When Does “Going Back to School” Make Long Term Financial Sense

As our nation matures, the percentage of high-school graduates that attend college each year continues to increase. Students feel that they need to get a better education to remain competitive with their class-mates in the job market. Some of these students enter into programs that prepare them very well for a career and others wind up with degrees that have little to no practical application at all, but what about older people who want to go back to school? Is going back to school always worth it? When does completing a college education later in life make financial sense and when doesn’t it? Let’s talk about it.

Many adults without degrees see their lack of a formal college education as the primary stumbling block that prevents them from getting a career. Although this is true in some cases, there are just as many times when a lack of a college degree is simply an excuse that an employee has for other shortcomings they might have. They might think that their only career problem is not having the formalized education that results in a bachelor’s degree, but the real problems lie elsewhere.

If you are considering going back to school later in life, the first thing that you need to ask yourself is whether or not the lack of a college education is really what is getting in the way of advancing your career. There are plenty of professionals in just about every field (with a few notable exceptions, such as the medical field), where there are people without a formal education that do just as well of a job as those who have gone to school and have a four year degree. It might certainly be harder to get doors opened when you don’t have a degree, but if you can get them open, you can easily get a job if you persuade your potential employer that you know what you’re doing and you have a strong work ethic to go with it.

If you’ve come to the conclusion that your lack of education is what is stopping you from advancing your career, then some form of formal education might be in order. You need to be very specific about what type of program that you choose though. Unlike some of your younger classmates, you are not going to school because it’s what everyone does, because you want to grow up or because you want to find yourself. You are there to get an education that will give you talents and skills directly applicable to your career so that you can go out and do things that you were to able to do before. This means that most liberal art degrees are probably out the window. Instead, consider fields such as medical, technology, or something similar that will make you more qualified for a particular job than you were before.

Once you have found a program that think will teach you the skills and knowledge that you need for a job that you want down the line, you have to ask yourself if the money situation makes sense. College is expensive. Many in-state schools are charging $40,000 or $50,000 for a college education over the course of for years. For private schools, you can easily double or triple that number. You have to have a way to provide for yourself while you are going through school and have a way to pay for most of the bill while you’re there. At that stage in your life, you want to avoid student loans like the plague. You should have other financial priorities at that point, so shy away as much as possible from going out and grabbing student loans.

You should also ask yourself whether or not it makes financial sense from the perspective of a return on investment. You wouldn’t want to go out and get a bachelors and masters in social work and collect $100,000 in student loans so that you can go work in a $40,000 per year job. The numbers simply do not work out. Make sure that the reward that will come from an increase in salary will be justified by the amount of time and money that you are investing into the program.

Ultimately, it’s usually pretty doable to make the mathematics workout, but just remember it’s not the piece of paper or taking a set of classes that will jump start your career. The only thing that can do that, is you.