A girl recently contacted me, asking me to explain to her how she could wrestle control of her 529 college savings plan away from her parents.
“They are unreliable and untrustworthy,” she told me.
“What!?” I thought. “Are they drug addicts or human traffickers? Are they embezzlers!? What’s going on?”
I invited the girl to direct message me so I could get a fuller picture. I learned that her parents were against a (rather harebrained) idea she had to study what she vaguely described as “media” overseas—so they were refusing to fund it.
(Her parents are perfectly within their rights to do this.)
When I asked the girl why it was so important that she carry out this plan to study “media” overseas, she came out with this whopping piece of logic:
“It’s been my dream since forever to do so.”
My reply to her looked like this:
“I understand about dreams, but when it comes to college and career we need to get extremely practical. What you need is the shortest, fastest, least expensive route to get to a career that you love, that will support you financially. That’s what I help you with. When you get to your career goal and you’re working and earning your own money, then you can get started on fulfilling your dreams. Then you can fall in love and travel the world and do whatever you want. College is not the time to fulfill your dreams. College is the time to get busy, get practical, get it done, and get out. Can you tell me what your career goal is? What do you think you’ll be doing when you are finished with studying “media” overseas?”
In the second live, online class you take from me inside my TRIBE Membership, we talk about how kids can figure out a good quality, good fit career goal early on—so they can zoom like an arrow straight toward a bullseye, without one wasted dollar, without one wasted class. (See enthusiastic parent testimonials about my TRIBE Membership here.)
Kids need to know the truth: college is not actually about following passion and dreams.
College is about qualifying oneself to do a job that will earn money in the real world.
Students, to earn money in the real world, you need to start with what you’re already naturally good at.
Read on, and I’ll help you.
I can help you figure out what you’re naturally good at and excited about using data—not wild guessing. (Join my TRIBE Membership, and your second session inside will be a class that explains exactly how we can do this.)
Once “what you’re naturally good at” is known, you can then polish, develop, and cultivate those natural abilities both inside of and outside of school settings.
“Outside of school settings”? Yes.
Once you know what you’re naturally good at and excited about, you can approach your work like a craftsman. You can learn on your own. Read up on the subject. (This reading will be interesting to you!) Get a mentor. Job shadow like crazy. Volunteer in a place where you can grow your natural abilities. For example, use your fledgling skills to work for free for a cause you believe in. (I can help you find one.)
The point I’m getting at here is—use tools to learn what you’re good at, and then intentionally grow yourself outside of school settings. Then go to college to put final polish on and add credential to the abilities you’ve already developed.
You do this, and wow—you’ll end up in a career you can confidently pursue with passion and persistence.
Students, don’t look at college as a place to “pursue your passion and your dreams.”
If you do, you could end up pursuing something where you have no natural talent and no ability. You could end up with a thin, useless, paper college degree that will never lead to a paying job in the real world.
Listen to what Mike Rowe says about all this in the excellent 5-minute video below
I realize you may have concerns about the organization sponsoring this 5-minute video, but believe me—the content from guest Mike Rowe is exactly what you need to hear right now: “The advice you hear so often to ‘be persistent’ and ‘stay the course’ only makes sense if you’re headed in a sensible direction.” And “What we all really need is opportunity—a legitimate chance to pursue meaningful work. Passion will follow that.”
If you want to know why “follow your passion” is terrible career advice, watch Mike Rowe here:
For clear, step-by-step help getting your kids through college debt-free and into jobs they love afterward, get your copy of my book:
It’s a reference book, so nobody reads the whole thing cover to cover. Pick out what you need to read in it using the fast-paced, 10-minute video instructions here.
You can see hundreds of reviews of this book on Amazon by going to:
You can see why financial advising professionals love LAUNCH, here.
You can see the top 9 questions parents are asking me about LAUNCH, here.
Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
Take a step on this right now. Get regular, inspiring help from me—every Monday morning.
Subscribe to my free weekly email newsletter here.
Do you have very specific questions for me about debt-free college and career for your kids?
My TRIBE Members get the most direct access to me—while feeling good that the pennies per day they spend on the TRIBE help me bring debt-free college strategy to families who could never afford to pay for it. Join my TRIBE Membership waiting list here.
Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News and World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com.
This article was updated on November 21st, 2023. No part of it was written using AI.