CO-HOST | Make Money by Rethinking College, Careers, and the Skilled Trades

Summary

Podcast Summary: Travis Makes Money

Episode: "CO-HOST | Make Money by Rethinking College, Careers, and the Skilled Trades"

Host: Travis Chappell
Guest/Co-Host: Eric (Producer)
Date: March 25, 2026

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Overview of the Episode

In this co-hosted episode, Travis Chappell and his producer Eric dive into the pressing issues surrounding the current job market, the value (or lack thereof) of traditional college education, the ever-growing student loan debt crisis, and the overlooked potential in skilled trades. With a blend of humor and practical insight, they analyze clips from Mike Rowe and explore how mindsets about education, careers, and financial stability must change. The episode aims to empower listeners to pursue unconventional but lucrative paths—emphasizing that the trades, not the four-year degree, may hold the keys to future wealth and security.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Skilled Trades Shortage Crisis

• Mike Rowe's "Scary Number"
  • [03:04] Notable Quote:

    "The number that scares me more than 1.7 trillion in student loans is 5. Every year for every 5 tradesmen who retire, 2 replace them. That's been going on for over a decade." – Mike Rowe

  • This alarming statistic illustrates a critical deficit in skilled laborers, with implications for infrastructure and everyday quality of life.
  • Travis and Eric expand on the ripple effect: fewer plumbers, electricians, and similar professionals means higher wages for those roles, but also potential future crises in maintaining basic services people take for granted.

2. Reframing Blue-Collar Work

• Travis and Eric reflect on how blue-collar jobs have long been stigmatized in favor of desk jobs and degrees.
  • [04:29] Travis:

    “…there was a huge trend away from blue collar work because it was sort of looked down on... but now it’s like those are the people who are the prized possessions of the economy.”

• Personal anecdotes: Eric jokes about family dynamics between his accountant and electrician brothers-in-law, poking fun at intellectual versus manual labor stereotypes.

3. Open Opportunities in Skilled Trades

• Mike Rowe: Millions of Unfilled Jobs
  • [10:33] Notable Quote:

    “Nine and a half million good jobs that are sitting there wide open offering wonderful opportunities to anybody who would have them.” – Mike Rowe

• Eric and Travis discuss how the U.S. is facing a paradox: millions languish in student loan debt while blue-collar positions, often requiring less upfront formal education, offer better, more stable prospects.

4. The True Cost and Purpose of College

• Eric and Travis dissect the logic of going into debt to 'figure out' a career:
  • [14:59] Notable Exchange:

    Eric: “To get into debt, to figure out what you may or may not want to do is, is pretty wild.”
    Travis: “Especially because it’s crazy debt. Like, yeah, it’s the only debt that an 18 year old can even get.”

• They discuss alternatives. Instead of spending $30,000 on tuition, consider investing that money directly into a business or skill-development for far greater real-world return.
• Travis highlights the diminishing value of many college degrees, especially as industries and technologies evolve faster than curriculum.

5. "Earn While You Learn" vs. Student Debt

• Apprenticeships and learning on the job are positioned as powerful alternatives to college.
  • [16:29] Eric:

    “My brother in law went and got his apprenticeship... He was getting paid to learn... It’s very realistic he’s heading up a division by the time he’d be finishing college—and without debt!”

• Travis and Eric agree that practical, on-the-job experience often eclipses theoretical classroom knowledge, especially as technology obsoletes skills at a rapid pace (example: graphic design programs and AI tools).

6. Tech, AI, and the Evolving Workforce

• Discussion around how AI and automation threaten traditional "white-collar" fields, including law and medicine:
  • [19:21] Travis:

    “There’s probably going to be a robotic arm that can do surgery in a better, more complete way... By the time you’re capable, you’ll be $350,000 in debt, but competing with a machine.”

• The pool of high-level jobs in law, medicine, and similar fields is expected to shrink, while demand for competent tradespeople is growing.

