One of the strangest financial things we do in America is ask an 18-year-old who has absolutely no idea what they want to do with their life to pick a degree, borrow money for it, spend four years pursuing it and hope 22-year-old them still wants the career 18-year-old them picked. And somehow we’ve decided this is the “safe” path. College can be an incredible investment when you know what you’re buying. You want to be an engineer? Doctor? Accountant? Architect? Attorney? Great. There is a defined career on the other side and the degree is part of the price of admission. But “I don’t know what I want to do, so I’m going to college” might be the worst possible reason to spend six figures. Because tuition isn’t even the whole bill. Housing. Food. Transportation. Books. Fees. Interest. Four years of living expenses. And four years where you could have been earning money instead of spending it. The published annual student budget at an in-state public four-year college is now roughly $31,000. That’s about $124,000 over four years before accounting for the opportunity cost of not working full time. And nearly half of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with student debt. Among those who borrow, average debt is around $30,000. Now compare that with an 18-year-old entering a skilled trade. They’re earning while learning. Accumulating thousands of hours of experience. Increasing their compensation as their skills improve. At 22, while their college counterpart is applying for an entry-level job, they may already have four years of earnings and four years of experience. But here’s the risk we almost never price into the college decision: 18-year-olds change their minds. The kid who thought he wanted marketing discovers sales at 24. The psychology major discovers commercial real estate at 27. The communications major realizes she wants to own a business at 30. Your degree doesn’t magically reprice itself because you finally figured out what you’re actually good at and want to spend your life doing. You already spent the money and the four years. Meanwhile, learning to weld, wire a building, repair HVAC systems, plumb a house, operate heavy equipment or maintain industrial machinery gives you something tangible: a marketable skill somebody will pay you for. And the ceiling isn’t the wage. Electrician → master electrician → truck → apprentice → second crew → five trucks → business owner. I’m not anti-college. I’m anti-spending $100,000+ because we’ve convinced an 18-year-old without a career plan that wandering around a university for four years is inherently more responsible than getting paid to learn something useful. If you know exactly why you need the degree, go get it. If you have no idea what you want to do yet, that’s perfectly normal. Maybe that’s a reason to WAIT before making one of the largest investments of your life, not a reason to make it. cc: @TS_Secrets