How can you tell what work you love when you're just starting out?

There are some really good discussions going on at Get Rich Slowly and The Simple Dollar regarding money, career and meaning.

Here's the question, as framed by J.D. at Get Rich Slowly:

What sort of advice would you offer to a young person just entering the work force? What’s the most important thing to look for in a job? Is money the top priority? Job satisfaction? Is it better to be in a job you love that barely pays the rent, or to be making a fortune in a job that sucks your soul out and spits it on the floor? How can you tell what you love when you’re just starting out?

Many of the commenters at The Simple Dollar advocate taking time off after high school to figure out what you really want to do. While I'm sure that's a great solution for some people, when your problem is overthinking the decision on what to do 'next' because of feeling overwhelmed by choice, putting off taking the plunge won't necessarily help you figure it all out.

The fact is that there's a lot more variety in the job market than you're aware of at 17, and when your main work experience to date has been baby-sitting, slinging burgers and maybe some volunteer work, you really have no idea if a career that sounds good is actually something you'll love to do.

As I said in the comment thread on TSD, if I could tell my younger self one thing it would be to be less afraid to act. While the choices you make early in your career do shape what comes later, the path is much more plastic than I had assumed in high school. If you have a calling, great. If you don’t, pick something you like now and get started on that, whether it’s working, volunteering, travel or some combination of things.

I'm apparently not the only one who felt despair at the number of interests I had to choose from. A TSD reader left a comment on another post here to commiserate.

I am also that kid who had so many interests that I didn't know which one to follow. (I changed majors twice in college and lived abroad learning another language for a year.) Now I have a BA and don't know what to do for a living. I have such a hard time deciding what to do, simply because I'm afraid of it not being the 'right' choice or that I'll be sacrificing something else to my future detriment. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent pondering the issue. And now, of course, the irony is that I'm treading water and getting nowhere quickly due to this indecision.

I think that it can be problematic to set yourself up with high expectations that you'll find the 'perfect' career right out of the gate. If you're an adaptable person with varied interests, and your problem is that you can't decide what to do first or which path is best, my advice is to focus on transferable skills rather than trying to force yourself to choose a specialty right away. If you like what you do, you can always change where you do it, and then you'll never be stuck in a job you hate.

I wouldn't say I've found my calling, but I do enjoy what I do, and I do feel happy and fulfilled in my life. I still hope that one day I will find work that is a calling, but for now I'm content with interesting work that helps me further other goals, teaches me new skills, establishes connections with decent people who I enjoy working with, and has good potential for future growth and new opportunities.

Recipe: Super Beef, Bean & Veggie Chili

I make this a little differently each time, just depending on what I have in the fridge and pantry. This is a super easy meal to make, and it freezes well so I usually make a huge pot. I like it over rice, which also helps 'stretch' the meal.

I dislike kidney beans, so I don't use them. Instead, I choose mixed beans for variety and/or black beans, which I love. I am not concerned with 'authentic' ingredients - this is a quick & dirty healthy fridge-cleaner recipe. Vary the veggies as you like!

Ingredients:

• 1 package of lean ground beef (varies in size, usually a pound or so - whatever is on hand)
• 1-2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves of diced garlic
  
• ~3-4 cups chopped mixed veggies, i.e.: zucchini, mushrooms, cauliflower, carrots - whatever needs to be used up soon. If my cherry tomatoes are starting to get wrinkly, I add them in too.
  
• Diced tomatoes - 1 can (796 mL)
  
• Crushed tomatoes - 1 can (796 mL)
• 1 1/2 cups or so of cheap salsa, if available
  
• Mixed beans - 1 can, i.e. 'six bean blend' (540 ML)
• Black beans - 1 can (540 mL)
• Corn niblets - 1 can (341 mL)
  
• Cayenne pepper, chili powder, tex-mex spice and/or black pepper & salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or stew pot, brown beef over medium-high heat until no longer pink; drain fat (I usually use a metal colander so that I can rinse the cooked beef with a little water, and put the beef aside for step 2. I've also cooked the veggies with the cooked beef in the same pot, and that turned out just fine too.)
2. Saute onions, fresh veggies and garlic in the same pot as you browned the beef until veggies begin to soften
3. Add the cooked beef if you set it aside, and all remaining ingredients
4. Season to taste; simmer about 20 minutes until veggies are soft or cooked to taste. Serve alone or over rice
   

Recipe: Date Oatmeal Cake with Mocha Frosting

One of my 'old reliable' cookbooks is Great Food Fast, published by Dietitians of Canada. It's full of easy, basic recipes that taste great. The book also includes advice on substitutions and, of course, nutrition.

Here's one of the more decadent recipes. I made this a couple of weeks ago for a dinner party and got rave reviews all around. The mocha frosting is also a very good topper on a basic chocolate cake. I might post my version of the double chocolate mocha cake later.