7. The Culture and Psychology Behind College Decisions

• College as the "default safe path":
  • Many young people pursue a degree more because it's familiar and safe than out of clear purpose.
  • [24:40] Travis:

    “It feels safer to go to college because the only thing you know how to do is school... School is the only thing you have experience in, so it feels safe.”

8. Nuance in Career Decisions

• Travis closes with a call for a more nuanced, personalized approach to education:
  • Is college worth it for you based on your goals, the debts involved, and real-world prospects?
  • Recognizes some professions and scholarships might make the traditional path worthwhile, but warns against the "automatic default" approach.

9. Final Thoughts: Don’t Undervalue the Trades

• [26:56] Travis:

  “Don’t undervalue the trades. That might be where the majority of the money is made in the next decade.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [03:04] Mike Rowe:

  "The number that scares me more than 1.7 trillion in student loans is 5. Every year for every 5 tradesmen who retire, 2 replace them."

• [04:29] Travis:

  “Those are the people who are the prized possessions of the economy are people who can work with their hands and fix things and build things.”

• [14:59] Eric:

  “To get into debt, to figure out what you may or may not want to do is, is pretty wild.”

• [19:21] Travis:

  “...by the time you’re capable [finishing school], you’ll be $350,000 in debt, but competing with a machine.”

• [26:56] Travis:

  “Don’t undervalue the trades. That might be where the majority of the money is made in the next decade.”

---

Important Timestamps & Segments

• [03:04] Mike Rowe’s “scary number” and the skilled trades crisis.
• [04:29] Travis discusses changing perceptions of blue-collar careers.
• [10:33] Mike Rowe discusses 9.5 million open jobs.
• [14:59] The real cost of using college to “figure it out.”
• [16:29] Apprenticeships vs. college and debt.
• [19:21] The impact of AI/automation on traditional careers.
• [24:40] Why college often feels “safe” to young adults.
• [26:56] Travis’ key takeaway: Don’t undervalue the trades.

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Episode Tone & Style

The episode is conversational, light-hearted, and filled with playful banter—especially between Eric and Travis—yet it never loses sight of delivering sharp, practical insights for listeners questioning their educational or career paths. The hosts’ authentic, relatable storytelling ensures the themes resonate with anyone weighing the risks and rewards of college versus trades in today’s changing economy.

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Bottom Line:
Travis and Eric urge listeners to challenge traditional wisdom about success, education, and work in the modern era. The skilled trades are not just viable—they may be the best path forward for financial freedom and job security. Don’t be afraid to question the status quo before you sign up for decades of debt.

Transcript

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[Travis]

You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by gohighlevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet. Just go to gohighlevel.com travis what's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast where it's a mission to help you beautiful people that are listening right now to make some more money so that you can live the life that you want now without having to put it off until your retirement age. Because you know who wants to do that? You. You want to make money now. Live life now and then do it without sacrificing your retirement. Which will be talk about mostly here on the show on this episode. This is a co hosted episode with my producer Eric, who is in studio. What's up man?

[Eric]

Hey, what's going on, Travis? It's good to be here today. It's nice and sunny here in the Las Vegas area.

[Travis]

It actually is beautiful.

[Eric]

I will say today, this spring's been awesome. Today was the first time in a little while that I sat outside and it wasn't just because I was smoking a cigar. I just literally went outside with my computer and worked and it was so nice. And I know those days are fleeting.

[Travis]

I know, I was going to say it's, it's been an amazing, like we had a very, very light winter. Usually gets pretty cold here, but like February was beautiful.

[Eric]

I was in a T shirt every day, literally.

[Travis]

Yeah, I had to start wearing shorts when I went for walks cuz it was like I'm getting way too sweaty here.

[Eric]

That's. That honestly sucked because I would, I always miscalculated what I needed.

[Travis]

Totally.

[Eric]

So I would leave and I'd be like, like I would go like on a long walk and I'd be wearing sweats.

[Vital Farms Announcer]

Yeah.

