Thats how I paid for my degree without any student loans. Yeah it took me 12 years but i didn’t owe a dime in student loans
Also, you clearly were socially and emotionally mature when you went back to college. I am sickened when I read about what college life seems to have become these days, especially on “prestigious” campuses: wild drunkeness, casual sex, drugs, debauchery. I do not want to send my son away to college at age 18 to experience this.