Finish school first

Finish for a better job and years to come!!!!

Don't put your education on hold! You will get better paycheck with a degree !! Go ahead !! Please take care of yourself always.

Personally I would say no because it's going be hard to get back to it I'm in the same situation right now. In fact I don't know if I'm ever going to get back to it.

Hi Mark, Every course puts you that much closer to your goal. I worked full-time and went to night school back in the days. There are so many more options available with distance learning that I would encourage you to never completely "stop" working towards your degree. Dave Ramsey speaks of the principle of delayed satisfaction, living on rice and beans and doing whatever it takes with singular focus. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals, use ALL available time to study, although it might seem extreme, I use to study during lunch breaks, listen to lectures in the car - yes, the social life was nonexistent but the pay off in the long run is worth it. I do believe that availing yourself of financial aid is acceptable only if your mindset is completion. Possibly jobs such as a night security guard might allow time to listen to lectures or review course work during working hours. Cut your living expenses to bare minimum. There are so many ways to economize when you have a goal...great second-hand clothing, cut coupons for food, skip eating out and pack your lunch...focus singular on your degree with a "whatever it takes attitude" be creative and the time will be fly by and the credits will add up before you know it. In parting as a hiring manager I much prefer an applicant that put themselves through college by the bootstraps because it shows me they have a winning perseverance and a winning attitude.

I put mine on hold, and now am going back. I stopped for the same reason, work and life especially work was killing me. It's the only true regret I have. Program I was in ended basically had to start over. Now matter how little sleep you get stick with it. It's a must to have that box checked to even get in the door with a good company even if your a previous rock star in the company. Times have changed, the pedulum of academia may change back but right now it pretty much a nesesity to have the degree. Stick with iy.

I would go to a school or university that has student adult learning courses. One night a week, four hour classes and lots of homework, but at the end of 15 weeks you have 15 credits. Not sure where you live, but I worked full time, went the the University of Indianapolis' SAL and graduated in a little less than four years. All while caring for my teenage son as well.

Hi Mark, I encourage you to finish I have been working full time and going to school full time and being a single parent for 3 years now it is exhausting but trust me when I say if I can do it anyone can do it! It's all about how bad you want something that will help you I'm the future. I am graduating in December and although I know I have a long road still ahead oF me finding an entry level job in my field with no experience, I still feel I have really achieved something most people in my shoes would have given up on by now and that all in itself says something about my character it is really all about time management as I type this I am in between writing research papers trust me you can do it do not give up! Kelly

Hi, Mark.

I think my advice would depend on what disciplines your studies are focused on, and , unfortunately, you need to have a very good prediction of the job market in your field of study. That may sound obvious, but it wasn't always obvious to me. I'm middle aged now, having graduated from high school, followed by a liberal arts based bachelors degree in the '80s. I love the liberal arts and those social sciences which lead to *helping professions" such as social work, work for non-profit organizations, etc. I haven't changed in my feelings that I'd rather work at something I truly care about than be rich. On the other hand, I've had a hard time making a living wage. I started my work life as a newspaper reporter for small town newspapers in the early 1990s. My first newspaper job was interesting, but involved everything from reporting to helping do all kinds of really old-fashioned (even in the '90s) layout, typesetting, stuffing advertising inserts into the newspapers, bundling them, and even delivering them to local businesses. Eighty-hoyr workweeks were the norm. I didn't have a life and became burnt out from exhaustion. My second newspaper job was 100 percent professional reporting since it was a larger city day paper, but I found that by having moved "up" from a small town weekly to a (somewhat) larger city daily mist of the news I was responsible for covering was depressing, eg. lots of crime, poverty, etc. I get depressed enough reading or hearing this King of news (although I do consider following the news important to a free and intelligent citizenry) but I was clearly not in a career that was right for me. Of course II often hear that nowadays journalism is a declining profession.

After a a year or two I wandered into library work, and found a rewarding full-time paraprofessional job at a public library. At that time (the mid 1990s) the job outlook seemed fairly good for professional librarianship. I should have enrolled in a library science program back then. Right now I know of plenty of librarians who earned their degrees in that era and have since had full time work with full benefits and good opportunity for professional development.

