conversation: User (ShabbyPro): "I recently got the opportunity to work on an oil and gas rig and if everything goes to plan in the next week I should have the job. It is a 2 week on 2 week off job so I can't really go to uni, nor do I want to. I want to go to film school but I'm not sure I can since I will be flying out to a rig for 2 weeks at a time. For now I am putting that on hold but still doing some little projects on my time off. My question is; what should I do with the money since I am so young, don't plan on going to uni, and live at home?\n\nEdit: Big thank you to everyone who commented. I'm grateful to have so many experienced people guide me. I am going to finish reading though every comment. Thanks again."
  Self: "Understand a few things:\n\n1-You are a warm body in a very lucrative field.   Every warm body makes (perceptually for low to middle class young guys) crazy money.  \n\n2-You will trade your body and sanity for that money and can only do it for so long \n\n3-In order to maintain morale, and sanity mentioned in (2), your co-workers will purchase expensive cars, drugs, clothes, etc.   "Work hard, party hard".  I have a few buds that constantly post pictures of their massive trucks, big wads of cash (big being a very relative word), etc etc.\n\n4-Falling for (3) will lead you to continue to trade your body for this demanding and unforgiving job which actually does NOT pay much considering the hours actually involved, the danger, the toll on your body\n\n\n\nTake home points:   \ni- Save (as much % of the net pay that you can and invest your money).   You will make more than the other 18 year olds, but the cost will not be seen to you until a decade or so later if you decide to make this a long term job of many years. \n\nii-Have an out plan.  Study when you can for a normal career or something lucrative\n\niii-Don't talk about how much money you THINK you're making.   Don't brag about how much you are making on social media.  Trust me, its really not that much.   There are accountants, programmers, etc who beat that while working 9-5 and sitting on their ass drinking coffee.   The other difference?  The accountant/programmer/etc. can keep working into their 60s and 70s.\n\niv-To follow up on (i):Invest in index funds that follow the market to start, in your late 20s after you've studied a few different investment mediums like individual stocks, realestate, etc. then feel free to go into riskier and more lucrative investments\n\ngood luck!\n"
  defroach84 (defroach84): "And those accountants and programmers will be making much more in 10-15 years as well, while still sipping their coffee."
  GreatOwl1 (GreatOwl1): "But they trade their wrists for that money. Ask me how I know :("
  vmullapudi1 (vmullapudi1): "That can be alleviated by paying attention to posture and ergonomics, no?\n\nEdit: ofc not entirely, but paying attention goes a long way"
  boboysdadda (boboysdadda): "This.  I started developing wrist pain from coding all day. Spent a couple months learning dvorack. Wrist pain went away. What I found was that while taking the time to learn another layout I was naturally focusing on my hand position and catching my sagging wrists. I didn't stick with dvorack in the end. But the process of learning it made me more aware of my hands."
  BilboBronson (BilboBronson): "Is Dvorack a dragon shout? "
  Enfors (Enfors): "In case you're not joking, it's a different keyboard layout."
  Sad-thoughts (Sad-thoughts): "I had no idea there were different keyboard layouts. I'm googling it now and my mind is blown! "
  TorvestaSR (TorvestaSR): "Hahaha. Try Colemak on your phone. It makes you type much quicker and "unlinks" the connection in your brain from a phone keyboard and a normal keyboard. "
  aawebber (aawebber): "why would you want to unlink the connection between phone and normal keyboard? curious"
  Glitsh (Glitsh): "As a follow up: I think its a fair connection...wouldn't having it make your typing faster?"
  