“Do what you love and the money will follow,” is very popular advice that stemmed from a book written by Marsha Sinetar in 1987.
It means that if you pursue what you’re passionate about, you’re bound to turn that into a lucrative career, because you will be loving what you do. But does passion always end in profit?
This woman’s husband has extremely traditional and stringent opinions about college education. He has forever said he would be happy to pay for both of their children to receive undergraduate and graduate degrees, so long as they picked a career that meant they would make a ton of money while helping their independence.
Her husband has a job as an engineer, their oldest son works as an attorney, she’s a stay-at-home mom, and her youngest has not yet graduated from high school.
“Our daughter wants to work towards an MFA. She is in HS, and she has always loved writing and reading. She wants to work on a book while also teaching,” she explained.
“Teachers where we live are grossly underpaid, like [the] majority of places. My husband told our daughter dreams don’t pay the bills, that she needs an actual career that will allow her to fund her goals, so to speak.”
“I spoke with him and told him we 100% have the money to make her life easy and let her chase after her dream. Told him she has a better chance at making her dream a reality if she is not bogged down by the stress of money.”
It’s not exactly breaking news to her that money drives her husband, but she thinks it’s not right to refuse to help financially support their daughter in the pursuit of her dreams, just because she doesn’t want to pick a career that will have her rolling in cash.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
Frankly, she finds it insane for her husband to take this position.
Well, the world no longer works the way that it used to, in that you can make good money and not just be a doctor or a lawyer. There are so many unique and well-paying careers out there in 2026, and so, I think it would be unfortunate for her daughter to shelve her dreams in order to have a job that looks better on paper to her husband.
Perhaps a good compromise is asking her husband to still pay for their daughter’s education even though it’s not his ideal career, but stop all financial support after graduating, so she can still figure out how to support herself, like he wants.
What advice do you have for her?
You can read the original post below.
By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