I hesitated about spending the money to get the required Masters Degree to become a Librarian, until 2002, at which point I had a different paraprofessional job, also very fulfilling, which was part-time and allowed me flexibility so that I could complete my studies. My boss was very supportive of my endeavors and gave me opportunities to assist with collection development, reference service, planning and running classes in computer basics, etc. I felt that my future would be bright, and indeed libraries, contrary to what you may have heard people say, are not on the decline, at least not due to technology or easily obtained Google or Wikipedia "information". However public libraries have been greatly threatened by the global and local economy (I call metro Detroit home). This was the factor I underestimated in planning my own future back in the pre-recession 2000s. Since then I've only had part-time work in my field, and gave tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to balance a second part time job with my library jobs. This was very difficult because nowadays it seems more and more jobs are prt time, and yet demand that employees be available at short notice or on unstable schedules. I'm not sorry I went into librarianship, but if not for my husband's full time design engineering job I'd have trouble making ends meet. Fortunately we don't have kids (if we did there would be real financial hardship, plus I wouldn't ency today's generation of twenty somethings trying to figure g gainful employment while struggling to repay hefty student loans.)

The takeaway here is that I'd focus on deterning which choice will give you more MONEY right now. I regret feeling the need to say that, but we are still in recessionary times. So right now I'd try to save up what money I could,and then later when the economy is better (it may take a few more years, but it is cyclical), I'd reevaluate the possibility of gainful (and psychologically rewarding) employment in your desired field and plan your education according to that, changes in work force trends, and the cost of higher education at the time when you are ready to resume it. Of course if you are going for a job in health services or computers or something like that I'd continue with my course work and try to get my degree as soon as possible so I could start earning the large paychecks that professions in these fields tend to offer. Certainly I'd also make an appointment with a career counselor at your school. Naturally the counselor will try to persuade you to stay in school, that's part of his or her job, but you can steer the conversation toward future job outlook in your chosen field, including the locality in which you plan to settle for the next few years.

I'd also consider my age and level of stamina. If I were younger I might choose to focus on working as many hours as I could manage, provided that the more hours the more money (which was not the case in my first reporter job since I was considered salaried and also an independent contractor with no benefits. I was pretty naive before entering the job market and had to learn by experience). On the other hand I think this too depends on the type of career field you're planning. If you're going into something lucrative and with a good hiring outlook (again, this may vary according to your locality), I'd focus my energy on getting to the degree or certificate or other educational credential as soon as possiblle since this will maximize your earnings.

In either case, remember that if you're not in the career that is your true calling(but you don't find your career absolutely toxic to the point that you feel debilitated just thinking about it)by making lots of money and investing it wisely now you'll be able to follow your true calling later (and if the money is enough maybe sooner rather than later).

Of course as someone well into midlife its easy for me to have the hindsight to advise someone decades younger than me, since its what I might tell my younger self if I could go back in time. I don't know your age range so if it turns out that you are into your forties or fifties all I can say is invest your energy, as well as you money, as prudently as you can, but I'd still take the path of rack up asuch money as you can now with the hope of one day having enough money (and thus enough time) to follow your true bliss. The exception would be if you have children still living at home or elderly loved ones in which case you should probably work with someone who knows your career/financial goals so you can make sure you have at least some time to spend with your loved ones who are in a very fleeting stage of their lives and will really benefit from your being a part of their lives at this time. If you have loved ones who are at a less vulnerable point in their lives your relationship with them is hopefully strong enough to withstand the long hours you'll spend working and/or studying for the next few years, but you and they still need to have constructive give-and take conversation about things that are important to each if you, and you'll both/all still benefit from quality time together regularly perhaps just having coffee together in the morning and setting aside a half hour a day to just enjoy each others company (you can always set a timer or alarm clock if you have some responsibility to attend to that won't wait.

I imagine mist of what I've said may seem obvious, but I find its the type of thing we tend to forget when life gets cluttered and hectic, so since I happen to have a bit of down time at the moment I hope I've helped a little. Good luck to you

I was once told by a friend that I respected...finish school,at least at that point you'll have something showing that you accomplished something!