<prompt> Human: I feel like my husband and I are at the tail end of an era when middle class people can have a financially secure life and I wonder about how to advise our kids.Our history: My husbands parents were immigrants from a 3rd world country. He put himself through our flagship state university and graduated with a BSMS in CS debt-free. Im one of six kids and my parents were able to pay for all of our tuition at a good Catholic college. I put myself through grad school and I also have a BSMS in CS.We met in grad school but didnt have kids until our late 30s. We worked hard with a couple of low 6-figure payoffs from start-ups that we socked away. Because of this, our generally frugal-ish traits, and my husbands job, I was able to stay home with the kids when we finally had them. I had been at a string of start-ups in my 30s and had been working insane hours, when I got pregnant, my husband was also at a crazy start-up and we just couldnt imagine making it work otherwise. I get work thrown to me occasionally by ex-colleagues but nothing significant, and must admit that I have been so, so happy these past 16 years.We now have two girls and the oldest is a junior in HS. We have no debt and own our house free and clear in an expensive housing market. We have good savings for retirement and enough slack that we can help our elderly parents when needed. Well be able to pay for both kids college tuition from our savings. I have two overall questions that I wanted to throw out there: 1. How do we advise our kids about this next stage in life? What kind of colleges should they look at and what should they study? Both kids are very bright and do well in school and on standardized tests. Oldest has no idea where she wants to go or what she wants to study. Shes always been a very verbal kid and the classes where she really shines are language arts, history and foreign languages. However, all she hears from classmates, the media and even teachers is STEM, STEM, STEM. She has no idea really but when people ask her about majors, she says Biology.Obviously STEM was good for my husband and me, but I dont know. Is Bio really different than say History as far as job prospects when you graduate? I cant remember any of my friends having a hard time finding a decent job straight out of college, even the hard partying sociology majors, but it seems so different now. We hate to advise her to major in whatever is most pleasant to you when she doesnt really have a strong passion for anything nothing wrong with that - shes a kid still!, on the other hand, it seems crazy to advise her to major in a STEM degree if her strengths really lie elsewhere. Plus, weve seen first-hand how engineers can be royally screwed over and disrespected. Even a CS degree is no guarantee of a pleasant and fulfilling job. Of course its her decision, but when she asks for my advice, I dont have a clue. 2. How do other families do it? Granted we live in a fairly rich community but we seem like we live so much more simply than those around us. Were both in 10-year-old cars, are always a couple of generations behind on phones, our vacations tend to be camping ones which we love, our gifts for the kids tend to be simple. I saw a post on Reddit where a kid was given 50 cash on his birthday and people were talking about what a cheap present it was. Sometimes our kids get expensive gifts, when its time for a new mountain bike, or phone etc., but they would be psyched to get 50 too. I guess we do put larger sums in their bank accounts on holidays, but they know thats money for saving, not spending.So sometimes I feel like weve done well and worry about our kids doing as well, and then sometimes I look around and see that most other people seem to be doing just fine with lots more available cash for cars, electronics, and vacations, etc.Tl;dr: 1. Whats a good major for an overall smart but more verbally oriented kid? 2. I wonder about how everyone else seems to have so much money when all I hear is doom and gloom about the economy? Edit: Wow. Thanks so much everyone. So many great responses. I enjoyed reading the different perspectives, it helped clarify some things for me. I really appreciate people taking the time to respond.  <response>: I can only really answer 1. I just graduated from a STEM degree at a top University. My advice is that if your kids dont know what they want to do yet, give them time to figure it out, whether its community college or a year off, its not worth it to spend all that money to find their path only to see that their path could have been a lot cheaper if they took more time. I went to a high school where they also just pushed STEM STEM STEM all the time and half the students excelled because of pressure and the other half just kind of hit bottom and stuck with min wage. Once they figure out what they want to do with their future, have them research everything. My path was like this. I was good at math so I majored in engineering, and chose the top school I could get into. In hindsight this was a bad decision. I didnt research the career but rather the college, and I didnt ask others in the industry I was planning to go into about what to do. Have them talk to professionals in their desired career path and get advice.Also, ranks arent everything. I have friends who graduated from way lower ranking schools than mine, but are getting the jobs of high caliber and pay. Its really about what you do during your time there, not about the reputation of the school although it does help if it has a good reputation. My high school also pushed going to the best ranked school instead of the best-fit school. And a little about 2, I think most Americans like to put on the appearance of wealth for the American Dream, so they developed bad habits of spending, loaning, and buying what they cant afford, which they pass on to their kids. I think youre doing a good job of living modestly and thats a good habit to pass on. 