I worked & lived on my own for 3 years after college. I work a lot of temporary jobs, I struggled to find any full time work. I was living paycheck to paycheck.
I managed to save $10,000 in 3 years & relocated for full time work. After 2 weeks I was let go because I "wasn't the right fit" in that move between moving van, canceling furniture/returning furniture, signing a lease, breaking a lease etc. I lost well over $7,5000 of my savings.
It's now 3 years out of school. I'm living home. My family lives in NYC & I'm only making $11.00/hr at a temp job. I bring home between $250-$315 per week depending on how many hours I'm needed to work. That's not enough to live on.
I'm considering grad school as its really my only option I feel at this point in my life. So far, after bills I've managed to save close to $2,000 so a grand total of $4,000. Which, is NOTHING.
I know I'd have to take out loans for school as there is no school near me that offers my particular program aside from NYU but the price is insane!!!
Is it worth it to go into tons of debut?
An Apartment alone is $910.00 where I'm looking to go plus tuition, plus fees etc.
I'm thinking AT LEAST
$75,000 for 2 years plus my additional
$30,000 between my car & undergrad
Thoughts?
It doesn't matter whether you're borrowing or paying from savings. What matters is whether the degree will improve your income enough to be worth it. Will you finish the degree? Dropping out will just waste more money on tuition without improving your employment changes. Will you do well in school and with the subject matter? Petroleum engineers make very good money, but if you're not going to be good at petroleum engineering, you'll have trouble getting a job. Is it a field with high demand? A master's in journalism won't help you much because very few people get jobs as journalists.
I'll be blunt. Getting laid off after two weeks is a very bad sign. Maybe the company was just being weird. Or maybe you're not a good fit for that job but you would be a good fit for another job. Or maybe you are a difficult person who will get fired from any job, and adding more debt from grad school won't help you. I don't know how you could answer that.
And share an apartment with roommates.
You can make extra money as a freelancer or salesman. I know you can sell the book Pirates of Financial Freedom and they will pay you at least $5 for every book you sell, so if you hustle and can sell books in bulk (meaning sell 20 books to one company/school), you could make money that way. You can sign up for elance or fiverr or 99designs or any other freelance site and have people hire you for various jobs. You can become a freelance writer and you can earn $1 per word you write. You can become a consultant or speaker and make money that way. There are tons of ways to make extra money in this economy that don't require you to have a regular "job," but you have to do the research to find them and put in the hard work to make them a reality. There are some freelancers that make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and you could too if you become an expert in the right niche. It won't happen overnight though, it usually takes 2-3 years at least to get to that level.
I wouldn't invest boatloads of money into education at this point. What you might do is look into vocational training, such as, for a plumber or electrician. It wouldn't require as much time (maybe two years) or as much money. When I went to vocational school many years ago, the school actually helped place you in a job.
Grad school is not a solution to your problem, it will only increase your debt. Even with a Masters degree you will only be qualified for entry level position in your field. I suggest you continue to look for a good fulltime position while working the temp jobs. You need experience more than additional education.
You need to look up jobs that pay. Engineering, nursing, dental school, physical therapy, medical school... going back for these careers is actually worth it and there's a decent salary.
Grad school won't help you. Learn a skilled trade as an apprentice, or look at sales jobs.
Repeat:GRAD SCHOOL WILL NOT HELP YOU.
That sucks. Just keep applying. Benefit of these temp jobs is that they should be building your resume.
