Investing In Yourself - Traditional Versus Nontraditional Routes
Hi, Everyone...
These days when you consider the cost of higher education in the bricks and mortar setting plus the time you lose to building a business that will provide you financial and other forms of independence, you have to ponder what may be the best path to follow...
Traditional Higher Education Factors
- High Cost
- Often High Amounts Of Debt
- Lost time you could be using to build a business
- Limited Post Degree Employment Prospects
- Working FOR someone versus working for YOURSELF
- Lack of or Minimal Practical Hands On Experience
- Low Entry Salary Due to Lack Of Experience
- Many Students Drink Too Much Beer
Non-Traditional Educational Avenues
- Working for Yourself
- Ability to Scale Up Your Business
- The Internet Is The Great Equalizer For Business
- Low Entry Cost
- Work From Home, Coffee Shop, A Beach, A Bar, or From Another Country
- Less Regimented Work Hours
- More Time For Fun Things You Can Do When YOU Want To
- More Time For Family
- There Is No Problem With Beer (Drink When You Can/Want)
My Experiences With Both Means Of Education
I will start with the traditional and compare to the nontraditional...
Traditional...
I have a total of 4 completed degrees, 4 years of a Doctoral Program (I am an ABD - All But Dissertation), and a Doctorate of Divinity Degree (DDD) purchased at $149.95 I think lol...
While in the military, I was educated from basic levels of competency to very advanced levels through Non-Commissioned Officer Training and Sergeants Major Academy, etc.
The military helped out with all this education, for the colleges/universities either they paid 90% of the cost or I used my GI Bill...The advanced military training for logistics etc. was free...
I personally had out of pocket expenses of around $50,000 USD over the years, but the Army paid likely 10 x that much.
If I consider the time and the per hour cost to me, I would value myself at maybe $10 average over this period, above minimum wage but as the level of education rose so would the cost for my time (this was also done 38 years ago and over a span of a couple of decades)...
I would say that I spent 6000 to 8000 hours total in educating myself over the years, so my personal 'cost' in dollar terms was perhaps $700,000 USD. If you add in the out of pocket expense plus what the military paid, you have a figure of 1.250 million dollars!
I also drank a lot of beer and ate many schnitzels, brats, rindwursts, spaetzle, etc...(Not TOO much, but...lots!)...
SIDE NOTE 1: Also as a holder of a DDD I can start a church and buy a jet with tax free money that people give me so I can travel in the style I will become accustomed to...$149.95 - THAT was a deal!
Non-Traditional...
If I had to put a dollar figure to my investment to date, and only include specific expenses, time, and other costs since starting online (I will not include other business expenses for other offline efforts) it too is considerable, over a shorter period of time...
I estimate that I have devoted an average of 70 hours a week, and if I include outsourced work, over the last 2 years and 3 months I have 8120 hours plus another 1000 outsourced hours into the effort...
I value my time totally different these days compared to the days when I was working to complete degrees. Of course I lacked experience, which I subsequently gained over the years during and after the education...
My measurement for recent time is based on what I was charging to clients. There was a period when I could get $2000 a day for my consulting services (preparing contract proposals) and indeed I can still command close to this in some cases (i.e. recently in the last month I got this rate for 6 days of work)...
Because I am and was new to the online marketing world, I could not factor in such a high per hour value to my time, so I went with an arbitrary figure of $30 an hour (less than 20% of my consultant fee hourly rate)...
This is a SWAG but really is not too much out of touch IMO.
Between the tools, the educational sites like Wealthy Affiliate and similar, I have now invested about $10,000. I have about another $10,000 in outsourcing costs.
The other cost is time - although NOT out of pocket, it is a major portion of what I consider my costs to date...
That time figure comes in at $243.000 USD...Seems a bit high, but considering what my time is worth if I do other things like consulting, represents a fair cost I feel...
Adding in everything together, I estimate I have a total of $ 263,000 USD invested to date...
I also drank a lot of beer and ate many schnitzels, brats, rindwursts, spaetzle, etc...(Not TOO much, but...lots!)... (No change from the traditional side of this)...
SIDE NOTE 2:
Regarding that Doctorate of Divinity Degree - I STILL do not have a church nor a jet to fly in with tax free money that people give me so I STILL cannot travel in the style I would be accustomed to...
$149.95 wasted?
My Thoughts
"So much potential...DDD in hand,
Why oh why do I not take a stand...
Get my act together, Rent a stadium,
Call In The People, Haul in a Premium...
Get that jet, passport in tow,
To fly in style to save more people from what they do not know...
Why Oh Why Do I Not Make A Stand?"
Answer: Not my style...
OK, back on the real topic...
Is Online Marketing Worth The Investment?
That is the big question. What other things could you be doing with the time and what would be the costs?
This is something you have to ask yourself.
I earned a LOT of money between the days of schooling and today, and a lot of doors would not have opened for me without those credentials...
These days there has been a shift in the outlook for employment, the wages you get, and also the other ancillary benefits (many trends are NOT positive)...
What worked for me then will NOT work today. It just is not possible with very few exceptions...
With the investment for online business, I have realized a 50% return within 2 years of starting, and the potential is huge over time, much higher than some of the other business activities I am involved in...
I fully expect to get an ROI of many times over the actual dollar figure, and even when factoring in the cost of my time, what I have 'earned' so far is respectable and worth my investment...
