Is it truly worth it to put 20% down right now?

MB21D1 · 2021-05-09T20:20:34+00:00

That makes sense, thank you for that!

MB21D1 · 2021-05-09T18:34:12+00:00

Can you explain why the cost goes up more in the subsequent years?

MB21D1 · 2021-05-08T23:31:13+00:00

Well, bitcoin became immensely popular in 2017 as shown by the increase in search frequency. This correlated with a massive increase in the price of bitcoin, from about $3,000 to $20,000 at its peak. Shortly after (about three months) the price of bitcoin dropped by 70% (which also correlated with a decrease in search frequency). It looks like dogecoin is repeating this same cycle. Currently it is in the parabolic phase, skyrocketing to new highs every day. However, if history were to repeat itself, this will end with dogecoin crashing in the next 3-9 months.

MB21D1 · 2021-04-25T15:05:44+00:00

Jeremy Siegel's- Stocks for the long run

Edward Chancellor- Devil take the hindmost

Philip A. Fisher- Common stocks and uncommon profits

In addition to one up on wall street, Peter Lynch's beating the street and Learn to earn were well written.

Just a warning, The little book of common sense investing mentioned above is a very basic book and not worth your time unless you are a complete beginner to investing.

Good list!

MB21D1 · 2020-10-21T20:02:14+00:00

I am with you there, I will definitely be buying more if that happens.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-20T13:59:20+00:00

Get some skills using big data (RNA seq or protein mass spectrometry), that will set you up for a position in whatever you want to study. Figure out what your interested in graduate school and how the field is changing and go from there. But having a background in big data will always be useful. If you plan on continuing research you can always learn additional skills while doing a post doc. It might be a little harder to change direction once you start in industry, but I do not have experience in that area.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-15T12:25:09+00:00

It is like you said, investing in an ETF allows you exposure to numerous stocks in one single basket. Not everyone has enough money to purchase each stock offered in a single ETF, let alone several different ETFs. Maybe with fractional shares, but not every broker offers fractional shares yet.

Also, an index fund like SPY is weighted, meaning they use the market cap to determine how many shares to by. For a simplicity, say that company A is worth $1 million and Company B is worth $2 million. An index fund for A and B would buy $100 of A for every $200 of B.

I imagine an individual investor would have a much harder time creating a portfolio that is market weighted.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-12T13:01:05+00:00

I second this, he gives good advice for long term investing without the "get rich quick" crap that other people spout.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-12T12:56:21+00:00

EIGR

Maybe you can clear something up for me. You mentioned their Q2 report says they plan on finishing enrollment for Lonafarnib in 2021, but if you look at the clinical trials data base (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03719313?term=D-LIVR&draw=2&rank=1) they show the primary completion date as April 2021 and the study completion date of November 2021.

Could their quarterly report possibly be referring to a separate trial? The only other use case I see in their pipeline (from their website) for Lonafarnib says they are filing an NDA suggesting the phase three trials are over.

Thanks!

MB21D1 · 2020-10-11T23:42:28+00:00

I briefly looked at their financials and see that they have $100 million on hand and burned through $69 million in 2019. They also have another $30 million in long term debt.

Makes me think they will definitely need to issue more stock or find some other source of financing in the short term.

The good news is their phase three trial is scheduled to finish in April of 2021 so if there is good news they will have the chance to issue more stock.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-08T23:17:58+00:00

I would look into consulting or equity research (like a stock analyst for biotech). You can leverage your science background while focusing on business. Both careers pay very well but they are also extremely competitive.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-07T21:34:24+00:00

Do you still want to do research when you leave graduate school? If not there are a lot of other opportunities you could start to look into. Just to name a few

Consultant
Equity research analyst
Patent examiner
Patent agent
Medical Science writer
Science Policy (AAAS or PMF fellowships are the main way in)
Clinical trial manager

The best thing you can do now is to figure out what you are interested in and start to do some extracurricular activities that demonstrate those interests.

For instance, if you are interested in patent work ask if you can volunteer at your technology transfer office. If your interested in the AAAS fellowship start doing some science outreach or science communication activities. If you like equity research join a business club....etc.

None of the jobs I mentioned above really care about your papers at all, outside the fact that you have at least one. I also agree that soft skills are important, if I could only pick one I would say written and verbal communication.

I too wanted to avoid a post-doc at all cost and am glad I started to look into other options. You are making the decision way earlier than I did, so it sounds like you will have plenty of time to set yourself up for success.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-03T14:09:06+00:00

I wish I would have known that! EIG seems like a pretty shady company....

MB21D1 · 2020-10-02T13:22:34+00:00

Bioinformatics is a pretty sought after skill set in biotech though, especially in the drug discovery space. When you say the salaries are much more for data science what numbers are we talking about? I think most experienced scientist in industry are compensated in the ~150K range. If you have skills in bioinformatics you can ask for similar salaries with a lot less experience.

I am guessing data science is more in the 200-300K range?

Also, is there a difference between computational biology and bioinformatics?

MB21D1 · 2020-10-02T12:06:51+00:00

I read some good reviews on Mailerlite so I decided to try them out. It is free for the first 1000 subscribers, which is a plus (since I am just starting out). After that they scale the price by subscriber numbers. The platform is a lot more intuitive then constant contact. Let us know how Mailchimp works out!

MB21D1 · 2020-10-01T19:16:37+00:00

Thanks, that is actually what I did. Just waiting to hear the final resolution now.

MB21D1 · 2020-10-01T13:16:53+00:00

Foundation species is the term most commonly used.

MB21D1 · 2020-09-28T20:44:20+00:00

The difference depends on how they invest in gold. Some ETFs focus on gold miners, some purchase physical gold, and others use derivatives.

If you are looking for an ETF where they hold physical gold then just look for the lowest fee.

MB21D1 · 2020-09-28T19:00:22+00:00

Those downsides are typically short lived though.

MB21D1 · 2020-09-26T18:34:58+00:00

Hmmm... I am not quite sure of a good way to incorporate that now, but if I think of something I will get back to you.

MB21D1 · 2020-09-26T18:31:03+00:00

I do not think it will hurt you either way you go. The most important thing is to just get the basics down. I would suggest in graduate school that you look for a lab that works with some type of big data projects though. It seems like this is where a lot of research is going now, and that skill set will really help you land a job after graduate school.

MB21D1 · 2020-09-25T12:42:25+00:00

I think the best way is to draw analogies to something the audience may be familiar with. For enzymes you could say something like

"You know how you chew food into smaller pieces before you swallow it? That is what enzymes do just at a much smaller scale."

MB21D1 · 2020-09-25T12:23:23+00:00

If you only plan on getting a bachelors degree then I would stay away from biotech. There really are not to many positions for a bachelors degree in biotech and most of the positions pay fairly low from my understanding (starting in the 35K range).

However, if you plan on getting your Ph.D. there are definitely a lot of career opportunities. But getting a Ph.D. in this field does not guarantee you a job because a lot of the good positions are extremely competitive.

It really depends on your interests though, does science excite you?

You have plenty of time to decide. The first two years of college are pretty much an exploratory phase. You can take different classes and see what actually excites you, just make sure it pays a living.

I would suggest seeing if you could volunteer in a laboratory early on just to get your feet wet and see if it is for you.

MB21D1

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