Choose FI by Chris Mamula & Brad Barrett & Jonathan Mendonsa

Author:Chris Mamula & Brad Barrett & Jonathan Mendonsa
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Choose FI Media, Inc.
Published: 2019-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Is College the Best Option?

The first decision we have to make is whether college is the right decision. There are varying points of view on the value of college.

Some people point to outliers like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Lebron James as examples of people who became tremendously financially successful without college degrees. With all due respect to everyone reading this, you probably don’t have Jobs’s creativity, Zuckerberg’s network building acumen, or James’s physical talents.

On the other side of this debate, people point to recent studies that show college graduates earn more to validate the importance of having that college degree. A study from Georgetown University found college graduates earn on average $1 million more than others over their lifetime. Another study by the Pew Research Center found college graduates earned about $17,500 more annually than high school graduates. These statistics make a strong argument for college.

Let’s look at the pro-college arguments more closely. How many years would you have to work, earning an additional $17,500 annually, to reach the $1 million lifetime earnings advantage? Answer: more than fifty-seven years! If your goal is to lock yourself into a career, then work to earn as much money as possible over your lifetime, college probably does make sense. But what if you want to Choose FI and achieve it quickly?

Many people who purposefully pursue FI are able to do so in ten to twenty years. FI can be achieved in under a decade if you take a more aggressive approach. This requires adding variables to the equation to make an informed decision.

Don Wettrick is a high school teacher who is also the co-founder and CEO of StartEdUp Innovation program. He spoke about his program on the ChooseFI podcast. Wettrick challenges the conventional wisdom that everyone should go to college. He said, “You want to go to medical school? You got to go to college. You want to go into advanced engineering? Got to go to college.” But what does he advise others, whose careers don’t absolutely require a degree? What if someone is considering a journalism degree? Wettrick said, “Start a freaking blog!”

College proponents argue there is more value to college than a degree, such as developing a network. Wettrick said, “You know who has an advantage? When you’re [graduating college at] 22, you’re everybody else.” He points out that a sixteen-year-old who is genuinely interested and driven can start learning, creating, and gaining experience at a young age while everyone else is worried about grades and looking good on a college application. This can give that young person tremendous advantages.

Wettrick also points out that he’s putting his money where his mouth is. He’s letting his daughter, a high school senior, choose her own path in life. He said, “She’s got a 3.9 [GPA], and at a minimum, next year, she’s going to take a gap year. Minimum. She might not go to college.” She wants to pursue the entrepreneur route.

Many career paths offer high-paying jobs that do not require a college degree.

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