My employer has just increased our tuition reimbursement program from $600 a year to $3,000 a year which is obviously a huge net gain for the employees.
My dilemma is I already like my job, and plan on doing this until I retire, and gaining an advanced degree won't earn me a single extra penny. (union payscale, it's pretty set in stone).
But, I have found a 100% online degree completion program that will cost in it's entirety $10,800, and they allow up to 5 years to complete it. so it should be no problem to have this 100% paid for by my employer. (I already checked my employer's requirements and this program qualifies).
The reason I said it's "basically" free is because even though 100% of tuition, books and fees will be paid by my employer...I will have a few minor "fringe" costs such as requesting transcripts, and computer maintenance/software type stuff.
And there is "opportunity cost" to consider. This degree program would probably not cause me to work any more or less hours than I currently do (I already work 40 hours a week). But I am a serious amateur poker player, and my average hourly earnings are $23 per hour (averaged over 7 years and thousands of hours of play). For every hour I spend playing poker, I also spend about a half an hour studying, analyzing or critiquing my play. So that brings the average hourly earnings down to about $15 per hour when you consider all hours devoted to poker. And net poker winnings are taxed at a full 40% unless you have a professional gambler status (which I do not).
On the up side...you never know what the future might bring and it is quite possible that this advanced degree could help me attain a different job, or earn more in a different job if I ever wanted to change career paths, or if I was forced to due to an injury. Or even if I just burned out in my current job. Currently I have no plans to leave this job until I retire, but you never know...
Thoughts....?