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My sister-in-law Steph is a young millennial homeowner with a Master’s degree and no mortgage or student debt. I think that both she and her parents deserve credit for the arrangement that had her living with them until she was financially ready to be on her own.Steph isn’t lazy or irresponsible like the stereotypical adult living at home. She worked part time as a teacher until she graduated and took a full time job at the same school, she works out (she uses our pool more than I do!), and she did more than her fair share of work around the house. I’ve been teaching her to bake and expand her cooking repertoire, and she has been cooking and baking for her retired parents several times a week. They are obviously very excited for her to move into her own place, and they aren’t worried as she built her house across from ours, but they are already regretting that they won’t have her cooking anymore.Are there some lazy and irresponsible people who stay with their parents because they cannot be bothered to take care of themselves? Yes, but that’s not what is going on most of the time. You may look at an adult child and see an able bodied person, but there could be a thousand reasons why they live at home. Perhaps their parents need the assistance or the child experienced a trauma or difficult life event? Maybe they studied hard in school and were unable to find suitable employment? Their student loans could be draining them, or they could simply have taken advantage of an opportunity to save up money.I own rental properties, so I am well aware of the cost of housing today. I personally review the applications of all likely tenants for final approval, and one of the things I look at are the applicant’s finances. I need tenants who can afford their rent so I review the credit report and proof of income, and what I usually see with applicants under the age of 35 is that they are either overextended with necessary expenses or barely able to qualify. My units are pricier than most of comparable size because of the amenities and quality so I don’t even get any applicants who aren’t already making more money than most people. Most of my tenants are young to middle aged professionals who want a nice home but are unable to buy, so I see how even those who are best situated can barely afford decent apartments.I have looked into it, and if you want a one bedroom apartment that isn’t in the slums you’ll pay no less of $850 – and that is extremely cheap compared to most areas. That won’t include utilities, so if you’re also paying for electricity, health, car, renters insurance, a very modest car note and a minimal amount of gas, you need $2,000 a month. This won’t cover any expenses outside of your regular bills, and it leaves you no room for car repairs or other unforeseen expenses. That would mean that you needed to bring home $3,000, and you’d be in dangerous territory until you had saved up about $10,000 for emergencies. Putting aside $200 each month, it would take you a little more than four years to build up your emergency reserves.But you have student loans eating up your income, and you ought to be saving up for retirement too. You also want to be able to spend enough money to build up your credit so that you can eventually get a mortgage. If you have significant student loans and you don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck or without a safety net, you need to make $60,000 a year. You need less if you don’t have any student debts, but then that would usually mean that you’re making only half of that. The reality is that wages have not kept up with the cost of living, and that the cost of education and housing has increased pretty dramatically, so at this point it’s become extremely difficult for young people to be both financially independent and stable.My husband and I are incredibly fortunate to be financially secure at a young age, but we did go years without spending a penny more than we absolutely had to. We could have lived with his parents (or my dad, but then we’d have needed to move to Europe). Had we done that we could have started his business years earlier and still had enough money at the time to go out and have fun, occasionally. Steph could have taken her salary and the profit shares she receives and rented an apartment when she started college, but then she wouldn’t be debt free and moving into a brand new 4 bedroom/3 1/2 bath.

Finance is a pretty broad field of study - ranging from financial accounting and reporting, to the study of various financial markets, stock markets, valuations, trading etc.As in my answer regarding learning Economics, I would suggestStart with a few good books to learn the basics of all the fieldsRead through some good blogs to help you understand the nuances, real-life applications, and the current trends,Utilize MOOCs to take up some good courses, both to assess your proficiency, and also to earn certifications that you can use to showcase your achievementsA. BooksCorporate FinancePrinciples of Corporate Finance : Richard A. BrealeyAll about derivativesOptions, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition) : John C. HullValuation of financial assetsThe Theory of Investment Value: John Burr WilliamsInvestment valuationInvestment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset : Aswath DamodaranTradingThe Intelligent Investor: Benjamin GrahamFinancial marketsFoundations of Financial Markets and Institutions (4th Edition): Frank J. Fabozzi, Franco P. Modigliani, Frank J. JonesAccountingIntermediate Accounting : Donald E. Kieso, Jerry J. Weygandt, Terry D. WarfieldVenture CapitalVenture Capital and the Finance of Innovation : Andrew Metrick, Ayako YasudaB. BlogsProf. Jayanth R. Varma's Financial Markets Blog: Prof Jayant Verma is a Professor of Finance (mainly Financial markets) at IIMA. He is one of the most impressive teachers I have ever met.He was one of the first members of SEBI and is on the board of multiple big companies including Infosys and Axis Bank.His blog, which has been up since 2005, is a brilliant resource on understanding the nuances of the financial markets.Dealbook (NYT): Dealbook is the news aggregator section of NYTimes to keep you updated on the current state of affairs of the Fin industry.Mergers & Inquisitions: Everything you need to know about every aspect of the Financial world - from big investment banks to boutique firms, from Private Equity to Hedge Funds and AM/WM firms.Investment Banking Blog: The holy mecca for preparation of i-Banking interviews, the IB Blog offers everything from bootcamps and interview prep courses (paid) to