Gen Z Guide to FI

Some major life updates: I got promoted and I paid off half my student loan. Yee to the Haw baby.

I’ve been having some nagging thoughts regarding returning to school to get my MBA. Since I joined the ChooseFI band wagon this year, I’m rethinking a lot of my previous reasons for applying to top schools.

I know a major reason I’m applying to top 5, Ivy League schools is because of the pressure from my parents. Don’t get me wrong, the ROI from attending those schools might be worth it. I doubt it though unless I get scholarships. Otherwise, I am not interested in depleting the net worth I’ve scrimped and salvaged to be in debt for a 250k piece of paper. As I paid off half my undergrad student loan, I realized that shitttt bro – I don’t want to spend the next few years post MBA getting back to broke.

As a 24-year-old adult, I’ve found myself thinking, ‘what do I want?’. ‘What do I value?’. It’s not about what my parents want. This is about what I want for my own life. Thank you therapy.

I know that if I got into a top 5 Ivy, my parents would scrape and sell shit just to help me borrow the least debt possible. I don’t want that life for them, though. I also don’t want that life for myself.

As always, I also mean this from a place of childhood trauma and complete selfishness – in case you were thinking, ‘Awww GZFB, that’s sweet that you don’t want your parents to go to such financial lengths.’ Once I graduated undergrad, I made a promise to myself that I would never ask my parents for money again. Money is such a manipulative tool in my family. There are unwritten, unspoken conditions for that money. It might be easier to owe the government than accept my parent’s money. I’m almost at a good place with my parents but that would take me many steps back.

I am perfectly content with getting into any programs mentioned in this post. The rankings never really mattered to me. They are all fantastic programs. Each of them has the tools and network that would help me switch careers.

I’m not sure why it took me so much deliberation to get to that realization. THIS IS MY LIFE! THIS IS MY LIFE! THIS IS MY LIFE!

I gotta live for me. You gotta live for you. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers for scholarships.

XOXO Gen Z Fire Baby