Consideration #1 re spending on education — The long-term payoff can be huge
Educational accomplishments open doors. Well-considered education spending provides a greater long-term return than just about any other kind of spending.
It’s not just that those with a college degree are considered for jobs not available to those lacking a degree. It’s that the job you obtain by gaining a college degree puts you in the company of people going places that people without a college degree ordinarily cannot go. The degree that gets you the relatively high-level job right out of school also permits you to form contacts that down the road take you to even higher-level jobs. In the right circumstances, education pays for itself many times over.
Consideration #2 re spending on education — Much education spending provides a negative return
Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that all spending on education is wise spending. Many young people today are uncertain as to what they should do with their lives. Because pursuing an education is a highly respected way to spend some time, many are tempted to pursue a college degree or a graduate degree for the wrong reasons. Many who do not know what work they want to do elect to go to school for a few additional years as a means of putting off the need to make a decision.
This can be a huge mistake. Education is terribly expensive today; so the direct financial cost alone can be huge. The direct financial cost is not the worst of it, however. It’s worse to waste years of your life. That’s what you’re doing if you spend years in schooling for a vocation you do not really want to pursue.
Consideration #3 re spending on education — Education is not obtained only in school
It’s often impossible to know whether you want to pursue a line of work without doing work in the field. Working in a field, even in an entry-level position, often provides more of an education about what it involves than does reading books and attending lectures.
Entry-level employment is often mocked. It shouldn’t be. Entry-level employment often offers an outstanding long-term value proposition. You learn by doing and by watching others do, and you get paid for the privilege! That’s a deal that’s hard to beat.
If you are able to obtain entry-level employment in the field in which you want to work, taking it can be a savvy way of learning about the field. If you end up going back to school at a later date, you will probably do better in your coursework because of what you learned “on the street.” And you might discover that additional schooling is not necessary. You can learn what a job entails a lot faster by doing it than you can by examining theories about it written in a book.
Consideration #4 re spending on education — Going back to school can be a strategic move
What I say above is so only if you are not stuck in a dead-end job. A dead-end job is financial death. You won’t learn much. You won’t get paid much. You will be bored, and that will make you increasingly disgruntled over time. As you become less and less excited about your work, your work product will become increasingly slapdash. You may in time become all but unemployable.
If you find yourself in a dead-end job, you need to make an escape. It’s not easy to do so. Employers can smell failure and those stuck in dead-end jobs give off this smell. It’s not fair. But it’s so.
Going back to school can be a smooth move in these circumstances. You can break the chain of defeating circumstances and start feeling more confident about your abilities again. And few will care much about the dead-end job you were in for a time once you rewrite your Life Story by excelling in school.
Consideration #5 re spending on education — It often pays to do the opposite of what you feel like doing
There are some people who just love going to school. There are some who just hate the idea. It’s not infrequently the case that those who love the idea most need to obtain practical work experience and that those who hate the idea most need to get a degree.
You should not spend money on education in the way in which you spend money on vacations. When spending on a vacation, it is natural to elect to do the things you most enjoy doing. When spending on education, you want your money to add value to you as an employee to employers bidding for your services. The idea is not to take the path that is the most fun. It is to take the path that adds the most value.
Consideration #6 re spending on education — There’s a place for the liberal arts
The liberal arts are not popular today. The question that students often ask about the liberal arts is — How will that get me a job?
It’s a good question. But it’s also a question that reveals a shortsighted mindset.
The most technical skills are the easiest to replace with a computer program or an overseas worker. The skills developed learning the liberal arts are not technical skills. These are the hardest skills to replace with cheap code or cheap labor. What you learn in liberal arts courses might someday down the road become your safety net.
A liberal arts degree does not add to your immediate marketability in the way that a degree in accounting does. In the long term, however, the knowledge gained from studying the liberal arts can add more value. The most exciting and the most important and the best paying jobs are jobs that require skills obtained from a deep and sophisticated understanding of the liberal arts. The biggest money often goes to those who early in life developed skills that at the time added little dollar value.
If you are going to study liberal arts, you need to take into account the short-term marketability problems you are likely to face. You need to be strategic in your thinking. Come up with ways to get some money coming in while you develop your other skills to the point at which you are positioned to make money from what you learned by studying the liberal arts.
Make sure that you are really learning something important in every liberal arts course you take. It is easier to b.s. your way through a liberal arts course than it is to b.s. your way through most other types of courses. Many schools today seem happy to take the money of students who are not doing much more than taking up space and sending in checks. If you pay for a course and learn little, you have hurt yourself big time.
Consideration #7 re spending on education — Debt is a crushing burden
It’s so easy to justify debt incurred to finance an education. If the education leads to higher pay and the debt is quickly paid off, all is well. If the debt remains, it becomes an anchor keeping the student who incurred it from making much progress on his or her financial freedom dreams for many years to come.
It’s generally not possible to obtain an education without incurring debt. You don’t have to like the idea, however. Try to adopt an attitude of contempt for debt, an attitude that will push you to get it paid off as soon as possible. Don’t let debt become acceptable. Don’t let your acceptance of education debt cause you to become open to other forms of debt too.
Consideration #8 re spending on education — The building doesn’t come free
Going to assigned courses in a school building to learn something is the most expensive way to do so. If you need the degree to achieve your goals, you need the degree to achieve your goals. But always remember that an education obtained at little cost can pay off just as big as an education obtained at great cost. You can learn a lot about investing at the cost of taking out a library card.
So do that.
Consideration #9 re spending on education — It’s not purely a financial transaction
Learning is a challenge. Learning is exciting. Learning expands you. Learning is fun.
There are lots of Fun Units to be had obtaining an education. Education is too expensive for most of us to be able to afford to put our focus on the Fun Units that yield no financial payoff. They shouldn’t be ignored when it’s a close call as to whether it makes sense to spend on education, though. The good life is a fun life and obtaining the right education at the right time can be an awful lot of fun.