Hello fellow Mustachians!
I appreciate any insight and advice on my situation - thanks for reading!
Quick background on me:
28 years old, married (8 years), 3 children (5, 4, 1.5).
I work for a large freight company as a pricing analyst - started w/ the company 5 years ago and have worked up from driving a forklift, truck, operations; to now in pricing working for our corporate office. Salary right now, low 60's.
I have about 1/3 of a bachelors degree completed; if I pick it up again I want to graduate with a BS in Econ. It is something I love learning about, and I can build off of my current work experience as an analyst to hopefully move up higher at my company, or have options to find a different job altogether.
My internal debate is this: I already have a "decently" paying job. Where I work, in the trucking industry, there isn't really a super high emphasis put on post secondary schooling and I could probably move up through the ranks over the next 5-10 years into a 90-100k per year job pretty realistically. That is a common thing there -- a lot of our terminal managers and even well paid corporate employees don't have much in the way of bachelors or graduate degrees.
HOWEVER - that is a best case scenario -- what if I lose this job, or I don't like it there anymore, and need an out with some better or at least comparable options in pay and opportunity. I am limiting myself to this one company or at least this one industry (which I didn't really seek out in the first place -- just fell into it) w/out finishing my degree.
I want to be smart about it though -- is going 15-20k in debt with student loans when I am approaching 30 and have a small family really a good idea? I can grind out the years where I'm at and progressively get paid better without taking on the time and money investment of finishing school. If I didn't have to think like a responsible parent....I would finish no question. I've always loved learning and knew that I would go to college, or even beyond that with further education. I know this is a result of my own choices, I'm not trying to sound like a victim here. Instead of going to college right after high school, I went overseas and spent 6 months in Africa working with the poor -- which is where I happened to meet my wife (I was from Canada, she from the US). We got married, I immigrated to the US, we had a few kids along the way, I started school here but we've had some medical issues with our kids - principally with our middle one. He's doing great now, but it took some time with the extra hospital/doctor/therapy responsibilities. My 20's are blowing by and it is scary that I now feel too old to finish my studies.
I know that's a long ramble -- but honestly that's a direct representation of my thought process these days. Back and forth - can't decide. If you hadn't notice yet, I have trouble making decisions :) Also on my mind is that I would love to be able to do some more non-profit/economic development work at some point too. That is my real passion - but unfortunately right now my first priority is supporting my awesome little family and stashing cash for us and (someday) a semi-retirement.
Thanks so much.