Can't decide whether or not I should go back to school

[Spin_Echo]

Hi everyone,
I’m new to the forum and the ERE life, and hoping to get some opinions on my situation. I’m 29, married, and permanently childfree. My wife is a full time student (3rd year biology major with aspirations of attending medical school). I work for a university/hospital maintaining MRI systems, and earn $100-110k depending on how much I’m on-call and overtime I work. Our net worth is currently negative ~$45k, but improving by ~4k every month now that we’re on the ERE train. I like my job for the most part. I have a lot of free time at work, I like the people I work with, and I like the technology. What I don’t like is that it can be physically demanding. I have a couple of chronic injuries, which cause a lot of pain when I have to lift heavy things or work on things in awkward locations. I only see this getting worse as I get older, so I’d rather not do this long term. I would like to stay with my employer until 45, at which time I can draw a pension.

My dilemma is deciding whether or not I should go back to school. I currently have no degree (I have a diploma from a CC and a certification), and without any degree, If I lost my job, I would have a hard time replacing it and earning what I do currently. I could, however, attend the university that I work for at almost no cost (I’ll have to buy my books). It’s a very highly regarded university, which I never would’ve been able to afford to attend otherwise, since tuition is $55k/yr. I didn’t have the option of attending a university after high school anyways since my family was extremely religious, and didn’t believe in going off to a university, unless it was an unaccredited religious school. Since I have a lot of free time at work, I’d be able to do a lot of school work during my normal working hours. My director is very supportive of me attending and will allow me to modify my work schedule as needed to go to class. The only drawback is that if I’m going to school and working, I will not want to be on-call as much or work overtime, which will hurt my income by ~$15k/year. This will slow our debt repayment and savings. I would really like to attend this school, but I would also like to work as much as I can and get to FIRE asap. Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[BRUTE]

brute recommends to go for it. that arrangement seems great.

[rube]

Yes, 10-15K is a relatively low financial 'sacrifice' in your situation it seems. If you can handle the time it requires besides your job and want to do it, do it.

[Spin_Echo]

Thank you for your replies. Another option I'm considering is to wait a year and start school when all debt is paid off.

[BRUTE]

brute was going to suggest this first, and had it typed out even. but then he re-read the original post, and it sounds like Spin_Echo plans on working full time (without overtime maybe) while going to school, and would have enough time during work to do school work.

brute would say it depends on how realistic that is. if Spin_Echo can 1)get good grades while working full time, 2)therefore can keep his job AND study at the same time, that's perfect. brute personally is under no illusion that he could keep up with a full time job and school work at the same time, and would therefore wait 1-2 years. at least to get out of debt, but maybe even build savings?

but if doing both at the same time is really possible, that'd be great.

it might even be worthwhile to keep the job part time, just because it seems an outlier in terms of how much it pays and benefits.

[SimpleLife]

Thank you for your replies. Another option I'm considering is to wait a year and start school when all debt is paid off.

But then you won't have one year down and three to go. I would say go for it, especially if the tuition is normally that high. Just be sure you get a degree that is flexible and useful, no liberal arts and other such nonsense.

Business Administration is one of the most sought after degrees to date and it can get your foot in the door with accounting, marketing, HR, IT, legal, operations, etc. I to this day am very glad I majored in flexible degrees in undergrad and grad school because I can always change careers into something else without having to go back to school, maybe just getting an industry cert for HR, accounting, etc.

[Spin_Echo]

brute was going to suggest this first, and had it typed out even. but then he re-read the original post, and it sounds like Spin_Echo plans on working full time (without overtime maybe) while going to school, and would have enough time during work to do school work.

brute would say it depends on how realistic that is. if Spin_Echo can 1)get good grades while working full time, 2)therefore can keep his job AND study at the same time, that's perfect. brute personally is under no illusion that he could keep up with a full time job and school work at the same time, and would therefore wait 1-2 years. at least to get out of debt, but maybe even build savings?

but if doing both at the same time is really possible, that'd be great.

it might even be worthwhile to keep the job part time, just because it seems an outlier in terms of how much it pays and benefits.

It's definitely possible to do both the way things are currently (although that could always change). Most of my work days involve very little work (sometimes I do nothing work related for the entire 8 hrs), and I have a lot of down time to do whatever I want. I come in on the weekend to get actual work done, because that's when the departments aren't using the systems. Also, in order for the tuition to 100% covered, I'll have to remain a full-time employee, which is at least 32hrs/week.

[Spin_Echo]

Thank you for your replies. Another option I'm considering is to wait a year and start school when all debt is paid off.

But then you won't have one year down and three to go. I would say go for it, especially if the tuition is normally that high. Just be sure you get a degree that is flexible and useful, no liberal arts and other such nonsense.

