Postdoctors, Researchers, Scientists and Investors
[1]. My personal experience
After PhD graduation, I was a postdoc for three years, then started working in a research institute. After a couple of years, I got my first major grant. Then my second grant. Then my third grant. After a few years, a university contacted me and recruited me. Because they liked me, they offered me associate professor with tenure. After three years, I got a few more grants, and was promoted to full professor. Luckily, I did not have to go through the tenure-track assistant professor trial, which is highly competitive and quite brutal.
[2]. My suggestions to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers
When you select a supervisor or a boss, ask three important questions: (1) Is the major or the field promising and growing with a lot of opportunities? Identify an important trend and attach yourself to it, because the trend is your friend. (2) Is the supervisor/boss a good mentor and willing to teach and nurture the students? (3) Does the mentor help the students to find a good job and help lifting them to the next level? Ask current students and postdoctors. Ask former students and post doctors. Most people pay attention to only 1. They neglect 2 and 3. However, 2 and 3 are equally important. It will hurt you and damage your career if your advisor is mean, selfish and unwilling to help.
[3]. Mind your own business
Whether you are a postdoctor, scientist, or professor, it is beneficial to learn to invest. If you like real estate, then learn about it. Mind your own real estate business.
My wife and I worked hard for almost two decades and accumulated a net worth of only $0.8 million. Then in 2011 we started real estate investing on the side. In nine years, our family net worth grew to almost $7 million. Investing made a big difference.
[4]. Postdoctors, researchers and scientists are usually highly educated but lowly paid
The world is unfair. The income system is unfair. A good teacher is rewarded with thank-you notes. A soldier lost a leg and saved other soldiers, and he is rewarded with a medal. Postdoctors are highly educated with decades of diligent learning. They work days and nights and weekends. However, their salaries are very low. In contrast, some investors get rewarded with millions and billions.
To make it more fair for yourself and your family, to level the playing field, you need to learn to invest.
[5]. Use other people’s money, time and talents
Postdoctors, researchers and scientists work very hard. Their time is very tight. Worries about not having enough time to invest? I use other people and pay them well, so that I spend only about three hours per week on real estate, in average. I have a busy job and I work diligently to accomplish my duties, to teach and help students and postdoctors to grow. Therefore, in investing, it is important to rely on the professionals, and use other people’s money, other people’s time and other people’s talents. They have skills, experience and expertise that I do not have. Yes you have to pay them, but them also help you grow a bigger pie.
Good luck.
By David Meng, author of book “The Intelligent Small Investor”
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