It highly depends on your local real estate market, part of the world, and cycle in the market.
Speaking from personal experience, buying my home was the single best investment I made besides creating Actualized.org. I mean both financially but also emotionally. Financially, I earned 80% on my investment within 4 years. Emotionally, it gives me great peace of mind and it also enhances my life every day to live in a nice, spacious house that I can customize and decorate to my tastes.
But I wouldn't do it if it meant going into lots of debt and tying yourself up with 30 years of work to pay it off.

Okay I basically have the most important exams in my life in about 21 days.
I have studied most things, so it is not bad, but the exam is extremely competitive, i am in my last high school year, from iraq, and studying here is extremely intense.
Just to get an idea, I have about 7 books, average about 400 long pages each, and extremely dense usually college level material.

I have studied almost all of it throughout the year, which is why I focused less on personal development this year, reading, meditation, contemplation ,etc.

but I haven't mastered anything.
College is free in Iraq, but very competitive if you want to get something good, i am talking about at the very least an average of 97+, which is why 12th grade is a meme level nightmare here, yet a very high number of people here end up getting good scores, so its very possible and normal.
My plan A is getting a scholarship to a first world country, but either way, my current purpose, since this is what is close and urgent, is to fucking study

here is the problem: I CAN'T STUDY
I keep getting distracted, I tried eliminating all of distractions, i ended up with excessive maladaptive daydreaming, I basically procrastinate all day, but usually useful procrastination at least.
i am a focused and disciplined person, in stuff I like only, but right now I really need to study, I am unable to,  I always studied good enough in normal years, but this year, which actually matters, I can't do anything.
I schedule each day, but every time i find a way to not study, and the amount of pressure from family and people is very high, the Asian stereotype matches in my case.
I don't even have school right now, I have all day.
Please help 

 

If you are getting 90+, that means you're a good student and the actual problem is that you are placing crazy unrealistic expections on yourself. Getting beyond 90+ is really a matter of being in the top 1% of a field, and that level of performance is not something you can will yourslf into, that's a matter of extremely specialized fit. Very few people are fit for that kind of performance in any field. So there will a strong self-selection process at work on you. Which is what you are feeling.
This is not your fault. You've just positioned yourself into a poor situation requiring things of you which are not appropriate or healthy. Very few people are cut out to be in the top 1% of any field, simply because that requires a very specialized fit in terms of your values, personality, and even genetics. And it often requires serious sacrfices which are not right for most people.
The real problem here is poor positioning. You could stop putting yourself into direct competiton with so many people. That's a losing sort of game unless you are perfectly fit.
In life, you wanna find niches which have least competiton, not most. Why compete against millions of others by doing what everyone else is doing? The wiser way to win is by thinking so outside the box that few people do what you do. Then it's easy to win.
Philosophy will not pay your bills in Iraq. It can barely pay the bills in America.
You need a serious plan for making money which isn't philosophy. Philosophy you can do as a side hobby.
The academic path is not a great way to make money, especially if you are not in the top 1%. Remember, academia is a pyramid scheme. Surviving inside academia is very cutthroat and is only suited for very few specialized people. Everyone else will lose time and money in it.
I deliberately kept it vague because at this point your options are wide open.
Frankly, it doesn't sound like you are suited for business at this point. But maybe you could be if you started working towards that. You've been so trapped in the academia game that you are overlooking so many other opportunties in life. I cannot tell you exactly what those are, I can only tell you that 1000s of opportunities exists outside of academia. Academia is a tiny sandbox without a larger world. Step out and explore what else is out there. You can find amazing things.
I would never place myself in a position where I cared about doing better than 90%. It's just a waste of life energy playing such a game. You are now feeling why I would not go that route. Why make yourself so stressed and miserable? 90% is enough in the world of business. 90% is not enough in a pyramid scheme.

My attitude towards sex is pretty chill. I regard it as a human need, similar to hunger. It needs to be satisfied in a healthy way, and stop making a big deal of it.

@Butters

I’m quite confident that if you conducted some regression analysis on which of those new billionaires have inherited their wealth or have significant financial backing from their families, it would be even more obvious.
Switzerland is a bad example, since it is a tax oasis, and I bet that a significant portion of those people you mentioned are actually foreigners.
Also, being a millionaire is laughable. I have many self-made millionaire friends and they barely manage to sustain their upper-middle-class lifestyle.