free resources like basic interview questions, overview of the industry etc.Wall Street Oasis: Similar to #2 above, but with more functionality to read the best articles of the month/week/day etc.FT Alphaville: Another news aggregator that will make sure you do not have any time left in your day (courtesy it's exhaustive coverage of current affairs)C. CoursesAccountingA 10 lesson introductory course on accounting, for free.Introduction to Financial AccountingFinancial MarketsWho better to learn from, than a Nobel Laureate?Robert J. Shiller is a 2013 Nobel prize winner in Economics for his work on "empirical analysis of asset prices".He offers a 23-part series of 1 hour+ lectures for free on Youtube. Probably the best way to start learning about Financial markets and their machinations.Financial TheoryJohn Geanakoplos is the current "James Tobin" Professor of Economics at Yale. In hi 26 lecture series, he covers the basics of finance, ranging from the time value of money, the risk-return tradeoff, asset pricing, yield curves, and risk hedging.Finance TheoryAnother course on Finance Theory, this time by MIT.edX - Pricing Options with Mathematical ModelsedX - Yield Curve AnalysisUdemy - The Beginner's Guide to the Stock MarketUdemy - Fundamentals of Forex TradingD. Bonus - Personal FinancePersonal finance is not usually taught as part of any curriculum. But this is something that will affect you the most, and is one of the most vital life-skill one should have.From the wiki page,Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit is required to do to obtain, budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events.Here's a 20 part tutorial series from Khan Academy to get you started.The modules covered (in order are):Institutional Roles in Issuing and Processing Credit CardsRoth IRAs401ksBasics of the U.S. Income Tax RateInflation OverviewMortgage Interest RatesTime Value of MoneyTerm and Whole Life InsuranceOpen-Ended Mutual FundsEstate TaxUnemployment Rate PrimerTraditional IRAsWhat It Means to Buy a Company's StockRelationship Between Bond Prices and Interest RatesIntroduction to BondsIntroduction to Compound InterestThe Rule of 72 for Compound InterestAnnual Percentage Rate (APR) and Effective APRWhat is Bankruptcy?Introduction to Mortgage Loans

I forgot to turn off the lights in my car and killed the battery.It was a late Friday morning, I’d slept in after a late night out. I was an unemployed teacher, newly divorced, no health insurance, fighting against admitting that the pains in my legs were sciatica due to ruptured discs that needed surgery.The plan was to get away for a few days, take my kayak up to Canada and go camping on a remote island. Think about life. Run a few rapids. Hike a little. Try to ignore the pain in my body, the emptiness in my soul, and the lack of a real future.I’d packed everything the afternoon before so I could just get up and get on the road, so I was very annoyed when I turned the key and didn’t even get a click from the starter. I tried the lights, nope. I tried the horn, it made a weak squawk then died. Totally dead battery.Crap.Grumbling to myself, I got the battery charger out of the box marked “garage” on the porch of my apartment and hooked it up to the dead battery in my car. With an hour to kill, I went inside to check e-mails and cruise the net.There was the usual pile of low priority semi-spam in my inbox, including a notification from the NY state public school teaching job message board. I hadn’t seen anything useful on the site for over a month; it was past the main April/May hiring time and before the August panic. The body of the message didn’t show anything, but on a whim I clicked on it to check out the full listings.Near the bottom of the list there was an ad for an opening for a Physics(Chemistry/Biology) teacher, 5+ years experience preferred, deadline for applications this coming Monday at 8 AM. Somehow I’d missed hearing about this opening; it had been on the board for almost a month. I checked out the location… rural school, about a half hour away from Albany, in the foothills of the Green/Berkshire/Taconic mountains. My kind of place. I checked out the travel time… about two hours away.If I could get cleaned up, get my professional things together and get my car to start in less than an hour then I could just about make it there before everyone left for the weekend. If nothing else, I could take a look at the place and I could make sure that my application was on the top of the pile in the principal’s inbox for the Monday morning deadline.My car didn’t start until after a full hour on the charger, so I got to the school just as all of the kids were stampeding out the door and onto the buses. The first person I talked to out in front of the school just happened to be the principal. He noticed the kayak up on top of my car, and since he is an outdoors-person we hit it off immediately. What followed was the best non-interview interview of my life; I was the man with all of the right answers.“We’re replacing a third of the staff next year, we could use someone with experience.”“I’ve been teaching eleven years.”“This is a rural school. It’s not like teaching in the suburbs.”“Yeah, the school I taught at was in the middle of the Adirondack Mountains… much smaller than this place actually.”“The listing says Physics, but the person we hire will need to cover another science. We’re not sure which one right now, either Chem or Bio.”“Not a problem. I’m certified in all three of those. And Earth Science. And General Science too. And I’ve taught them all. Several times in fact.”It went like that for the entire hour that I was there, and after it was done I drove away with a very good job in my pocket, the day before it was going to go away. After ten years in this job I still think I am one of the luckiest teachers in New York State. I have a great administration (both are former science teachers), a very supportive community, easy students to work with, excellent co-workers, a great workspace, lots of materials and supplies, and the freedom to innovate. Every morning I wake up to fresh air and a view of the mountains. My commute to work is 5 minutes by car, 8 minutes by bike, and 10 minutes by hiking through the woods. I do not need to lock my house when I leave, or lock my car or my bike on the end of the commute. I live close enough to a city that I can get a dose of culture or find things that I need when I want them, but far enough away that I don’t have to deal with the drawbacks of urban or suburban life.Ten years later I still think that I’ve found my perfect job.And if my car had started that morning, I’d never have found it.