[Eric]

And then you get like the first little bit and then the sun creeps over. What are we, a couple of boomers sitting on the porch right now? Let's get into the episode. So the job market is like a raging river right now. It is very treacherous and difficult. But how do you get through the. The treacherous waters. You have to row, row, row your boat. And that brings us to this clip from Mike Rowe talking about the number that scares him the most. What do you think that number is?

[Travis]

I don't know. It's a wide open question.

[Eric]

What number scares Mike Rowe the most? What number scares Mike Rowe the most?

[Travis]

All right, play the clip.

[Eric]

This number terrifies micro. Okay, Mike Rowe is just coming up

[Travis]

with a bunch of different.

[Eric]

I'm doing the click. Yeah, here's the clickbait. Here's the clickbait title. Mike Rowe said what?

[Travis]

Yeah. What did Mike Rowe say is the number that scares him the most?

[Eric]

All right, here we go. The number that scares Mike Rowe.

[Travis]

Just press play the most.

[Mike Rowe]

You want to hear some really horrible math? The number that scares Me More than 1.7 trillion in student loans is. Is 5 every year for every 5 tradesmen who retire to replace them. Now, that's been going on for over a decade. And when you start to just extrapolate that out, what you realize real fast is this is not just a conversation about companies who are struggling to recruit talent or kids who are struggling to find a path to prosperity. This is a conversation about how long Clay Travis and Buck Sexton want to wait for a plumber when they need one, or an electrician. Every single person listening to this has skin in the game. Because every one of your audience members shares my addiction to smooth roads and affordable electricity and indoor plumbing and a long list of other stuff that we've been taking for granted long before Dirty Jobs went on the air.

[Travis]

You want to hear, first of all, who has a better podcasting voice than Mike Rowe?

[Mike Rowe]

You want to hear some really horrible math? The number that scares me more.

[Eric]

You.

[Travis]

You think so? No, I don't think so.

[Eric]

Versus Mike Rowe.

[Travis]

Nobody versus Mike Rowe wins that.

[Eric]

Yeah, here's. Yeah. So what's your. What's your take on that one? Eh?

[Travis]

I mean, that speaks to a lot of the stuff that we talk about on this show. We try to highlight more.

[Eric]

You wouldn't believe it. That's why I just brought this up to you.

[Travis]

No way. You're so insightful. Yeah, it's. It's. It's not only a matter of what Mike is talking about, which are the lagging effects of what this means for the future, like infrastructure, better roads, you know, indoor plumbing, things like that. But it's also speak. It also speaks to a void in the market where there will likely be a lot of people who are going to get paid a lot of money. Which is what we talk about on this show. So it like there's going like there was a huge trend away from blue collar work because it was sort of looked down on for a really long time and go to college, get a bachelor's so you don't have to go do manual labor or something like that. But now it's like those are the people who are the prized possessions of the economy are people who can work with their hands and fix things and build things because there's fewer and fewer people who are willing to do that work.

[Eric]

My brother in law gets so mad because. So one of my brother in laws is an accountant. Okay, Very smart. One of my brother in laws is very dumb. Blue collar. I'm just kidding. So one of my brother. That's a clip. One of my brother in laws is an accountant. Accountant. One of my brother in law's is an electrician. Okay, you got that? Yeah. And so when me and the accountant fella are there with him, we always joke and we go, man, I would kill to be able to have a job where I don't have to use my head, you know? And he's like, guys, it's really complicated. You don't understand. Like I have to do all these calculations and we're. And so we start, whenever he starts talking about how hard blue collar work is, we just go do, do, do. And we just make that noise until it overpowers him completely. Cuz it's just two people going,

[Travis]

you guys sound like a hoot.

[Eric]

Yeah, it is a hoot. And then he gets mad. Guys, you don't understand. It's really hard work. And we're like, yeah, man, I wish I didn't have to just sit behind a desk all day and just actually crunch the numbers. You know, I got to, I got to get out there and go. So he doesn't like that. But if. I will say if you ever have micro on the show, I'm going to be in the background. You know what's funny though?