Lol thats pretty funny. America is so huge that its hard to generalize.
New Jersey does suck, so this would be like me living in a shitty town in Serbia for a month and then proclaiming that all of Europe sucks.
Places like NYC, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Tampa, Atlanta, Scottsdale, LA, Denver, etc are USA at its best
 

I had high hopes for the US given all the movies I watched as a kid, turns out it’s a pretty sucky place now that I’m here. Why would so many people want to live here? It’s full of bums, unhinged weirdos causing ruckus (not talking about all Americans, or Americans in general, some of them are foreigners), It’s super expensive and filthy, there’s so much police and police activity that it makes the air denser to breathe, New york in particular is such an obnoxious place, people are super unhelpful and on edge, I thought this shit was supposed to be Europe-certified walkable, you can’t even walk from the airport to the city, the women are beautiful sure but most of them are not even American, they’re European and Asian.
I would imagine London to be the same if not worse because of all the rain fall, you can’t comfortably use your phone on the street because 3000 phones are stolen everyday. You need to grip your phone or hold it like a dick head because your country sucks. Luckily the brits have some quality countries right next door while the Americans have more shit countries around them.
The US is just focused on bringing as much Mexicans, Chinese, and Indians to enjoy this dysfunctional shit show with them.
 
These 1st world countries are like triple AAA video games, full of crap, while small indie countries have much better living conditions.
The more I live the more I realize that my mother in all her godly ignorance was right about a lot of things.
The fact that I wasn’t comfortable wearing my watch around these people is proof these are failed societies. Andrew Tate is right.
Don’t get me started on Texas and Western America, the reason yall are so fat is because your government doesn’t know how to make a side walk, I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

IQ is a poor measurent of intelligence.
Intelligence has to be redefined so that it's also connected to level of consciousness and level of development. And even moral development should be a factor.
Boiling intelligence down to one's ability to do complex physics calcuations is, ironically, not very intelligent.

Education, philosophy, and spirituality.

You gotta realize that all human stupidity has a deep intelligence behind it. People are stupid for good reasons. No exceptions.
And remind yourself that reality is Perfect. To hold reality as imperfect is itself you being stupid. So now you got something in common with everyone else

All I'm saying is that life has crocodiles in it.
This shouldn't be controversial.

@Ramanujan Passion works everywhere, but you have to work seriously on your passion, developing the skills and creating great stuff. Passion is not a theoretical thing. You have to use it deliver serious results.
How many games have you created in 10 years?

Of course. Which is why pickup is a thing.
Getting laid frequently requires deliberate effort. Even appraoching 10 girls per night is way too low.
What you guys aren't getting is that getting laid frequently, consistently, with new girls is not natural nor normal. It doesn't happen organically. It only happens by design.
Mere socialization cannot get you laid every week. Humans naturally have sex with new people pretty rarely.

No, I just respect myself too much to drink.

This type of mindset is just cringe in general. You are trying to engineer your life and learn rules to get you friends and girls. They can probably smell the neediness a mile away and are repelled by that. There are no rules or tricks. If you follow any, you will be even more awkward.
The most attractive thing is just honing your craft and not focusing on girls at all. Not sure if you noticed but chasing tail is very unfulfilling and results in hanging out with low quality women. If there is a partner that is perfect for you, then you are destined to meet them whenever you get your shit together, stop chasing meaningless sex and work on fulfilling your full potential. 
Daddy gave you a stern talling, now go think and change your life. 

That was through sexual hyposis.
But text is easy if she plays with herself.
That's a deep topic. It would require a whole course. And it's kind of an awkward thing to teach in my position. Although it would blow people's minds.
Maybe like a 7.5

Yup. The best sex happens in the mind.
The key to great sex is to take it from a mechanical process into an imaginary, fantasy process with your partner.

