Sup.

I'm 38 and my girlfriend and I break $250k post-tax doing the DINK life. We're not billionaires but we're pretty damn comfortable.

I'm the poster child for 'wasted education' honestly- private college, private law school (T14) all for a bar card I don't use anymore, and now I'm a PMO director in SaaS. I'm lucky that my education was completely paid for between my parents, scholarships, working through school, and a couple small loans. She actually works in her field of education but it's not one that demands the degree she holds as a barrier to entry.

My point is that asking a 18 year old to choose what they want to do for the rest of their life on punishment of extensive debt for making 'the wrong choice' is a silly concept that has been ingrained in society now as 'the way to be successful' and has done nothing but prop up the higher education industry for the most part. The economy needs qualified tradespersons, service-persons for our service-based economy, and plenty of other careers that don't demand the oft-touted STEM education or the myriad 4 year English Lit degrees polluting our economy. Swap out half of those for 2-year associates programs in business/coding/finance/construction tech/apprenticeships and the like and you've suddenly got a much more diversely educated economy with less debt glut on the greater world.

I wanted to be a lawyer when I was 18 and when I was finally barred and graduated at 26 the economy was collapsing and there wasn't a job for a lawyer out there. That basically should've and should've financially ruined me if it weren't for my incredibly lucky circumstances; and realizing that I didn't really want to be a lawyer that allowed me to pivot immediately to my backup plan.

There are plenty of ways to become a high earner in the US's present economy that don't require the fiscal and time investment 4 year degrees promise and rarely deliver.