 In this video I'm going to be talking about how much you make at every single education level all the way from less than a high school diploma to a doctorate. I'm also going to be covering some other key metrics that you should consider if you are thinking about getting one of these degrees. Things like how much debt you typically have to take out for each education level, what the unemployment rate is like for each education level, and also how long it's going to take for you to get each individual type of degree. Now if you appreciate this type of video let me know by gently tapping that like button and commenting down below and if you're new to the channel make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the notification bell so that you don't miss out on future content. Now one thing I talk about a lot on this channel is you've got one opinion that's way over on this side where usually you know older people have this opinion where they're just like go to college you know get a college degree no matter what doesn't even matter what major you get doesn't matter what degree you get you should always get a college degree no matter what and then on the other side of the spectrum people say college is a scam don't go to college at all you know buy my $1,997 course learn how to make money yourself and the reality is the truth is somewhere in the middle not every college degree is worth it some are scams but at the same time going to college in many cases is going to be something that is going to enrich you not only financially but also in your life but on this channel I focus mostly on the financial part of it just because it seems like this is something that almost everybody ignores and by the way if you're wondering what career or sub career that you should go into check out my six step guide down below it's completely free and it's going to help you to choose your dream career this is also going to lead you to sign up to my newsletter where I will be releasing exclusive content every week or so all right so first one we are going to talk about is people who get less than a high school diploma the median yearly pay in the united states of america is going to be about 27 thousand dollars now that is relatively low for a first world country like the united states that has high cost of living and on top of that the unemployment rate for people who have less than a high school diploma is 11.7 percent now by the way all this data is based off of bls statistics that's bls.gov now does this mean that if you have less than a high school diploma you are bound to be poor for your entire life and there's no way you can ever make money absolutely not there are still some jobs that are pretty good even without a high school diploma you can find some really good jobs in the trades for instance plumber h-back technician you could also be a truck driver now this is something where if you don't like high school which a lot of people really don't like high school it's kind of a waste of time in many cases let's be honest because school sucks some people do drop out of high school and they end up going into one of these fields and sometimes that can work out for them but if you're looking at averages and medians usually not going to be the best choice next we're going to be talking about people who get a high school diploma now just by getting a high school diploma the yearly pay jumps about $10,000 from 27,000 a year to 37,000 now this is still relatively low for living in the united states where the cost of living is high and on top of that the unemployment rate for those who only have a high school diploma is about nine percent now how long does it typically take to get a high school diploma well those who get it usually graduate at 18 years old a lot of the same jobs are going to apply here there's going to be a lot of good opportunities in the trades for instance a truck driver you might try your hand at starting your own business there are some people that just are not made for school they just cannot stand school and so after high school they just cannot make themselves go back and those types of people typically are entrepreneurial types who want to start their own businesses but still if you're looking at the medians and the averages this is usually not going to be the best choice next on the list is going to be an associates degree and with this one you would expect to make about $43,000 per year so a jump of around $6,000 now one thing about a high school diploma is you typically would not have any debt with an associates degree you would usually have somewhere around 10 to $20,000 worth of debt it would also take about two years if you're going to school full time to get your associates degree and somewhere around three to four if you're doing it part time and for all of this the unemployment rate is about 7.1 percent so I will say my personal opinion on associates degrees is some of them are good many of them are not so good so getting an associates degree can be a good investment but you really have to do your research the next one on the list is going to be a bachelor's degree and with this one you see a huge jump all the way up to $60,000 a year so that's about a $17,000 jump from associates to bachelor's this is actually the biggest jump on the entire list especially considering the time that it takes to go from an associates to a bachelor's now the average debt in the United States that you'll have to go into in order to get a bachelor's degree is going to be around $40,000 now usually bachelor's degrees are thought to take around four years but actually the average student takes 5.1 years to get their bachelor's and the unemployment rate for bachelor degree holders is about 5.5 percent