[Travis]

No.

[Eric]

Is that Mike Rose, like the dirty jobs guy, but he spends all his time behind a desk, neatly manicured nails and nice comb over, talking about, you know, being a content creator.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

That is true.

[Travis]

He is a hypocrite.

[Eric]

Right? Can you say that? Can you say that for a clip?

[Travis]

No. Mike Row is one of the goats to me. Like I would love. He's, he's probably, honestly, he's probably like top five, top ten for sure of like gets to get on my show. Like top five guests that I would

[Eric]

really, like, you know, it would be funny if you, if you invited him to the show, like, like, hey, meet me for recording. And then when he gets there, like hand him a plunger and be like, thanks so much, I'm backed up. And then like when you're done with

[Travis]

that, it's the only thing doing work around the house.

[Eric]

I think that'd be really fun.

[Travis]

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[Travis]

Probably not for him.

[Eric]

Here's another video clip. I couldn't remember that word of Mike Rowe talking about something that you just mentioned. So let's play it. You want to play it?

[Travis]

Let's do it.

[Eric]

This is micro in a clip talking about something. This clip from Mike Rowe.

[Mike Rowe]

I think it's very fashionable right now to unpack and distance ourselves from things that feel fundamental and traditional. And part of what I try and do with my foundation is push back against that and make a more persuasive case for nine and a half million good jobs that are sitting there.

[Travis]

Why was that?

[Eric]

Nine and a half million?

[Mike Rowe]

I just want to hit for nine and a half million good jobs that are sitting there wide open offering wonderful opportunities to anybody who would have them.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

We grew up similar, but different. We didn't have any means.

[Eric]

We grew up the same, but not the same. Who is this guy?

[Travis]

Well said guy.

[Eric]

This guy's channel is called the dad Edge.

[Travis]

Okay? I don't know who that is.

[Eric]

His channel is called the dad Edge.

[Travis]

Yeah, you can keep saying it. I don't know what that means, but if you're a.

[Eric]

You know what? I'll let you guys make your own jokes. Here we go. Let's go ahead and keep.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Mike Rowe]

Everybody would have them.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

We grew up similar, but different. We didn't have.

[Eric]

Hold on a second. You mean to tell me you had shared experience but a unique experience? You mean to tell me that you did the same thing but not the same? You mean to tell me you walked the same path but took a different direction? You mean to tell me you had the same job but a different career track? You mean to tell Me, you have the same philosophy, but a unique pov. You mean to tell me you guys are listening?

[Travis]

This is what I deal with on a daily basis.

[Eric]

Can we talk? Can you admit that's an asinine thing?

[Travis]

It's a pretty. It's a pretty wild thing.

[Eric]

We grew up same, but different.

[Travis]

It's a pretty.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

We grew up similar, but different.

[Eric]

We had the same thing.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

I mean, I felt the stress of it, but I didn't. Similar, but different. We didn't have any means growing up. I mean, I felt the stress of it, but I didn't really feel like I was missing out on a ton.

[Travis]

But with this day and age, what

[Eric]

I've noticed, I felt the stress of it, but didn't feel like I was missing out. Like, what. What is this guy doing? The yin and yang of this man,

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

along with my boys and the temptations that they have. The things that are at their fingertips. Their cell phone, the window to the world.

[Travis]

Right.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

It's the epitome of non delayed gratification.

[Eric]

Can have that. You're the epitome of adding nothing to

[Travis]

the clock being said here.

[Eric]

Mike rose, like, there's 9.5 million jobs wide open. You. Yeah, these phones. Yeah, these phones kids have. I mean, I.

[Travis]

Maybe he was getting somewhere.

[Eric]

I mean, I kind of grew up

[Travis]

with benefit of the doubt.

