Eleven years after high school, I finally graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance. This brings up a mixture of thoughts and emotions for me, most notably excitement. So much time for activities!

What I learned

Most of what I learned in college didn’t have a whole lot to do with finance. While I did get a few different models of how to value real estate and quantify the trade-off between renting and buying, I’d covered most of the other material in my own research prior to taking any classes on the subject.

What this highlights for me is the incredible explosion of quality information and education available for free to anyone with an internet connection. There is more opportunity to educate and advance yourself in society today than at any previous point in human history.

While I didn’t learn a huge amount about finance, I did learn about learning and working. I discovered how to hack my studying so it didn’t consume my life, working smart instead of hard. I learned to improve my communication, which was a surprise for me as I’d always prided myself on being an excellent communicator.

I was also forced to learn how to use a financial calculator instead of Excel, which is probably the most useless thing I’ve ever learned. Nobody uses calculators in the real world, especially when you have tools like Excel and Python at your fingertips.

I learned how to plan for upcoming expenses so it didn’t feel painful, as well as what it’s like to pay cash¹ for a college degree. Most importantly, I learned what I’m capable of. Between work, school, helping run a small business, and all the other things I did, I learned that if I built up momentum, I could accomplish far more than I ever thought possible.

Was it worth it?

Over the last few years I’ve complained to many of my friends about the time I’ve wasted on school. My thinking has been that if I wasn’t in school, I could have been much more productive in actually helping people and building things. While this is true, I also wonder whether I would have pushed myself as hard if I hadn’t had the defined goals and deadlines that school provides.

Ultimately, there’s no way to know. It’s possible I would have been even more productive, and it’s also possible I would have been less driven and never gotten quite as much done. Either way, I don’t regret my time in college. While I didn’t get the normal “college experience”, and I didn’t learn a whole lot in the area I studied, I did learn a lot about life.

Mom was adamant that I get a degree; it was incredibly important to her. I wish deeply that she could have seen me graduate before passing, but I know she was proud of me nonetheless.

I don’t think I would have chosen to get a degree without support from my parents, either. While we paid for Mrs. Wallet’s degree ourselves as it was important to her and she’d always put herself through school, I wasn’t sure how good of a return I’d get on my investment.

College is so expensive these days that I think the return is probably negative on most degrees, especially outside of STEM or if you take out a loan. It’s not sustainable. Especially considering where I’ve gotten without one, I probably would have forgone the expense had I had to pay for 100% of it myself. It could have turned into a pretty large chunk of change.

The path from here

So what’s next? Many in my life are recommending I continue my education with a Master’s. I’m not so sure whether this is the right answer for me, though. While I could see myself getting an MBA or a Master’s in Analytics or Computer Science, I’m still looking at the same ROI question. Especially if I retire in the next five years as planned, that doesn’t give me long to earn back not only the cost of education but what it would have earned had I invested it instead.

That being said, it may be possible for me to get the degree mostly for free through a combination of benefits at work and tax programs, so it may make sense from a monetary perspective, especially if I spread it out a bit more in time than is normal. This doesn’t capture the whole picture, though.

The opportunity costs of pursuing another degree extend far beyond the immediate monetary considerations and cash flows. The added stress to my life and the loss of that time over the next couple to few years (regardless of whether what I’m doing generates positive cash flows or not) could be enormous.

The thing that excites me most about closing this chapter of my life is the freedom this will afford me, which is really what this blog is all about. There are so many things I want and plan to do that I haven’t been able to with the added burden of school.

I plan on investing more time here, writing and improving this site for your benefit, more time and energy in our yoga business, and more time with family and friends and on my passions, new and old. Maybe I’ll even be able to quit my job at some point!

Ultimately, I think it may end up being more likely that I complete a graduate program for fun after retiring, although I probably won’t have time.

What would you do with your extra time?

Love,

(Your) Wallet

Footnotes

1. We paid cash for Mrs. Wallet’s degree without assistance, whereas we received assistance for my degree.