All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Petrillo

Do not go into more debt. Take a year off to work, see how you do and what opportunities you can create for yourself, tell your parents you will reconsider the MBA a year from now. You might have valuable opportunities come up in the next year that you would miss out on if you commit to school. Also you are young, jumping back into school if you choose to do so in a year or two would not be that hard. But you might not still have that fire and that hustle in you after finishing the MBA, it might seem easier at that point to just go get a job and collect a W-2. Then in twenty years you'll wake up and wonder how you ended up as a corporate tool and wish you had gone down your own path. You sound very motivated so do what you want to now. Make mistakes while young, you'll be happy you did years down the road (rather than making mistakes in your 30s or 40s when you are raising a family). Your parents are from a generation that believed everyone needed a paycheck and a steady job was the way to financial freedom. Lay out your argument to them and ask for their support. Think big and tell them where you imagine yourself in five, ten, twenty years. Please let us know what you decide to do and best of luck to you!

It does not really matter whether you are licensed/insured...what matters is if the work is done to CODE. You can do any and all work on your own house, but you'd better be sure that, when inspected, the work is code (for your own protection and so nothing fails inspection when you go to sell the property). The GCs and subcontractors we work with know code really well, this is the advantage of using them sometimes. But for the most part, we are capable of doing all our own work, my husband has done plenty of plumbing and electrical over the years so we are even comfortable with doing this. We have a great electrician he can call for advice, who has even done part of the job and let my husband finish it when able. However, a previous electrician would not let my husband work with him on any jobs because he said that was like my husband being a sub for him and working under him without license and insurance, so I understand that point of view as well. There are a few things that you cannot/should not do yourself, such as chimney work, septic work, because these can only be done by licensed specialists, require special permits and inspections (in NJ septic systems are signed off on by the Dept of Health and chimneys are inspected by the Fire Inspector) and you will never be able to sell the property if you can't prove that the work was done by the right contractor. You can also call your local code office and hope that a friendly clerk will tell you if a certain kind of work needs a permit, you'd be surprised at what does not need a permit.