7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go to College Right Away
After completing high school, everyone must consider if they want to go to college or not. You shouldn’t go to college right away because the price, work, time and reward may not truly be worth it. As a result, you must consider these things before hand. Most of the time, people will say college is a good thing but, let’s cover why you might consider skipping this highly recommended form of learning.
1. You Could Be Going for The Wrong Reason
The first reason why you shouldn’t go to college right away is because your reasoning for going might be misconstrued. You will likely be considering college because someone else recommended it to you. On the other hand, you might have decided to go to college because you know where you want to work. If you know for sure that you will be going to college, be sure to check this post to determine for how long. Let’s go over how your reasoning for going can be good or bad.
Because my Friends are Going
Are you going to college just because your friends are going? If your friends change their mind, would you still go? It’s important that you are going to college because you know it will solve your problem. Moreover, it’s important that you know going to college will take you to where you want to be in life. Have your goal on what you want to achieve then see if college is the answer.
The reason why it’s bad to just go to college because your friends are going is, they may have had the support to help determine that college is a good option for them. Since everyone is unique, college should be made as a logical choice for each person as opposed to just following the crowd like high school.
Parents Recommendation
Some of use go to college because our parents tell us to. As your parents, they may be suggesting you go to college because they think it’s what is right for you. However, as an adult, they may not know your plan or what you want to achieve. Depending on what that is, college may or may not be right for you. If you want their help, tell them what your goal is and see if it aligns with college. As they have more experience in life, they may be able to understand if college would just slow you down or help with your purpose.
Getting a Good Job
If you are considering college for a good job, then that is a reasonable consideration. However, as you spend more time learning about money here, you will find out that a job is the worst way to make money in the long term. On the other hand, if you need college to get a good job and leverage the income, it can be worth it.
2. You Can Get a Job Now
By going to college this helps you get a more specialized job which typically pay more. However, you may be able to get a job right now that would solve your immediate financial responsibilities. As a result, the college would be unnecessary if your job is giving you stability.
Now, let’s say you were working at Walmart. We all know Walmart is not likely your dream to spend the rest of your life at Walmart nor, would that job likely handle all of your financial responsibilities. However, once you have stability with Walmart, you can then start applying wealth building concepts to replace your job. Learn more about those strategies here.
3. Tuition May Be Too Expensive
It’s probably easy to assume if you do not have the money for college, you can just get a loan. In most cases, this is probably true, especially if you have a cosigner. However, depending on what school you go to, your major and how long you attend, student loans can be low like less than $5,000.00 or as high as 100,000.00 and become a living nightmare. As a result, you must consider this before to college right away.
Student Loans Approval
If you go the student loan route insure you can get enough financing to cover you through your entire attendance. If you do not do this, you could end up spending all of your loan money, then getting denied later on. Unfortunately, this leaves you with all the debit, some college credits, and no special well paying job to help pay off the debt. In the same manner, this is what happened to me on my journey as a student and would like others to be aware before they run into the same issue.
Paying off Debt
Depending on how much you borrow to complete your degree, do your research to ensure your potential salary or pay for your job can pay this debt off in a reasonable time frame. For example, if you are going to become a doctor, you probably wouldn’t surprise anyone by saying you have $60,000.00 in student loans to pay. However, doctors are known to be paid well. As a result, the loan corresponds with what your job can pay you. If you do this incorrectly, you could end up with a large debt and a job that makes you take several years to finally pay off the loan due to a lack of pay.
4. You May Have to Work a Job and College
Another thing to consider before jumping right into college is, will you have enough extra money for your food and other bills? If you do not think you can fund your college tuition plus your monthly expenses, it could make college really tough for you. Imagine taking a full course load which is typically stressful enough for most students then having to get a job on the side to pay for your monthly expenses. Unfortunately for me, this was another experience I had to learn the hard way and it did not make my college experience an easy one.
Losing Focus on College or the Job
If you work a job and go to college, it is really easy to lose focus on what’s important. The issue is, a job and college are both important but they may not always fit well in your schedule even if there’s time in the day. In other words, you could find yourself going to college and going to work and becoming really exhausted managing both tasks. If you slack on the job, your income suffers, if you slack in school your grades suffer, either way, it turns out bad. So if you feel you’d have to take on both responsibilities, ensure you believe you can handle both.
5. You Could Be Self Taught
Fortunately for you, we live in an age where almost everything is available on the internet. Instead of thinking you need to go straight to college, you may be able to learn a skill on your own and start making money from creating your own brand. For this reason, college would not be necessary for you.
Online Learning and Branding
Things like YouTube, Instagram and websites have come so far and are so easy to start that, you can simply learn a new skill on the internet and use your expertise to either get a job or work for yourself. This is especially true for arts and things like programming. If you’re are is good, who’s going to say you need a degree for them to pay for it. If you can program an app, who’s going to say you need college to make the app have value? The answer is nobody. You can teach yourself a skill by learning on your own and if done correctly, you can get by or better without a college education.
6. The Military May Be Better
If you find yourself not looking forward to the debt and can not find the right reason to go to college then, the military might be a good option for you. Put simply, if you join the military and go active duty, you will automatically be put on the path of a career and be setup for a path those wish for only after graduating college. Moreover, in the military, they have benefits that allow you to pay for college through special program where you do not have to pay out of pocket.
Who the Military May be Good for
This may be a good option for you if, you really do not want to go to college and you’re ready to quickly become independent. Furthermore, if you might want to go to college later, adulthood responsibilities off on the right track, this may be a good solution for you.
Military Benefits
There are a great number of benefits for joining the military and this post will not serve to cover them all. With that being said, if you are seriously considering it, ensure you do more personal research to help you make this big decision. The purpose of this post is to allow you the opportunity to consider it prior to thinking you must go to college first.
7. College Won’t Teach You How to Get Rich
Lastly, no matter which path you choose, for making it this far in the post, you will now learn something that none of the paths will specifically teach you; that is, how to build wealth. Throughout this website piece of knowledge is said many times and is shared so often because it is that important for everyone to learn. The worst part is, no tradition education teaches it so, you get to learn now if you have not already.
How to Build Wealth
No matter what job you work, you are typically work 40 or more hours per week and you will probably always want a raise or more money. To make money like the wealthy, you NEED assets. Assets are things that generate an income for you. This is as opposed to working a particular number of hours, then earning a certain pay. With assets, they pay you regardless of how much time you invest.
Easy Asset Example
The simplest asset example we typically use is a book. If you spend a few months writing a book, it is then finished. Once it is finished, you can now sell it online or in bookstores. This book can make you money whether you’re asleep or awake. As a result, you have the potential to make money anytime without any added effort. Now imagine if you had 20 books, the same rules apply and the money can still keep coming. There is not limit. This is how you get wealthy and creating assets is how you should spend your time and money if you want to get rich.
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