so not too bad so out of all the different levels of education bachelor's in my opinion all things being equal when you look at the big picture is the best bang for the buck now of course this is going to change depending on the person's individual situation there are many careers for instance that require you to get a master's or a professional degree but on average when you're looking at averages and medians pound for pound bachelor's degree is king next one on the list is going to be a master's level degree and you see the pay here jump all the way up to $72,000 a year now in my opinion master's degrees are very similar to associates degrees in that sometimes they're worth it but a lot of the time they aren't so this is one that can definitely be worth it for you but you absolutely have to do your research and make sure that it's necessary or it's going to help your career out now the average person who gets a master's level degree is going to go about $66,000 in debt and in total master's degrees typically take about 6.6 to 7.1 years in order to achieve and this is of course including the undergraduate degree that you have to get in order to apply to a master's level program and you do see the unemployment rate drop to 4.1% for those who get a master's degree so overall like I said master's degrees sometimes they can be great sometimes they're not great you really have to do your research next one on the list is going to be a doctorate and specifically we're going to be talking about a phd now the median pay for a phd is going to be about $90,000 a year and the average debt that phd's go into is going to be about $108,000 now before I go on I just want to say for those keyboard warriors that are probably triggered and furiously typing out a comment right now this is the average debt for a phd there are many phd programs out there that you can either get a grant a scholarship or some sort of stipend for and they can get paid for but on average people who get phd's are $108,000 in debt and typically those who get a phd in a stem related field find themselves in the least amount of debt so you're much more likely to get a stipend grant or scholarship so of course we are generalizing here this video's purpose is not to get into the specifics but you're going to see that you know people who get stem related phd's typically are going to have better outcomes than those who get you know literature related or liberal arts related etc now on top of that phd programs typically take about 8.2 years to complete and that's 8.2 years on top of undergraduate so really it's 8.2 plus 5.1 which is around 13.3 years in total so phd programs take a very long time now on top of that there is a huge dropout rate in phd programs many many people don't make it I didn't even mention the dropout rate and the other types of programs but with phd programs it takes a very long time and your chances of actually making it are relatively low because phd programs are extremely demanding now one thing that's really good about phd programs is the unemployment rate is very low it's about 2.5 so if you are able to make it through there's a very good chance that you are going to be employed overall from a financial perspective phd's typically are not worth it and the reason for that is because if you got a master's or a bachelor's all those years that the phd students are in school working accumulating more debt you would be working making money so not only is it not worth it from the extra amount that you make but on top of that there is a lot of opportunity cost to getting a phd so from a financial perspective getting a phd is almost always not going to be worth it now from the perspective of you know pushing your field forward making new discoveries that nobody else has ever been able to do before a phd might be worth it but again that's just my opinion from reviewing the data next on the list we're going to be talking about professional degrees and these are degrees that might be a master's or a doctorate but you typically have to get them in order to go into a very specific profession so for instance in order to become a medical doctorate you have to get your medical doctor or doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in order to become a lawyer you have to get your jd and in order to become a pharmacist in the united states you have to get your farm d now the median pay for professional degrees is 95 000 a year which is the highest on the entire list however the amount of debt that you go into in order to get a professional degree is also the highest it's about 186 000 but i do have to say here that the pay is going to vary greatly depending on the profession that you go into medical doctors for instance routinely make over 250 000 a year whereas chiropractors are not going to make nearly as much and the lengths of time that you have to go to school are also going to vary greatly as well so for instance medical school is typically going to take around you know 10 to 12 years if you include the residency but if you include undergraduate many professional degrees are going to take somewhere around six to eight years and the unemployment rate for professional degrees is 3.1 so generally speaking from an ROI return on investment perspective looking at all of these different options the best one is usually going to be the bachelor's degree professional degree is also pretty good and then sometimes a master's or an associate's degree can be good as well check out my other videos here i made them just for you go ahead gently tap that like button hit the subscribe button ring the notification bell and comment down below any thoughts comments criticisms etc that you have on the video and i will see you next time