Cake ingredients:

• Rolled oats - 1 cup
• Boiling water - 1 1/2 cups
• AP Flour - 1 cup
• Baking Soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Margarine - 1/2 cup
• Brown Sugar - 1 cup
• Vanilla - 1 tsp
• Chopped Dates - 1 cup
• Walnuts - 1/2 cup

Mocha frosting:

• Margarine - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar (sifted) - 1 1/4 cups
• Cocoa Powder - 2 tsp
• Strong coffee, cooled - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla - 1 tsp

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F & prepare your baking dish (I like using a bundt pan for the shape, but a 9" square baking pan is what's recommended)
   
2. In a small bowl, combine oats and boiling water; let stand until cool (note: this takes a while. You might want to combine the oats and water and brew the coffee, take a break and come back to do the rest to allow time for the liquids to cool)
   
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream together margarine and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla, oat mixture and flour mixture. Stir in dates & walnuts.
   
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
6. Prepare the frosting: in a bowl, blend together all frosting ingredients until fluffy. If icing is too thick, add a little more coffee to thin it. If too thin, add icing sugar. Spread icing over cooled cake.
   

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Banana Walnut Muffins

This recipe is a modified version of one that I've loved since I was a kid and my mom first taught me how to make muffins! The core of the technique is from the Magnificent Muffins Cookbook, which offers endless variations on basic muffin recipes. I've tried a bunch of the recipes in the book, but I just keep going back to this one as my favourite.

Yield: 12 muffins
Oven temperature: 350F (180C)
Baking time: 25 minutes for muffins, 50 for loaf

Dry mixture:

• AP flour - 1 cup
• Whole Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Baking Soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Dark Chocolate Chips - 1 cup
• Walnuts - 1 cup

Moist mixture:

• Margarine - 1/4 cup
• Applesauce - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Eggs - 2 large
• Vanilla - 1 tsp
• Mashed ripe or frozen bananas - 3 or 4 bananas (=1 cup)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease pan (I use a little canola oil, spread around with a paper towel)
   
2. In a large bowl, mix together the first three dry ingredients
3. Stir in chocolate chips & walnuts; set dry mix aside
   
4. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, applesauce and sugar with an electric mixer
5. Beat in eggs, one at a time
6. Add mashed bananas and vanilla to moist mixture
7. Add moist mix to dry mix all at once; stir until batter is moist but still lumpy
8. Pour batter into greased loaf pan or 12-cup muffin tin (cups should be 3/4 full)
9. Bake 25 minutes for muffins, 50 minutes for loaf (or until tester inserted in the middle comes out clean)

On cooking at home

When we first started to pay attention to our finances and track our spending, we realized that one of our biggest money sinkholes was simply eating out. We would 'forget' to pack our lunches, so we ate out most days at work. We would also very frequently go out for dinner or order in. Now we eat almost all our meals at home, only occasionally splurging on a night out. While Will has a good grounding in basic cooking techniques and really enjoys experimenting with new recipes, my skills are shakier. I've found a few good things that I can make pretty well, but in the next year I am hoping to expand my recipe repertoire.

Starting today I'm going to record info on my favourite recipes, reviews of cookbooks and tidbits of technique.

To stay at home, or to return to work?

One decision that has been on my mind since I first learned I was pregnant is whether to return to work after my maternity leave, or to stay at home with the kid(s).

Many of the moms I talk to run the numbers and decide that the costs of working and daycare leave them with so little take-home pay that it's not worth it to return to the workforce. I realized today though that they're probably underestimating the impact on their lifetime earnings of being a stay-at-home mom.

While it's useful to consider the extra costs of going to work and crunch the numbers to see how much 'extra' money you'll be left with at the end, I think that this method might skew the numbers in favour of staying home in most cases, but it doesn't consider one very important factor: the anticipated increase in earnings that most of us can expect over time if we continue in the workforce.

It is true that a working parent's take-home pay takes a hit from daycare costs, and that there are many other 'hidden' costs of working such as transportation, eating out more frequently, the need to maintain a professional wardrobe, and so on. But even if those costs eat up a large chunk of your take-home salary today, by choosing not to return to work, parents risk losing out on significant increases in salary over time. Just how much depends on your age and current earning power.

Take a look at VisualCalculator's Income Growth calculator (you'll need to scroll down and look for it under 'Income & Insurance Suite') to see what I mean.

Even assuming a yearly salary increase of only 3%, opting out of working for 10 years (say until two kids, three years apart, are both in school) makes a big difference. Depending on your age, type of job and potential for career advancement, the loss could be much heavier.

For me, just a year of maternity leave drops my estimated annual income at retirement by $6,000 (I'm assuming only a 3% annual increase). Were I to take 10 years off, assuming I was able to re-enter the workforce at the same salary I have today (far from certain), I'd see a drop of over $50,000, and a drop in total income earned of $2.5 million over my working life.

According to the 'cost of raising kids' calculator, it's only going to cost me about a half million to raise two kids and my stepson to age 18. While clothes, lunches, transportation and daycare do add up over that time frame, I don't think it'll total $2.5 million.