[Eric]

I mean, I didn't have a phone, but it's like, I did Mike. Mike's in there. Like, man, this podcasting is sure a dirty job, isn't it, Travis? But anyway, so there's all these opportunities available. There's nine and a half million, nine and a half million jobs. Why do you think they're still. I mean, here's the thing that blows my mind is in that first clip, he says, like, there's 1.7 trillion in student loan debt and people are still jobless while still going to college to figure out what they want to do. And here I will say this. I'm going to say this though, on the record, immediately after saying that I've thought recently about pursuing some college again, until you say, stop, don't do that.

[Travis]

I've thought about it myself, but I've

[Eric]

thought about it just because, like, the more that I do the things I do, I'm like, I'd love to learn to like, actually research and like, have some criticism credentials and all that sort of stuff.

[Travis]

It'll be helpful for your career.

[Eric]

Yeah, but the biggest issue I have with people going to college is like the amount of kids that are sent to college to Figure out what they want to do.

[Travis]

Correct.

[Eric]

That to me is crazy because the amount, like even if you gave. Well, think about, you know, somebody that just recently started like a clothing line. Right. I don't know if we can say their name. No, is that fine? Shout. No, that's not. Yeah, so it's me.

[Travis]

Because I don't know the context of what we're about to talk about. So I'd rather leave them out of it until I know.

[Eric]

I want you to say why that's a big mistake. No, but, but I'm saying imagine, imagine that person, their parent, like because they're like 18, 19, so didn't go to college.

[Travis]

Correct.

[Eric]

Right. So I'm saying imagine taking some like

[Travis]

night classes or something like that.

[Eric]

Right. So imagine the parents say we've got $30,000, which is cheap for college. We have $30,000 for your college fund. Imagine if the parent said let's take that $30,000 to run ads for your clothing business or, or some other investment into their work versus $30,000 for you to go like start a Shopify store on the side while you're attending like math classes at university. To figure out what do I actually want to do.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

You know what I mean?

[Travis]

To get into debt, to figure out what you may or may not want to do is, is pretty wild. Especially because it's crazy debt. Like, yeah, it's the only debt that an 18 year old can even get. And to be clear, you can't even get a 500 limit credit card when you' Then some person's going to be like, oh yeah, totally. Sign here. Here's $150,000 that you owe us.

[Eric]

And to be clear, I wouldn't have brought up a person that you know very well to rag on them.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

So just to be clear, like I don't know where this is going. I'm like, what a buffoon.

[Travis]

I don't. Yeah.

[Eric]

You know, your dear friend, what a, what a fool they are.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's just becoming, it makes less and less sense. Like even in the last decade, especially with, with information becoming ubiquitous, it is, it's becoming a, just a more wild decision to be like, oh, I'm going to go. It not only like for most people in most universities, the education will not be as good as it would have been if you interned somewhere or if you use some of that, a fraction of that money to hire a coach who's built a clothing line who can teach you the mistakes that they made that you can learn from. Like the education will not be as good. It will take much longer and it will cost way more money. There's just so few fields anymore that to me require you to have to go through that traditional path.

[Dad Edge Channel Host]

Right.

[Travis]

Well that doesn't make sense for most people.

[Eric]

My, my brother in law like went and got his apprenticeship or whatever for a company. So like he was getting paid to learn.

[Travis]

Exactly. And then the earn while you learn thing is so much better.

[Eric]

And then literally like a year in, you know, and he learned commercial or he learned one of the two, commercial or residential and then joined a company and they're like, hey, we do the opposite of what you learned. Yeah, we can, we bring you in and you can show us how to do that. And it's like on the track now at like 19. It's very realistic. He's get like he's gonna stay with that company and he's gonna be running.

[Travis]

Right.

[Eric]

Their residential division. It's like he could be in his second year of college.

[Travis]

Exactly.

[Eric]

And 60 grand.

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[Eric]

In debt at this point.

[Travis]

And also learn something that's going to be obsolete by the time he graduates.

