My High Cost of Education (What keeps me going)

This is a blog I've been wanting to write for a while, just couldn't muster up enough energy or sustained concentration to make it happen....

I friend of mine recently was faced with a decision of where to get his MBA. His two choices where both great schools with solid MBA programs, however one has SIGNIFICANTLY higher name recognition than the other.

The lesser of the two was offering a full scholarship for it's 2-year graduate program. Sweet deal. The more "prestigious" school offered no financial assistance, but it is an accelerated program that he would complete in under one year. Long story short, he decided in favor of the "prestigious" school. I probably would have made the same decision.

Anyway, the point of this post is that he got me thinking about my college experience and the tuition I paid back then. I attended four years at a State school, and with room and board, my tuition in total was about $10K per year.

However, due to the career path I've chosen, in many ways - I'm still "at school" and still learning. And most importantly, I'm still "paying tuition."

The financial markets are not easily conquered. And most people who attempt to make a career in this field are washed out relatively quickly - one or two years. In the best case scenario, they just couldn't make any money. In the worst case (and sadly, most common case), they lose a significant amount of money.

I've been at this for 11 years now. And no matter how you measure it...I wouldn't consider myself a success. I've HAD success. But it hasn't translated into sustained and consistent profits. There were periods of time where I was making more money then I ever thought I could spend (but of course, I tried). There have been periods where I could do absolutely nothing right and paid for it with significant financial hardship. But most commonly, I have periods where I make two steps forward, then take two steps back, etc etc....

So what keeps me going? There are many reasons which have been sprinkled throughout previous blog posts, but I think most significantly, it is because I need to earn back the Tuition I've paid to make this work.

When I say "tuition".... I'm not paying tuition in the conventional sense. My tuition is measured in Opportunity Cost. A person with my education and talents (and inflated self-worth) could have been reasonably expected to have earned over $1 million in salary and benefits in the 12 years since I graduated college. When I think of that, it is really staggering to me.

So what keeps me going in rough times? Well.... the sense that I need to at least break even on my investment. Is that to say that as soon as I make $1 million, I'm going to walk away? Hell no. But I certainly can't rest until I've at least built my trading account into this size.

The cost of tuition is skyrocketing all around the country. But I've met few people who can realistically say they've paid as much tuition as I. It is my intention to make the investment worth it. I'm on my way....