And, of course, none of this includes annual bonuses, employer benefits, employer matching of retirement savings and company stock purchases, stock options, or, most importantly, future raises. I'm only 25, and I've doubled my earning power in the last three years through switching jobs and lobbying for a raise. While I can't expect that pace to continue, I think there are pretty good odds that I'll be able to boost my annual earnings over the next 40 years by a lot more than 3%. It also doesn't factor in any potential investments/savings allocations that would be put on hold during the time when one parent stays home, or the impact of forgoing extra mortgage payments etc. during those lean years.

Obviously there's a lot to consider, and the decision shouldn't just be an economic one. But since so many people are using income calculations to justify a choice to stay home, I think it's worth it to consider this angle as well.

Thanks to J.D. at Get Rich Slowly for pointing to the visual calculator resource page.

Container gardening: start-up costs

My recent focus on personal finance has affected more than just the ways I spend money. As I mentioned in my first post, it has also kindled an interest in new hobbies. One of these is container gardening.

I became interested in starting a garden partly because of the infamous 'nesting' instinct that hits many pregnant women in their third trimesters. Unlike some of the other nesting-related urges I've had (remodeling our kitchen, replacing our old carpets ...) this one is relatively low-cost, yet will hopefully improve our living space. Our balcony is sadly underused - it holds our BBQ and is sometimes used to store junk. Big windows from our dining room and living room look onto the balcony, but the view isn't much. We're street-facing, and although there is some greenery, it's nothing to get excited about. I think it'll be much nicer when we've got our veggies and herbs growing out there, and if we plan it well, I think it'll also be cooler. In the summertime the sun streams in all those windows, and it can get very hot. I hope to position hanging baskets and a trellis for our climbers to partially screen the hottest windows. My tomatoes will love it.

In keeping with our resolve to track spending, I've made another spreadsheet to track hobby expenses so that we can re-evaluate the costs of our hobbies vs. their benefits. The start-up cost so far for my garden is $35.70:

• Soil: $11.97
  
• Seeds: $18.11
  
• Pots: $7.36
• Other: $2.24

I have some big pots left over from previous years that I plan to use, but I'll probably need to buy or beg a few more to accommodate all my seeds.

If there's one area that's easy to get carried away it's seeds. Each packet is usually only a dollar or two (though I discovered after buying the first batch for $1.99 a packet at Superstore that the dollar store sells seeds three for $1), but I splurged on some fancy seeds too - $4.99 for a medley of five types of sweet red peppers and hot peppers all on a pre-spaced seed disc intended to fit a 4" pot. Even though I bought more seeds than I really need, I don't regret it - I wanted to experiment with different types of plants so that I can see which kinds I like growing. If my tomatoes don't thrive, well, I'm pretty sure the chives will.

The seeds we bought are:

• Peppers (Early California Wonder, Super Chili Hybrid, Jalapeno Jalapa Hybrid, Red Bell and Mini Bell)
• Tomatoes (Tiny Tim)
• Lettuce (Cos/Romaine)
  
• Peas (Sugar Snap)
• Beans (Tendergreen)
• Onions (Yellow Sweet Spanish)
• Carrots (Touchon)
• Squash (Zucchini)
  
• Dill
• Basil (Cinnamon)
  
• Chives

I long to plant Cape Gooseberries, but I haven't seen them for sale in stores, and I'm not quite ready to order more seeds online! I'm tempted to get some strawberries too, but I think I'll hold off until I get the rest of these in their pots. So far my seedlings are growing strong and hearty. The lettuce was the quickest to sprout. I've been told that I didn't really need to start it inside, but oh well - this whole thing's a learning experience!

It only took a few days in my gro-dome before the lettuce sprouts started to push through the soil. The chives and basil were next, though they didn't grow quite as enthusiastically as the lettuce. The sturdy zucchini started more slowly, but is now taller than my fiesty lettuce, with great thick leaves and hearty stems. The tomatoes were the slowest to sprout, but are now the same height as the basil. The leaves are a little broader, though, and the stems are slightly thicker.

When I first started this project, I began with a Google search. In case others are looking for useful advice for container gardening newbies, here are some of the sources I used:

• Cornell University's vegetable growing guide
• Ed Hume Seeds: Starting Seeds Indoors
  
• Baltimore Sun: The Nitty-Gritty of Starting Seeds
• Reader's Digest: Tricks for Starting Seeds (I didn't use these, but they were neat to read)
  

The next step will be to transplant my little seedlings into full-sized pots. I don't really know much about that stage of things, so I'll have to do some Googling first. It's warm enough in Vancouver for all but the tomatoes, I think, and definitely a good temperature for lettuce and zucchini, as they both like it cool.

I've gotten some advice on companion planting via Google, so I have made a list of which plants to plant together based on that:

• Chives and/or basil with tomatoes
• Dill with lettuce
• Peppers go with any of: onions, basil, tomatoes, carrots
  
• Keep onions away from peas, but they can be potted with tomatoes, dill , carrots or lettuce
• Peas go with beans

I remember reading something about 'hardening off' plants before moving them outside for good, by exposing them to cooler air in small doses. I have also seen special plant food meant to help the transplanting process ... but I don't know if it's really necessary. I also know that I need to 'thin out' my seedlings, but I'm not sure when that should happen or how I do it. Clearly Google will be coming in handy!