Posted on 07/13/2015 8:52:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If your career plan is to become a hedge fund trader or play some other role in the financial services business, you probably need an MBA just as the price of admission.
If that's you, don't bother reading this post.
For everyone else, you may be considering an MBA program as a way to increase your business acumen, enhance your personal brand, and make yourself more competitive.
If that's the case, there may be some cheaper and better alternatives.
Let's run some quick numbers.
Tuition and fees for a two year degree program at a top private college will cost you about $120,000. If you earn $50,000 a year, you won't be making $100,000 during that time. If your living expenses are $45,000 a year, you'll still need to pay that $90,000.
In other words, an MBA from a top business school could cost you as much as $320,000. Invest that amount at an annual return of 5%. and you'll have roughly $2.3 million when you retire in 40 years.
With an MBA, of course, you will earn more in the future. According to New Accountant, an MBA will earn a CFO an estimated $463,440 in extra lifetime income. But that's only an extra $11,586 a year, which compounds over 40 years to only $1.6 million.
Of course, if you get your MBA from a lower tier school, tuition and fees will be less, and you may get your current employer to pay some of your costs. Still, even if you earn the degree in your spare time, there's still lost opportunity cost.
With that in mind, here are six career moves that cost lest than earning an MBA but will probably do more to advance your career and make you more money, too:
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
buying a bunch of copies of your own book is a very interesting idea.
Number 7 I would add would be. Hire a freaking professional to write your resume. Why go to school for 4 to 8 years, and then be too cheap to have a resume to sell yourself?
I think 5 either joined the family business or started their own plumbing company. The other 4 went on to success in other fields. The one in my class became a dentist.
Live like a starving student after graduation, pay off student loan debt, and then you have all that money free to save and invest later.
Control lifestyle creep and invest the income you’d otherwise spend, and you’ll have a lot more money.
Right on both counts. I’ve read versions of #5 in a couple of different places recently and I’ve begun to see the genius behind the strategy. I’ve also seen it work well for an acquaintance who has had a couple of local historical novels turned into stage plays that are done in various community theaters. I suspect he makes some nice bank on that endeavor.
Your #7 is just common sense but, as the man said, common sense just isn’t that common anymore. As the local chapter president of an international professional development organization, I’ve been sent resumes from local chapter members when searching for a job and I’m just floored by the poor effort people put into these documents. Just buying a current copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute?” and following the advice there would make these so much better as an individual sales document.
Learn a construction trade. With all these brainiacs going for MBAs, there is nobody left (other than illegal migrants) to actually dig the ditches that the world needs dug.
And invest in property as soon as you can...
A primary appreciable asset.
1. Develop strong sales skills
2. Gain fluency in another language
3. Learn to write code
4. Become a master storyteller (like our president)
5. Write a bestselling book
6. Start your own business
7. Mooch off your parents (ok, I made that one up)
IMHO MBA programs have inculcated a sort of inside-the-box groupthink which accounts for a lot of the problems we are seeing in business and the economy today.
RE: And invest in property as soon as you can...
This assumes:
1) You have the means to buy property
2) After you buy the property, you have the right tenants ( in NYC, the city is tenant friendly over the landlord and bad, non-paying tenants are VERY HARD to evict ).
Pack your lunch. The only time you should eat lunch out is at a good restaurant and with a client or your boss.
I endorse that suggestion.
Well, of course I was speaking in general terms and to use NYC as a rule is a bit myopic....
And there are very generous terms if you qualify to be a first time home buyer...
I state again, it’s your primary appreciable asset....
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