Hello Mustacians,
I have been considering a lot of wildly different options lately, and would love to bounce some ideas off of other folks - especially if you have any background in CS which seems to be a lot of folks on here!
Quick background:
I am 29, have a masters in geology, and have been unemployed for about 8 months. Since getting my masters I spent a few years working in oil and gas, and a few teaching. I am starting to lose faith in my geology career path, though, since there are just so few jobs in this field. I have lately been really thinking about going back for Computer Science as it seems there are more jobs out there than you can shake a stick at. The grass may be greener on the other side, but in every city I've looked at, there have been like 50 CS jobs for every 1 geology job. I also like the idea that after a few years experience in CS you could likely start to work remote.
The path I have been thinking about taking is through the University of Colorado's new CS program that is all online. It would take me 1 year, full time, for a B.S. in Comp Science, and run about 28k. This obviously is a lot of money, but would also pay itself off within the first year of employment after finishing the degree. I am feeling really tempted towards trying this option.
Any CS folks out there with any thoughts? I'm almost 30 which feels really old to completely restart a career...
My other thought on how to handle my inability to find meaningful work in geology right now is this: basically to just ride it out, not touch my savings, make enough money from BS jobs to cover current living expenses, and wait until my savings have grown big enough to hit FI on their own.
Some numbers for this hair-brained idea:
My net worth right now including retirement accounts is ~225k (the oil and gas years were quite lucrative). My monthly expenses are around 1200, which includes paying down my mortgage (I have roommates which help with this cost). When my mortgage is paid off in 13 years, that will add around 200k to my networth. If I were to just leave my 225k nest egg alone, in 13 years (sort of arbitrarily chosen as that's when the mortgage will be paid off) assuming 7% market returns, that would put me at 542k, or 742k including the house. I think my bare minimum FI number is about 500k. So, from a forecasting perspective, I am theoretically fine to just leave everything alone and still hit FI comfortably in 13 years.
Part of me likes this idea because I am not rushing into a completely new field and restarting at 30. On the other hand, 13 years seems like a long time to go where the plan is making barely enough to sustain current costs. On a more psychological level, I think I am also having a hard time deciding how much the CS path is appealing just because it feels like I am doing something more productive with my life, whether or not that's really the path to greatest happiness...
OK I know that's kind of a lot! I have been having a quarter life crisis I think:) Any insights or similar experiences would be awesome to hear about, but I also think just typing this out was helpful.... Thank you all!