Don't rule out marrying for money. (You can marry for love too, because there's plenty of rich people to fall in love with.)

For women looking for rich men, San Fransisco is the place. There are 12,000 more young straight men in SF than equivalent women, and that doesn't include Silicon Valley. Since you're reading Less Wrong, you're probably nerdy enough to pick up a socially awkward, but fiscally successful software developer.

For men looking for rich women, New York City is the best. If you're young and childless, you can enjoy dating women who earn 17% more than you and don't mind splitting the check. Because there are more college educated women than men in NYC, pairing with a career woman should be relatively easy.

If you're really ambitious, go to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Singapore. Expat women will move to these cities to advance their career, but often find it difficult to get a man. (Expat men prefer dating local women, but expat women practically never date local men) I've heard at least two reports of women resorting to traditionally male strategies, like buying drinks or counting the number of approaches they do.

I've done a bit of research on becoming an actuary, and it's not as good as it seems. In the mid 2000's it started appearing on the top of numerous "most desirable jobs" lists, probably thanks to DW Simpson's submarine. People looked at these lists, and some of them tried to become actuaries. But the actuarial field only has 20,000 jobs, so even if only 1000 people decide they want to become actuaries, the entry-level market becomes flooded. Passing two exams used to guarantee a job offer, now it's the bare minimum. Realistically, you won't get an entry-level job without two exams plus two of the following: STEM degree, internship, excellent GPA, programming skills, another 2 exams. Increased competition for entry-level jobs will inevitably lead to lower wages for the new generation of actuaries, just as lawyer salaries fell when lots of people started going to law school.

The job also has a high risk of being Turing'd. There's nothing the exams test that a computer can't do. In fact, the actuaries I've talked to say most of their job is monotonous arithmetic that could be done by a high-schooler. A highly paid, routine, math job is just begging for a computer to take it.

Still, it's a good paying job doesn't require you to go back to school.

ETA: Also, it's not really fair to compare actuarial salaries to other careers that are easier to break into. If you're smart enough to be a 50th percentile actuary, you're smart enough to be a 95th percentile accountant.

If you're interested in travel & speak fluent English, I have heard that is it possible to make excellent money teaching English, even without any kind of credentials. I personally only tutor 1 child because it is all I have time for, but I make about 125 RMB per hour, which translates to about $20 US. While my pay is not great (for the US), I have heard that if you get a group of 8 or so kids together & teach them in bulk, you can make upwards of 800 RMB per hour (~$127 US). This would also be tax free. Not quite on par with the high-end college-educated call girl, but I'm guessing most of us aren't suited to be one of those.

The job advice stuff reminds me - what happened to that guy who went to Alice Springs to do menial work based on a LW post? How did that work out in the end?

Bryan Caplan on which majors are most lucrative after adjusting for ability bias. (Though, I guess maybe an extremely able person would do well to major in something that signals that they're extremely able...?)

I think the idea of an economic gossip thread is misguided. A career advice thread might be helpful, but the problem with economic gossip is that the only people who really know anything worth hearing work in jobs with fairly tight NDAs, limitations on talking to the press, limitations on posting in public forums, etc. Basically, people who know things work at institutions with lawyers who stop them from spreading that knowledge.

I like the idea of this thread, I hope lots of people add their own observations and ideas, here are mine.

Most importantly: economic winter is coming. I don't know the exact form it will take, but it is not going to be pleasant, especially for the unprepared. There will probably be inflation, tax hikes, service reductions, and high unemployment.

To prepare for inflation, you should buy hard assets such as real estate or stocks. I've been thinking about buying land, which seems like a good way to store value without high maintenance costs (compared to buildings).

High taxes are going to dampen economic activity of all types. This means people should move away from the "trade time for money, then trade money for utility" strategy. Instead you should figure out ways to exchange time directly for utility. There are lots of ways to do this.

Traditionally, most men follow a career trajectory that involves continuous, full-time employment over the course of several decades. This traditional trajectory is paired with the traditional family model where the husband is the breadwinner and the wife takes care of the kids. The traditional career might still make sense if you are going to have a traditional family, but otherwise it is probably very suboptimal: you are working more hours and paying more taxes for a minimal increase in income that you won't even have time to enjoy. You are probably also going to end up picking up the slack for your coworkers who have to spend lots of time on their family responsibilities. I get the sense that many LWers are following the traditional career model but are not planning to follow the family model.

Any thoughts on job application services?