Decision Time

[plavalaguna]

Five years ago I stepped down from being a manager with my company to being a supervisor and started taking classes with the goal in mind to change my career.  Over the five years since, I have changed my mind about my future career a couple of times and am currently working on a B.S. in Mathematics.  I enjoy the classes and working only part-time, but since I discovered this site and having Mr. Money Mustache change my view on saving money, I am now wondering if the path I'm on is the best way to go.  The long term goal is definitely for my husband and I to both have the option of working rather than it being necessary.  So I have a decision to make:

1.  Continue working part-time making $10-$13/hr (depending on if I can go back to being a supervisor) and keeping plugging away at my degree, adding to my student loan debt (currently approx. $13000).  I still have probably 2.5 years of school if I continue my current rate.

2.  Take a promotion to manager making $40k-$45k per year, taking one or two evening classes that I can likely pay without taking out more loans, but taking a lot longer to finish school

I guess I'm just not sure if going into more debt in hopes of finding a more lucrative career is the way to go, or digging out of the debt I am in.  While we do not have any credit card debt, we do have 2 car payments and my medical expenses on top of our regular expenses.  We do have  a decent savings account, but it has not grown in the past year because I had to take a year off of work and school to go through chemo. 

I've gone over this in my mind a million times, but I can't make a decision.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Sebastian]

What does the market look like for this career change? Have you done any job searches to see if you could even get a job when you graduate. Would the amount of money you make with your new career justify getting into more debt? Is it something you even will like? Do you even need a degree to get this new career?

Those are just a few of the questions I'd be asking myself before I made that kind of decision. My fiance and I have thought of countless careers we could get into if we just "got more education", but I feel like if you have the tenacity you can get any kind of gig without paying schools gazillions of dollars save some kind of scientist/doctor field.

I would really look into the job market and see how easy it'd be to get into this career. Heck, I'd even reach out to employers and interview them about the job to see what it's all about and if they are even looking for new blood.

Good luck!

[Prairie Stash]

It depends on age and all your life goals.  My wife and I had to give up one of our goals for another, it happens.  I'd set up a timeline of your life with a few different options.  Starting with your age and include all your birthdays include everything from house, kids (or not), vacation, retirement, degree, job(s) etc.   With the timeline staring back at you it sometimes becomes pretty obvious what you need to do, emotionally.  Since you're a math major you should also design a spreadsheet with net worth based on the various options, that's another way to solve the problem.

Besides work/money what do you want out of your life? Sometimes decisions aren't based on money, sometimes you have to do stuff that you'll look back on and enjoy the memories. 

[plavalaguna]

Thank you both for your suggestions.  I did  a lot of research on job availability and entry level salaries in those positions.  Then I did a spreadsheet with a five year look at income and tuition expenses.  Interestingly the options only differed by a few thousand dollars.  I decided to just stay in my hourly position and concentrate on getting through school to expedite my career change.

[CarDude]

Thank you both for your suggestions.  I did  a lot of research on job availability and entry level salaries in those positions.  Then I did a spreadsheet with a five year look at income and tuition expenses.  Interestingly the options only differed by a few thousand dollars.  I decided to just stay in my hourly position and concentrate on getting through school to expedite my career change.

Good job looking before you leaped!

[sleepyguy]

Risk adverse person says go for option #2.  Since you want the option to FIRE this actually falls more in line with the lifestyle.  Now of course if the future career is 6 figures in short time then obviously quit and take full-time school.

These are good choices though and you have very little debt which is nice.  At the end of the day, what decision makes you and your SO happier.