[Eric]

Right. Well, and to give the counterpoint, like I had a friend who went to college for graphic design.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

And basically she was saying like, I'm like, I think she had like 40 grand in debt still or whatever. And she's like. And had been out of college for years and was like all the Programs I learned were obsolete like by the time I graduated.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Eric]

And so it's like, it's like stuff like that.

[Travis]

Now you can go to Canva, right, and use an AI tool and throw in a few prompts and get some pretty good graphics out of it.

[Eric]

Right.

[Travis]

You know, like I'm not going to

[Eric]

recommend that, but I, I, you know.

[Travis]

Yeah, well, it's only going to get,

[Eric]

if you like the Department of War having your data, I mean, go to ChatGPT, you know what I'm saying?

[Travis]

But, but my point is like it's only going to get better. Like Canva's only going to get better. So there's so many skills that people like by the time you're done, you know, even medical school or like dental school. Like we're talking to Brady Smith on the show who's a dentist, and he was talking about this robotic arm that's doing this insanely complex dental implant surgery now. And, and, and he asked me on, on the show, he was like, would you trust that? And I was like, well, no, not now. You know, I'm not going to be the guinea pig with some robotic arm.

[Eric]

Imagine being the first person to have a robot.

[Travis]

Well, one of his friends who's like a very well esteemed dentist who's kind of well known for doing this type of surgery, volunteered to have that like do surgery on him and it was totally fine. But my point is like we're at the very beginning stages of that. So the time that it takes to become a dentist or the time that it takes to become a doctor, you know what I mean? Like if you start like a kid who's 14 right now who's like, I want to be a surgeon, you know, it's like, well, once you graduate high school, then you're going to go to college. You got to get into a good college. So dedicate a lot of work to get into a good college. Then you get into that good college and you go through four years there and then you have medical school and then you have residency and then like, like we're talking from a, for a 14 year old, we're talking about what, 16 years before they're going to be a practicing surgeon, you know what I mean? Like in that time period from now to 16 years in the future, a lot of again, there's probably going to be a robotic arm that can do the surgery in a better, more complete way. By the time that you are capable of doing that. And now you're going to be $350,000 in debt by the time you're starting to earn and your ability to earn is going to be limited by the fact that there's a machine that can do it that is going to be more accurate than any human. You know what I mean? Even those types or being an attorney or something like that, it's like, and we talked about this a little bit before and you have people in the comments that are like, yeah, but an attorney is still required for. And look, I'm not saying that lawyers are going to be completely replaced by AI, but what I am saying is that a significant portion of the jobs available in that world will definitely be automated replaced by AI. You know, like, like the traditional path where it's like you, you're in law school and you're a paralegal at a law firm, so you can hopefully get as a lawyer once you graduate. Things like that, like that work is not only, is not only, like AI is not only capable of doing that, it's better. Like if an AI tool has the ability to research all of the potential available data and provide information to an attorney who's making a case, that job is gone. You know what I'm saying? It's going to be much, remarkably better at doing that job. Rather than having a paralegal stay up, you know, working 22 hour days pouring through literal boxes of paper, research and data to find answers. Or you can just like throw it into an AI thing and then the next morning you wake up and it gives you all the information that in a team of paralegals would give you over the course of two weeks of digging through, you know what I mean? Like that stuff is going to be gone and there's still going to be people who are going to have roles in that world who have to have the level of competence to be able to decide and make decisions and things like that. It's just that the jobs are going to shrink, you know what I mean? It's not a market that's going to be growing in terms of available positions. Whereas you look at these trades jobs, they are by definition growing every single year with available positions. And because again, it comes back to simple supply and demand economics, which is that it's not just supply and demand in terms of the marketplace. The job market works the same way as the products and services market. If there are a ton of people who have this skill, then by definition it is less valuable to a company and therefore will be paid less at a lower rate. Whereas you have another position that is they're begging people to fill and be competent in that will by definition require employers to offer more money to fill that position. And a lot of these trades jobs are very, very overlooked by the younger generation. And I'm including myself in that category. Like millennials, Gen Z, like, they're very, very overlooked, when in reality they actually probably are providing a much more stable potential career path than