My Outlook
If I was in a position of being a young person planning for the future for my own career and family, hands down I would go with the online marketing route...
The potential is high, the risk is low, the entry costs are low, and the market is there and will be there in the future.
You can have your beer and drink it too!
What was dreamed of years ago is now possible.
You do not have to go into debt, start a church and buy a jet to achieve your dreams!
You still have to do the planning, work, and effort to learn and then apply the lessons as with any business, but the upside potential is ONLY limited by YOU...
When you start to look at everything, investing in yourself these days means looking at ALL the factors, and making an informed decision, then sticking with it...
I believe in YOU and I hope that this will motivate you to keep going and going hard and strong with developing your online marketing business. The sky is indeed the limit!
What Do YOU Think? Invest In A Traditional or A Wealthy Affiliate Education or Found a Sect - Which Option Is Better?
I am interested to know what others here think, and perhaps share their own personal experiences or insights comparing the two ways to invest in yourself...
Cheers!
Dave : )
Recent Comments
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There has been a total paradigm shift. Online marketing is the way to go over traditional education for the same reasons you mention, high potential, low risk, and low cost.
BUT newbies (and old-bies!) have to be willing to work hard and smart. Soak up information like a sponge, and take action.
Great post, Dave!
Thanks Kaju...I see this again and again these days. Since I have a couple of grands in the age where university or other is in the mix as to directions for education and career, and more grands in line to approach this stage, I want to be frank with them as I advise them...Cheers! Dave : )
First of all, I can't believe you are old enough to have grands from your photo. Kudos, good living my friend!
Second, they are really lucky to have grand master who can advise them on the road to business success so well.
Good Morning Dave,
To tell you the truth these figures left me slightly dazed so to speak. My parents took care of my education, a very nice one I must say. I traveled to various countries to learn languages. Then I started working as a tourist guide for 2 different German com. on cruise ships and Italy and Spain. My education came in handy, not only the languages but also not being afraid to confront older people, my tourists. I cannot and neither do I care to try and calculate how much has been invested in me. If my parents would be still alive I hope they would be happy to see what kind of human being I have become. Now I have started on this new WA journey, who would have thought that, me and a computer. For more than 5 years I did various MLM, like the concept but it did not really make any money.
Did you see my latest WA post on Welcome Refugees? there you can see my US Expat.
Thank you for this good post, have a good Sunday, Taetske
Thanks Paul...
I am sure that most members feel as you do (I do too), and many that have degrees are probably wondering about the value they offer these days...
If you have children, this is a very important question to think through, the expenses are rising for bricks and mortar colleges...
Cheers!
Dave : )
It is getting arider to live as each year passed the value of the money is decreasing and who knows where it will end up so we have to think for the future!!!!
paul
I have a bunch ( four) children- grown-ups right now and being able to take care of themselves with their college degrees.
However .. making ends meet seems to be for various reasons an every day challenge.
This has been one of my main reasons joining WA and succeeding in the realms of affiliate marketing - to show another approach, which makes more sense money wise in terms of a monthly income and pension wise related to the residual aspect.
Well... I think it all makes sense... but .. guess what ... -(-( .. those stinkers assume '' that the concept of affiliate marketing is not cool etcetc...and WA is a platform for elderly people like me, tired of the company of wine drinking spinsters."
So there you are and what to do next? - it's not that I want to prove them wrong, but I want to show them ways how to make some worthwhile adjustments! If it was not for myself I would feel almost obliged for their sake only, to succeed like a breeze on a sunny afternoon.
I am off to the Affiliate Bootcamp right now!!
Cheers!
I obtained an advanced degree but often joke that I should have gone to work on my own as the degree was a very expensive endeavor. I can relate. WA is the best and inexpensive
Yeah, Pablo...I definitely would NOT go into debt as some of the young people are doing, and when they finish they often do not get the job or the pay they envisioned....I agree with you, WA is a better route to go these days! Cheers! Dave : )
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I believe being in control of your own future is the way to go. A person can not depend on others for their financial success...not in today's world where the traditional job market is changing so rapidly. We live in a technical world...people exist online..work and play. A young person can learn fresh without having to "Unlearn" so many of the rules I grew up with. I too have all kinds of degrees, had good jobs...but at 66 still don't have the security I was promised. WA is such a gift for all those who want to learn. Debbie
Yes, Debbie...I totally agree with you on your position. I too had an idea that at 62 I would slow down with the work, and at 65 pretty much move into totally play activities...
Because of the uncertainty these days, a retirement may not be a retirement, health care for life is not, and what was promised loong ago will not be delivered...
In that light, I have had to reevaluate what I am doing at the moment and the level of activities and for how long I will stay extremely active...
The kids today find themselves at the starting gate of these new times, and all the bricks and mortar paper on the wall may look good and feel good, but it comes at a great cost on many levels...
This is why I have decided to show all who care to see what better options there are out there for them, and also help them move in that direction...
This goes not only for my grandchildren. I see this everywhere, and if given the opportunity, so many people from all over the globe can take action...
This is why centers such as Wealthy Affiliate have legs, they will continue to go and grow. There is also room for more such websites and services...
Good discussion and I hope that this affiliate marketing thing provides a good source of some additional income for you!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Thank you, Dave