I've had a lot of experience with dentists.
Here's the bottom line:
1) Visit 5-10 dentists and find one who you like/respect. Only visit dentists who get 4/5 star reviews. And don't do business with the busiest dentists who have 500+ reviews. Once a dentist is that popular/busy, they start to get overworked and sloppy. Find dentists who have 4/5 star reviews but not too many, so they are hungry for business and don't take you for granted. Once they have 500+ reviews they will stop caring about you and start treating you like a cog in a machine. And make sure there is only 1 dentist you're dealing with, not a bunch of them in one office who substitute in for each other. You must deal with 1 guy who you hold responsible from beginning to end. Know your dentist by name and make sure he knows you.
2) Never just take their word for anything. Anything they recommend to you, first you ask them for an itemized price list printed out on paper, then you tell them that you will take a few days to think it about. Never make any purchase decisions while you're sitting in the dentist's chair.
3) Don't be afraid to boss them around and tell them what you want. Make them listen to you. They work for you, not the other way around. If your dentist is not willing to listen to you, axe him. When shopping for dentists, ask him questions to test whether he is the kind of person who will listen to you, or the kind who only does what he wants to do. Also observe how distracted he is and how hurried he is. If he is distracted or hurried, running around between multiple patients, don't work with him. The key is to find an honest, hard-working, patient dentist who hasn't yet turned his practice into a factory machine.
Follow these simple laws and you should have great results.

Life is a harsh thing.
You guys are getting too spoiled and comfortable. Most people and creatures in the world are barely surviving.
Go look at the people in Gaza right now. What's off is that you're out of touch.

I freaking love philosophy. I love it so much in fact that I would pull my hair out if I had to sit in a philosophy lecture and hear some professor teach me about metaphysics or epistemology.
That's a looooot of money that you're paying a university to barely even scratch the surface of what the true meaning of philosophy is...
Oh and don't even get me started on essays. Just make sure you use reputable sources. That means anything outside the currently accepted paradigm is not allowed.
For the record, I am in the same position as you are. This is how I see the situation.
I see university in terms of its opportunity cost. What ELSE could I be doing with that time and money?
- meditation retreats
- reading real philosophy books
- start a business 
 
Sorry if I didn't answer your question about what it's like to pursue the major... but  I have had discussions in depth with friends who have actually majored in philosophy. After majoring in philosophy and then watching every video on actualized.org. My 25 year-old friend told me that he didn't learn 1 thing in school. Especially compared to the quality of info here for free at your fingertips.
 
 
 

Metaphysical oneness. The unity of all things. The imaginary nature of all differences.
If all differences are imaginary, that means everything is ultimately One. This metaphysical connection between all things IS Love proper. And human emotions of love are just a reflection of that Love.

Ralston is one of the few books you want to sit down and carefully read. Most other books don't demand that.

1) Employment is always uncertain. You just do the best you can and hope for the best. And if that doesn't work, you keep trying and trying, or you think about other kinds of work.
2) Optimism is required when applying for jobs. You have to believe in yourself. But of course you also have to prepare yourself properly for interviews, learn how to optimize your resume, portfolio of work, and job applications. So it's not just blind hope, it's about training and preparing yourself well.
3) I wouldn't think about percentages or odds in this case. Your attention should be on how to optimize your entire application process to entice employers, to make yourself a stand-out candidate. The best way to do that is to build up an impressive portfolio of work by doing small personal side projects. Have some work to show your employers. If your work is good enough there is no doubt people will want to hire you. So it's really just about having good work to show. Which is something that's entirely within your control. It's not something you just sit back and hope for. You build it.
4) You can find online courses which teach you how to submit good resumes, how to do good job interviews, and more. You should study this domain and learn all the traps of the job application process and how to do it properly. This is a kind of skill you must learn in addition to your engineering skills.

I think the YouTube Community post would have reached lots of your followers and probably most of us here on the forum, and the life purpose course users (only people who matter to see the announcement). Unless you didn’t want to break the complete silence on YouTube for whatever reason.
Your Instagram story post / feed post could have reached lots of your true fans (dont think many follows u on Instagram unless they are true fans).
Cuz if a small percentage would have known, they would have at least spread the news in the comments where lots of people were worried.
——
I am sorry if I was intrusive to your personal life but I actually hit up one of your wingmen in their ig dms to ask if they know that you are all good.
I’m personally going through and griefing a big loss in my life right now and losing you as well as most likely my biggest role model, influence, mentor, guide and North Star for the most recent years and many foreseeable to come… would have been devastating.
Sorry if I sound too dramatic. As an ENFJ, I am a deeply emotional being.
—-
I promise I am not worshipping you or making you my guru, nor are you my only source of information. But let’s be real here. Your whole job is to take the best of everything and integrate them into a holistic, conscious, integrous understanding. And you are one of the most conscious people in the world, so.
Ultimately, I just need you to kick my ass and call me out on my bullshits a bit longer 
…As a fellow traveler, a fellow friend on this human journey to God. 
Thank You 🤍