so they can what....have fun skiing 100 days a year?  Nah, not for me or mine, although it’s worked for others.  I could say a lot more, but I’ll leave it at I’m happy to be 2/3 of the way there, with no indication (so far) that my last wants to go in that direction....

I hear you RA.  Life is full of different kinds of people, and that’s a good thing.  Shit happens for a reason.  You are likely a better man now, or alive at least , than if you had gone down the road I’m happy my kids seem to be choosing to go down, largely based on the example my wife and I set for them.  It is kind of telling that you might not want for your daughter what you did, or a guy who did what you did, but if you didn’t do what you did your daughter might not exist!  So I get all of that, it’s all good.

Me?  I’m a dick and dinosaur, beholden to perhaps outdated ideas about the order that life should have.  I’m not really sure it’s truly possible to “take two or three years off and then proceed normally”.  Why?  Well, the Butterfly Effect, I suppose.  What will become normal entirely changes from what would have been normal once you take those years.....then life happens, and we end up as part of the diverse community on the NYSBlog!

Good post JTG.

And if I’m completely honest I want better for my daughter and I really don’t want her taking the sorts of risks that I did!

But if she wants to ski bum for a year or a few I’ll get behind it. She’s gonna have to be self sufficient though because as of right now I don’t have anything and that does kind of suck.

There is hope though......things might be coming together soon and I might be scoring my dream job with a livable income. Fingers crossed.