Thoughts on Education Later in Life

[Crankin]

Three things:
DH went back to finish his Bachelors degree when a) we had just bought our first home b) we had our first child when he was in his last year, and c) he sold his business and took a 50% pay cut to get a "professional" job. Was it worth it? He would say yes, unqualified, yes. Sure, we suffered financially for awhile, but without it, he never would be where he is now. Our lives would have been totally different.

I went back to school to get a second master's and start a new career when I was 55. I was making in the high five figures as a teacher and only needed to work a couple of more years to retire. I quit, took my pension $ and invested it myself. I had the luxury of not having to work while I went to school full time for 3 years, in a very intense program in clinical mental health counseling that included 2 years of internship. I had no issues with the work/academic part of school, as I have been in school all of my life. But, my first master's did not require the degree of writing and collaborative group work; it was memorize, a little bit of research, and study for comprehensive exams.
You have to learn to prioritize. I made the decision not to give up other things (like cycling) and those were the things that kept me sane. I wanted to quit about half way through, but once I registered for my last year, I knew it was smooth sailing. I am making slave wages, but now, after 5.3 years, I am about to be fully licensed. This will let me continue working on a flexible schedule, on my terms as long as I can talk and write!

My son left college after 1.5 years to join the military. He is super smart, but no one could stop him. He is now, after 9 years, back in school and loving it, and appreciating it so much more. He is very focused. He will be about 30 when he finishes and he feels way more able to deal with the stress of school.

[Blueberry]

So I'm a bit earlier than you are in age, but have chosen a *very* long path. I have a BA, and a JD. I practiced law for almost 9 years. I wasn't happy, and I really didn't think there would be a happy place for me in law after a lot of soul searching. At 34, I started taking pre-medical classes. I'm more than half way done with the pre-med requirements now. I apply to med school next year. I will be 45-46 when I finish residency. I do not have *any* regrets now. I would rather do this and have 15 happy years working than to have the 20-25 years in a career I wasn't passionate about.

I was worried about losing more than 10 years in the workforce, and the impact of that on my retirement. But....I'll be making a higher salary as a doc - so it should all even out. DH and I have also made a lot of decisions (like selling our house) that make the finances work now. We are setting up good spending habits that we intend to keep - and the plan is to live well beneath our means so that we will still be able to save sufficiently for retirement. It's how we want to live anyway (smaller house, not an extravagant life at all).

My biggest concern was that my DH will likely have to hold off on any college-type things until I am done, and the strain that might put on our relationship. We have had several honest talks, and he is OK with the situation. He is also not 100% sure what he wants to do at the moment, so that helps. He also works in academia, so he is involved in research in his field, even if he isn't in school.

I was also worried that I would fail organic chemistry. That didn't happen, thankfully!

[salsabike]

I went through graduate school a second time when I was in my early 40s, having gotten somewhat burned out by school psychology. Since about '94, I have split between the two occupations (school psych and workforce/economic development policy research), and it's saved my sanity by allowing me to have two really diverse kinds of work, both of which I like in quite different ways. I would absolutely do it again.

The hardest part was being a poor grad student again. I didn't have any second thoughts, really, and I really loved learning totally new stuff that I was really interested in (international political economy, labor economics, stuff like that). Did an internship at a UN agency in Geneva and had to take out a bank loan to do it, but loved every minute.

But Chris DOES have standing orders to shoot me if I propose going back to school again. Actually, I love school except for all. those. papers.

What are you thinking about doing?

There's a lot to be said for enjoying what you do at work. Worth the pre-work to get there, for me.