Business Administration is one of the most sought after degrees to date and it can get your foot in the door with accounting, marketing, HR, IT, legal, operations, etc. I to this day am very glad I majored in flexible degrees in undergrad and grad school because I can always change careers into something else without having to go back to school, maybe just getting an industry cert for HR, accounting, etc.

I think I'm going to go ahead and get started. I should still be able to work toward my financial goals at the same time, although the pace may slow a bit. Maybe the lost ground will be recovered with an increase in salary after school.

Unfortunately, the business school and the engineering school at my university aren't eligible for the tuition benefit. I'm planning on majoring in either math or physics, which would allow me to apply to the medical physics graduate program.

[BRUTE]

too bad about business and engineering, those are also what brute would've recommended. math and physics are hard and allow great cross over work later (see also jacob), especially within IT and finance. but obviously that level of math isn't for everyone - certainly not for brute.

still, in general, brute thinks it's worth the somewhat slowed rate of growth. both for career/future employment, personal satisfaction, and being less dependent on that one great job.

[Did]

I was going to say don't waste your time (doing a masters, PhD or whatnot - generally useless), but the fact you don't have a degree and will basically get paid for doing it, with no fees, it sounds like a great gig. This assumes you want to keep working in the field the study is in and you would to some extent enjoy it. Otherwise, your income is pretty high you have loads of options.

[JamesR]

$15k is piddling if you're making 100k/year. The only issue is that you're going to be effectively dealing with two jobs at the same time for the next five years. But sounds potentially worth it unless you have other skills that you can develop. There are lots of highly paid careers that depend on skills & work experience more than degrees after all.

Do you do any weight lifting? I would recommend try doing squats or deadlifts every 2 days for 2 months and see how that helps your chronic pain issues. I used to have some back problems when I did any kind of manual labour but 6 weeks of deadlifts got rid of all my back pain - and I built a house immediately after that program with no problems. My program was just 2 sets of 3 reps of deadlifts using a shrug bar to keep it safe, basically 6 minutes every 2 days for 6 weeks - started at 100lbs and worked up to 220lbs towards the end of that, simple progression: add 10 lbs every session until I hit 80-90% effort then drop back down 40lbs and start increasing again.

[Scott 2]

I would at least try it. It's not like you have to finish if it isn't good.

[Esau]

You should give it a try. Because you care so much about your job, I think you should try an online program, so you can study around your schedule (work, family, hobbies, etc.)

For motivation

Source: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf (pdf research), http://www.startschoolnow.org/going-back-school/ (source of the graph)

[Spin_Echo]

too bad about business and engineering, those are also what brute would've recommended. math and physics are hard and allow great cross over work later (see also jacob), especially within IT and finance. but obviously that level of math isn't for everyone - certainly not for brute.

still, in general, brute thinks it's worth the somewhat slowed rate of growth. both for career/future employment, personal satisfaction, and being less dependent on that one great job.

Cross over work is another reason for wanting to go to school. While my current job pays well, it's a very narrow niche. I'd like to have more options post-retirement for work (maybe part-time or contract work).

$15k is piddling if you're making 100k/year. The only issue is that you're going to be effectively dealing with two jobs at the same time for the next five years. But sounds potentially worth it unless you have other skills that you can develop. There are lots of highly paid careers that depend on skills & work experience more than degrees after all.

Do you do any weight lifting? I would recommend try doing squats or deadlifts every 2 days for 2 months and see how that helps your chronic pain issues. I used to have some back problems when I did any kind of manual labour but 6 weeks of deadlifts got rid of all my back pain - and I built a house immediately after that program with no problems. My program was just 2 sets of 3 reps of deadlifts using a shrug bar to keep it safe, basically 6 minutes every 2 days for 6 weeks - started at 100lbs and worked up to 220lbs towards the end of that, simple progression: add 10 lbs every session until I hit 80-90% effort then drop back down 40lbs and start increasing again.

Actually, my injuries are due to weightlifting. I had an unhealthy obsession with bodybuilding for many years, and I didn't give my injuries time to heal before returning to lifting. I had to give it up a year ago. Since then, I've had surgery and lots of pt. Things are better than they were, but I don't think I'll ever fully recover because of all the scar tissue. I do ride my bike every day now for my commute with minimal pain.

I would at least try it. It's not like you have to finish if it isn't good.

True. Too often, I create detailed plans spanning many years into the future before I even get started.

You should give it a try. Because you care so much about your job, I think you should try an online program, so you can study around your schedule (work, family, hobbies, etc.)

For motivation

Source: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011026.pdf (pdf research), http://www.startschoolnow.org/going-back-school/ (source of the graph)

Thanks. It's nice to know that I will not be alone in the 25+ category. Online programs have made it much easier for non-traditionals to return to school.