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birb_cromble  1d ago (text post)   331 thread views

Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-08-08

A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.

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  • Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
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I need $43,200 to pay for yearly expenses. Unemployed, no degree, spent 5 years programming professionally and am utterly burnt out. I've got about a year to figure it out. My current plan is:

  • Work somewhere mentally easy, like a call center or a warehouse. I've done both jobs in the past and really enjoy just putting my brain on autopilot.
  • Study for tests like GMAT, LSAT, etc. and try to become a tutor. This will hopefully take care of my medium- to long-term aspirations whatever I decide to do with my life.
  • Try to write. I've always wanted to but it's tough as I am not yet a good writer. Now, in between mentally demanding jobs, feels like a good time.

Mostly I'm wondering whether anyone has ideas for a potentially better or more braindead job, and the medium-term viability of tutoring provided I can get a 99th percentile score on LSAT/GMAT.

Why not try a different company and continue to code? There are better teams out there if you are tired of the process side rather than actual coding side.

Why I think it’s worth trying is you might want to avoid nuking your lifetime earnings potential

I'm not great at programming and lack credentials and non-crypto experience. Give me a year to hammer out a degree and I think I could get a fine programming job, but I was never able to do programming in a healthy way anyways. When I regain some steam I plan to get a business degree or something.

I'm not fully ruling out programming; it's more that if I'm already starting from scratch anyways I might as well pursue a career in a field that might suit me better. If you're aware of a programming job that offers interviews based solely on IQ tests or leetcode performance, though, sign me up.

Unless you are doing accounting a business degree is fairly worthless. You can just do business and learn as you go.

I want a business job. How else do I get one without a degree or connections? So far I haven't even heard back from entry-level positions I've applied for (e.g. glorified customer service at financial companies).

Maybe it’s useful for showing interests. I don’t think there is a lot of actual learnings in most business programs.

I made a fair bit of money tutoring through college. I'm not sure how good of a gig it would be today, but back then the pay was great.

I would not suggest trying to make an income off writing unless you're willing to grind for years at almost zero pay.

If you're American, waiting tables can be surprisingly lucrative if you can find a place with a good clientele. My friends who still do it can walk out the door on a Friday night with $500 in tips.

What about programming burned you out? Having done just about all the jobs you mentioned above, programming has been the least taxing of all of them for me, and I'm interested to understand what was different for you.

Grinding for years without pay is totally fine. The bigger risk is writing never becoming a career at all. I feel I need to give it at least one good try, though, before giving up on the dream.

What about programming burned you out? Having done just about all the jobs you mentioned above, programming has been the least taxing of all of them for me, and I'm interested to understand what was different for you.

I couldn't tell you exactly. I'm quite good at the logic puzzles and algorithm-building. My last job was very technical. I just hate it and can't seem to reliably do more than an hour or two of work, and that only if I set aside 16-18 hours and exert a tremendous amount of effort. Those 5 years (in crypto) aren't really worth much in the broader job market. I don't have the will to go back to college just to get back into a career that never worked for me.

I can't say for sure tutoring will be easier, but warehouse work was good exercise and dull enough that I didn't need to pay attention to what I was doing, which is both inherently enjoyable and I think dovetails nicely with writing when I get home.

I have a friend that works Doordash/Uber eats in a big city as his main source of income. I don't know how much he makes, but it's enough to have a $1900/m apartment, a tesla on a loan, photography as a hobby, a non working girlfriend. He does it 4 times a week, full day morning to night shifts. Specifically targets wealthy high density areas, otherwise income pretty much halves due to less tips.

Tutoring's a great gig, I did it for years. You'd be amazed what you can charge. "First lesson free" is a great strategy when you're well below your target hours/week.

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