Princeton Quant Conference 2023

05/07/23 • 12 min

I had an absolute blast at the Princeton Quant Conference! The campus was amazing and my first time visiting, the students from schools all over the north east were interesting and excited in quant finance, and the other speakers and organizers were engaging. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and hear new ideas. If you have a chance to attend as a student, I highly recommend it.

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How to Price Education?

As an educator (content creator), holder of two degrees, and industry practitioner I see the struggle of providing quality education to the right people at the right price. The false narrative that everyone needs a college degree needs to stop. The majority of jobs do not need a college degree. Many jobs need training and universities are not qualified to provide all types of education. Education in the US is very expensive and this is due to many reasons. Some of those reasons are poor spending on sports stadiums, new unnecessary buildings, and over bloated administration offices however there is also the cost of hiring good teachers. One reason I chose not to go into academia was the low monetary compensation. Industry practitioners in specialized fields can make ore money working for a company than a university. Overall, these specialized teachers should make more however that raises the cost of education.
On the flip side of all these costs is the question, who should pay for the education. I've spent a lot of time thinking about if the student should pay for it, the general public (taxes however it only benefits a select few), or companies who need the talent. I've thought hard about how companies can help lower cost for students however due to the advantages of capitalism, it makes the most sense for the student to pay for the education themselves. With the ability of employees to jump between companies, a company would loose significant amount of time and money by paying for the education. Institutions should be providing some sort of on the job training however for specialized jobs it isn't feasible to expect the company to find people who can teach which is a very different skill that actually being able to do the work.
What do you think? Who should pay for the education and how do we reduce the overall cost of education?

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Personal Finance from a Risk Manager

As this channel focuses on quantitative finance and risk management, I tend to focus on financial topics specific to the industry and not personal finance. Due to many requests over the years I will explain how I manage my personal finances.
I use a waterfall approach. I have a value selected for the maximum amount I need in my checking account. That amount is enough to cover my daily expenses such as rent, food, utilities, clothing, and typical splurges. You can determine this from a 12 month average of your spending. You need a positive cash flow to live life. Part of creating a positive cash flow is reducing unnecessary expenses such as streaming services, buying junk you only use once, and other luxury items that aren't needed to live. You can also invest (spend) money and time on improving your skills for your day job or career that you are working towards.
After you have some positive cash flow (extra cash beyond your daily living), I divide it into three accounts.
1) Retirement (401k, IRA, and other financial investments)
2) High Yield Savings Accounts
3) Paying Down Debt (extra payments towards principle)
I tend to put about a third in each however you can weight them however you want. The retirement investments are for your long-term well being. The high yield savings account is for your short-term well being. It can be used to pay for unexpected expenses, vacations, interesting investment opportunities, and MOST importantly it should be there as a safety net! Try to grow your high yield account as large as possible as it will generate income for you. Don't forget that if it gets near $250k, you should open another account at another institution so that all of your savings is protected by the FDIC. The final "account" is paying off your debt faster. Get out of debt! Debt is a risk in the sense you always have to make a payment regardless of your employment status. You also pay extra in interest to use debt. By paying off your debt early you'll also increase your cash flow and financial stability.
****THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE****
This is just how I manage my financials.

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