“In my day, to have a college degree almost guaranteed financial success. It was a lie. “
I have no college degree. I took some tech school business courses but didn’t graduate. I got my first job in a law firm (2 room office— one atty who was just out of law school) in the middle of the 1980s recession. That first job paid less than $5.00 per hour.
Forty years later I retired from a very large institution with a good retirement check after earning a nice salary for years. The key was arriving at work every day, on time, and being willing to learn. I paid attention, learned the legal terminology, and was meticulous in my work.
Hubby and I lived below our means, built and paid for the house we still live in, and now enjoy a debt-free retirement. It’s a trade off. Yeah, a college degree may have landed me a job making more money to start off with, but are you really ahead when you start out heavily in debt?
I have a college degree but attended a school with an coop engineering program. I found out what industries I didn’t want to have a career in and the one I did. The work experience was more valuable than the academics in a lot of ways. I didn’t attend my graduation because I had a great job ready for me when I completed my finals. The coop program also helped ensure that I had a very minimal student loan debt.