a lot of the jobs that have coveted for the past two decades. So, yeah, if you're a young person listening to this, you should be willing to question the status quo again and ask yourself, like, am I pursuing this sort of desk job type career because I truly am passionate about this thing and I want to do it, or because I view that as being the thing that is going to give me economic prosperity in the future? Because the reality of the situation is that in a decade from now, those two things are going to be wildly different. So you have to take into account all of the other external factors before you make these decisions, especially when you're making a decision to burden yourself with six figures in debt that you're going to have to pay off throughout the remainder of your life, when the vast majority of people, even if they had to have a degree to get hired, they're not even using the thing that they got their degree in, you know what I mean? Which is why a lot of companies are, even tech companies, which have historically been the people to recruit solely out of Stanford. You know what I mean? Even these companies are like, yeah, we don't even require a college degree anymore. It's like, okay, well if that's the case, if that's already happening, then what are, what are the odds that that's going to be the case when you graduate in four years from now, if you're starting college, or eight years from now if you're just starting high school. So let's take all, all of these things into account because it's going to directly affect your ability to earn. And, and, and you know, that type of debt is really, really crappy debt to have. It's like having a mortgage payment as soon as you graduate college, which will prevent you from getting an actual mortgage payment because that you can get to buy a house right now. You know what I mean? So. And it might be a little bit of a different scenario depending on the situation. Right? That's why, like, all the advice we give on the show is always like, look, there's a nuanced approach to all of this and you have to decide what's best for you because in some scenarios, it might be like, oh, well, if you got into a really great school and you got a full ride scholarship and you don't have to go into debt to get it, and you can put yourself in a position to go meet a bunch of other kids who are in a, who are in a different socioeconomic class than the one that you come from or are familiar with, then the, the relationships and the network and the exposure, like, those things may be worth the college experience for you, but if it's one of those things where it's like, I have no idea what I want to do and I'm going to go get in debt to go to college because that's what I feel like is the next step for me in life. Or I think there's a lot of people in this category. Actually, it feels safer to go to college because the only thing you know how to do is school. You know what I'm saying? Like, when you're 17, 18, that's the only thing you've ever done, that's the only thing you have any experience in is school. So it's like, it feels safe. I'm convinced that's why a lot of people just continue going to school. There's like, oh, well, guess I'll go back, get a master's. I guess I'll study for my PhD. I guess I'll study for my second PhD. And then they end up being a professor because, like, they never actually decided what they wanted to do. They were just like, it feels more comfortable. It feels safer to me. I thrive in this environment. I was always rewarded for getting good grades. So I'm just going to stay in this, this world because anything outside of that seems unsafe, uncertain, and I don't know whether or not I'll be able to make it. So they just like go.

[Eric]

You know, that's why they, it's just

[Travis]

a little bit of debt, you know, who cares? Because you weren't good at school.

[Eric]

I wasn't good at school.

[Travis]

I was pretty good at school.

[Eric]

I can't keep doing this.

[Travis]

By the time I got to college, though, I did not, I did not care that much. Like after freshman year, I was like, this feels like I'm on a treadmill right now. Like none of this actually really matters for what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life. So, yeah, I started, I started not caring as much. Did your mic just fall apart on you? Oh, you're back. Okay. But yeah, I stopped. I stopped really caring, probably around especially like junior year senior year, I was like, all right, when are we done? Can we, can we, can we kind of call it quits here?

[Eric]

It's funny you say that because the audience right now just said, wait, when are we done?

[Travis]

When can we, when is this episode over?

[Eric]

Right now. Close this out.

[Travis]

That's it for this episode of the show. Remember, money only solves your money problems. But it's easy to solve the rest of your problems with money in the bank. So let's start there. Here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Don't, don't undervalue the trades. That might be where the majority of the money is made in the next decade. That's it for this episode of the show. Catch you in the next one.

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Peace.

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Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for 15amonth plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail]

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[Travis]

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[Travis]

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