Amen!

I'm was in a room earlier with nine other people. Three are engineers and of the other six, two have a bachelor's degree in a completely unrelated field, one is former military and the others have a 36 hour certification in manufacturing. They all make $140k plus.

There are only a few career paths that benefit from a high dollar degree. IMHO

There are lots of ways to make good money. Many of my friends graduated college. I did not, however, I have been as successful or more successful as most of them. College is not a requirement in order to make good money. It is also not a guarantee of making good money. I am advising my children to find a field that they like and find a way to make money in that field. If the field that they choose does not require college, then I am not going to push them towards college.

A buddy of mine went the trade school route after high school, went to Universal Technical Institute for gasoline and diesel mechanic, now works in the Persian Gulf doing nothing but diesel generators at about 200,000 a year.

I know college graduates with graduate degrees who have been in their respective fields a long time and make maybe half that.

No, you don't have to have a college degree and the debt that sometimes comes along with it. My BS in Criminal Justice is paid for due to me working full time at TDCJ and going full time to college at Sam Houston. Yes it was a beating getting 4-5 hours of sleep a day for 5 1/2 years but nowhere near the beating of paying off student loans for 30 years.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

College isnt the right path for everyone and every path. But it sure as hell isn't accurate to tell all the kids they can get a 36 hour certification and make that kind of money no questions asked either.

you don't need college to make money if you're good and in demand in a trade


college gives you a foundation to navigate the whole range of possibilities

a welder cannot be a software programmer

but a software programmer can be a welder (9-12 month trade school) , a doctor,
telecom networking, cloud computing, a wall street banker etc ...

do what you're good at and like doing

Hwy Man there is a lot of truth in your words, but college sometimes a smart move and gives a good ROI. I work with rig welders every day. They can make very good money, but there is also a quality of life and longevity aspect. Welding is tough work in the plants and pipeline, especially TA work it’s fast and furious. Plus welding deteriorates your eyes no matter what hood you have. So at the onset that welder vs. the stem grad is outpacing by a fair amount. What I’ve seen is Around early to mid 30’s is when it flips. Working for a company like P66 you get a pension, 401k match, most likely making at least $120k + 10% yearly bonus and stock options. Carry that over another 35 years is very sustainable for an operator, engineer, etc. I don’t see very many welders or construction hands older than 55.

Consulting is a very competitive and challenging route. I’d say less than 1% of plant personnel get that opportunity.

When my son gets to that crossroads it’s either college for a stem degree or trade like fitter or operator. I will not pay for a degree in studies of mezoamerica with a concentration in European colonization in mezoamerica lol.

Basketball. You'll be rich and smart. Ask LeBron

Exact same for me

Define success.

And .. It's not WHAT you, it's how you use what you know.

Trimming my toenails without passing out, other than that I don't believe I even used the word.

I graduated in the upper 10% of my class at The School of Hard Knocks. I can guarantee you that in many subjects I can run rings around these so called college grads.

Only worked a very short time in the field I went to college for but I made some great contacts and friendships that benefited me down the road.

Seeing the sunrise every morning, accomplishment, achievement, triumph, attainment, as well as happiness and good health..

Thanks, I used it to motivate my kiddos.... I didn't want them in the last category with me. It has a 50% success rating so far.....

Whatever

Wasn't necessarily directed at you, though it is in the article and thread title.

A lot more folks need to be going into the trades, without a doubt, but its not as simple as annual income vs. debt. I took on a lot of debt to go to school and when I graduated, my classmates from high school had jobs making more money than me with a several year head start on earning and no student loans. I was the dummy, right? 10-15 years later, those same guys are making about the same money, but are saying they need to look into something else because of some combination of their body not being able to take it any more, not wanting to spend so much time away from their families, getting tired of layoff cycles, etc. Meanwhile, I've been able to move up in a career that I absolutely could not have gotten into without my education. I am out earning them, work banker's hours for the most part, and will be able to do this for as long as I desire to do so.

Obviously, everyone's situation is different, and I'm not arguing that trade school isn't a great thing for a lot of people, but its not as simple as looking at debt load vs. starting salaries.

This pretty much tells the story of me and my wife word for word. She put herself thru college with scholarships, Pell grants and working part time (no college debt) and retired from teaching for 29 years. I on the other hand graduated high school at 17, went to trade school to be a machinist and was working at a chemical refinery at 19. I had no debt when I finished trade school and had a job waiting for me to finish. I completed the company mechanic apprenticeship program in a little bit over 2 years and took every certification they ever offered me for the rest of my career. I retired at 53, then went to work for a different company and retired permanently at 62, the wife retired at 52 but substitute teaches just to have something to do and keep her mind sharp.

100%

It takes all kinds to make the pwrld go around. The employment field is varied, everybody cannot e a welder, and we sure do not need everybody to have a PHD in basket weaving.

It takes a lot of occupations, each dependent on a lot of other occupations.

I worked through college, got my 60 credits at 19 and applied for the PD. No student loans.

My wife worked through college, got her bachelors degree. No student loans.

There are ways to do it and be successful. Student loans are a joke and a burden.

Tell that next time to the doctor, nurse, lawyer, etc next time you see them.

Similar on my side of the fence other than age and spouse's career. The wife has a master's degree and makes slightly more than me, buuuuut I work a 4-10 schedule and golf/hunt/fish on Friday's while she works

14 years left to retire at 55 from the world's premiere petrochemical company IF oil & gas can stabilize