Here's a piece by CNN Money that says the average college degree pays off by age 34. The details:
If you're debating the value of your college degree, rest assured it will likely be worth the cost -- eventually.
It takes an average of 12 years to recoup the cost of getting your Bachelor's degree, according to a new report from The College Board.
In other words, you will have earned enough money to repay the cost of your degree and make up for your time out of the workforce by the age of 34.
I'm a big believer in getting a college degree, but you have to do it the right way. I've detailed how to make the most of a college degree previously, so I won't cover that again. But I will say the summary is to 1) minimize cost of the degree while 2) maximizing the post-graduation earning potential.
I'm not sure where I'd be without my degree but my bet is that I wouldn't be retired. My undergraduate and MBA degrees helped open the right doors for me and from there I took advantage of the opportunities.
How about you? Anyone thankful they did or didn't get a college degree (or sorry they got one)?
My undergraduate and graduate degrees came free of charge courtesy of scholarships, so what I paid amounted to only opportunity cost. And since I didn't have family connections into a union job at our local steel mills, this would probably have been low-paid retail work, so for me breakeven was probably just a couple of years.
I'm definitely thankful I got my bachelor's degree in engineering because I think I would not have made much of a career in any other area. And even though my graduate degrees took longer to finish, I think those were also worthwhile because they brought me to silicon valley.
I wish I could say it was my own choice to follow this path, but all credit goes to may late father who basically forced me down this road. Thanks to Dad for talking me out of something that I now know would have made me miserable.
Posted by: freebird | March 27, 2017 at 10:35 AM
I did get a college degree, but I didn't go about it the right way. I went to a pricey, private four-year university. While I've been able to hold down well-paying jobs with my major (Communication), I should have gotten a more affordable degree elsewhere. In the real world no one cares if you have a name-brand degree. They just want you to be able to do the work.
Posted by: Mrs. Picky Pincher | March 28, 2017 at 10:32 AM