Education: Risk versus Reward

All investment entails risk. It is built into the very nature of the activity. You cannot expend resources, hoping for the promise of a reward, without accepting the possibility that the resources will be lost, and the award not achieved. After all, we cannot predict the future.

Anytime you make an investment, there is a chance that it will not pan out. As so many of us have discovered during the last couple of years, that is certainly true of our financial investments in our 401K’s. But it also true of the capital we invest in ourselves.

I’m talking about the money and time spent on higher education, specifically about post-graduate work. It’s not cheap. I’m taking graduate level classes in accounting at a local university. This is after completing an executive MBA a couple of years ago. Tuition and fees run about $1500 per class. I’m trying to get 18 credit hours (six classes) under my belt, because that is the minimum required to teach at the college level. I’m not quitting my day job, but I would like to teach at the adjunct level, part-time.

So I’m spending around $9 grand, along with hundreds of hours, plus the gas money to get to class, plus the opportunity costs of giving up what I could be doing with my time and money instead. In exchange, I get the potential to teach junior college students entry level classes, for about $1500 per class taught.

Strictly from an economic perspective, it is hard to make the numbers line up on this endeavor. Even ignoring the time value of money, it will take more than a few years to recoup the cash investment alone, disregarding the time invested. And what if I try teaching a class and discover that, contrary to my hopes, I hate teaching? There’s a technical term for that experience: it would suck.

From the risk-reward perspective, it is hard to make a valid case for continuing to go to school. The obvious question is: why do I continue to make this dubious investment?

First of all, I have a deep seated belief that continued acquisition of new skills is vital, both to expanding career opportunities and to enhancing job security. The more versatile and up-to-date your skill set is, the better able you are at withstanding the vicissitudes of an uncertain job market.

But ultimately, I have discovered that I love being a student. Oh, I’m not so fond of it when a paper is due, or I’m struggling with a problem set. But overall, I truly enjoy the educational process.

Basically, I’m an education junkie.