So Help Me With My Life

[Tuckerfan]

Inspired by recent events. I've decided that I need to get off my lazy ass and actually do some of the things that I've blathered about doing, but never have.

1.) I want to live in the desert. Some place flat, not too far (say an hour's drive) from a major metropolitian area, where property values are cheap, and it's HOT , so I can sit outside and bask in the heat when I feel like it. I have no idea of a good place in the American Southwest that meets that description. Admittedly, I probably won't be able to afford to move there for at least 6 years or so, but an idea of good places to live right now would be a start.

2.) I want to be a mechanical engineer. I'm frankly sick and tired of staring at something someone else has designed and knowing that even though I lack the degree and don't understand much advanced mathematics, I could do a better job at designing the particular thing than the engineer who came up with this infernal machine. However, I really don't want to go to a formal university for this as I'm taking a machinist class in the evenings and I enjoy it tremendously. Besides, getting certified as a machinist will make me a better engineer, and vice versa. So, I've been thinking that the best way for me to earn an engineering degree is some form of internet/correspondence school degree. So I'm wondering how hard a time I'll have finding a job as an engineer with one of those. Granted, I've got more hours in a machine shop than an engineering student at Harvard's required to have, but I imagine that there's still a stigma attached to correspondence learning.

3.) I need to know what the best way to invest the minimal amount of money (not because I'm cheap, but because I'm poor) I can, and have it yield somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 within thirty years. This is of supremo importance. Current estimates are that within a few years, one will be able to buy a ticket on a rocket into space for $100K. That's what I want to do, more than anything else, but I know that on my meager income, I won't be able to set aside enough to be able to do it any time soon. So, I figure that by the time I'm sixty, relatively inexpensive space travel will be possible, and I wanna go, damn it! Hopefully, it'll be cheaper than $200K, but I'm not holding my breath, and even if it is, I may need the extra dough for bribes if I can't pass the physical.

Any suggestions?

[Typo Negative]

1) Phoenix Arizona and surrounding area.

Also Palmdale California is hot as heck in the summer, about an hour outside of LA, and pretty durn cheap.

[TaxGuy]

3) OK: invest $65 every week @ 4.5% interest, and after 30 years you will have $214,531.55. NOTE: this doesn't take taxes into account. This number can go down significantly depending upon whether you only pay taxes at the end or you pay taxes as you go. Also, good luck finding a risk-free 4.5% these days. You may be able to get that in a CD somewhere, but I think the rates are usually a bit lower.

This site http://www.bygpub.com/finance/InterestCalc.htm has a handy calculator if you wanna mess around with these numbers.

[jeel]

As for the engineering thing, you probably won't get much "respect" or second looks by prospective hirers unless you attend an ABET accredited university for engineering. Not sure ABET certifies any correspondence type schools. Check their website http://www.abet.org

You might consider a degree in engineering technology, being that what you seem to have interest in is the "nitty gritty" part of engineering. I am a mechanical engineer, and I have designed some pretty cool "stuff", engineering technologists seem to have a lot of the same opportunities to design things and you might have more luck finding a technologist degree via mail order. ...just a thought.

good luck!

[SandyHook]

The Las Vegas area will meet all of your hot, flat, desert needs rather nicely. It also has the advantage of offering a lot of construction type work at a reasonable rate of pay.

[Tuckerfan]

Originally posted by jeel
As for the engineering thing, you probably won't get much "respect" or second looks by prospective hirers unless you attend an ABET accredited university for engineering. Not sure ABET certifies any correspondence type schools. Check their website http://www.abet.org

You might consider a degree in engineering technology, being that what you seem to have interest in is the "nitty gritty" part of engineering. I am a mechanical engineer, and I have designed some pretty cool "stuff", engineering technologists seem to have a lot of the same opportunities to design things and you might have more luck finding a technologist degree via mail order. ...just a thought.

good luck!

Hmm. They're website seems to be down. Is that the right url?