 What's happening guys? It's Shane here. So college majors is something that I talk about a lot on this channel and I've got an endless request to do even more videos on college degrees. And because of the fact that you've been consistently destroying the like button for the evil YouTube algorithm, I decided to make this video. I check it out guys. Wow. And if you've watched any of my other videos, you'll know that there are certain degrees that are definitely worth the investment and they're worth the ridiculous price of college. However, a significant amount of my audience finds themselves in a situation where none of the high paying degrees are in subjects that they're interested in. And in the past, getting a college degree and basically anything would set you apart and it really didn't matter which major you got. It was going to be a huge advantage for you. So that brings up the question of whether or not it's still true. After all, there are a ton of jobs out there that require a college degree even if it's totally unrelated to the tasks you perform at the job. Or at the very least, they prefer somebody with a college degree over somebody who doesn't have one. So in this video, we're going to dive into the evidence and settle once and for all the debate on whether getting a college degree is worth it no matter what degree that you get. You asked for it. So if you're not the academic type, there's actually a lot of good news out there for you. Really? Good news? The Georgetown University study showed that there's over 30 million jobs that pay over $55,000 a year and don't require a degree of any sort. On top of that, there's a ton of trades jobs out there like plumbing or electrician that pay over $50 an hour after you get a few years of experience and you know, around five years or so, and you can be making over six figures a year. Sure, you won't be making that much when you're first going in at an entry level position, but you still get to make money right out of high school or just a few years after high school, whereas with a degree, you have to wait, you know, four years plus. And partially because of the popularity of college, a lot of these trades jobs are in demand no matter where you go and there's a shortage of people who have the skills to complete these jobs. So you'll likely never have any issues whatsoever finding a job and instead of looking for a job, they'll be looking for you. I hear you're looking for me. Now, another really great option that I'll mention really quickly if you don't really know what you want to do is you could potentially join the military. They have really great benefits and if you stay in there long enough, you'll be able to retire. And if you don't want to make the military your entire career, you can take advantage of benefits like the GI bill. So you get out after a few years and then you go to college free. I think one of the biggest problems is that people go to college without ever having to have a real job. And so they don't understand the value of a dollar and they really don't get how difficult it's going to be to pay off that $35,000 to $40,000 in debt. And if they did understand it, they'd know how essential it is that you make sure to go to college with a plan and get a degree that you know is going to get you a good job. Now, students are coming out of college with an average debt of around $37,000 and after you factor in all of the compounding interest, that usually ends up being double the amount. Now, if you consider the entire cost of college with all the room and board and everything, it's generally around $80,000. Now, the average annual income of somebody with a high school diploma is around $34,000 a year, whereas somebody with a college degree is going to earn around $48,000 a year, assuming that they can actually get a job. I pretend I have the job. Now, this is a difference of about $13,800 a year, which means the average graduate will break even in around five to six years. However, there are huge differences depending on which major you go for. For instance, engineering will break even in about two years, whereas psychology will take 11 years to break even. And let's say you go to school, get an education degree, and you decide that you want to teach preschoolers, well, they make less than $30,000 a year. And that is less than the average high school graduate makes. Now, the big question that everybody always asks is, is this correlation or is it causation? People who go to college tend to be higher achievers, and they're just more ambitious in general. So is that why they're making more money? Or does getting a college degree actually teach you a lot and give you an edge? Now, I personally think that both do play a factor, but if you look at the difference in time that it takes to break even between engineering and psychology, I really do think that you can conclude that if you go for the right degree, it's a very good investment. However, as the numbers show, getting the wrong degree can potentially put you at a disadvantage, especially if you can't find a job with that degree. Because giving the psychology example, for instance, and that's not even the worst degree out there, it would take you 11 years. And that's if you paid on schedule on time. A lot of people aren't able to do that. You might get fired from your job. You might not be able to find a job in the first place. So there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And this comparison gets even more interesting when you compare the average college degree to a trade like electrician that makes over $55,000 a year. Now, with a lot of trades, you can start making money right out of high school. But let's just make this completely fair, because some of them you do have to either go to trade school to get certified or you have to do an apprenticeship. So let's say you spend two years doing that. Now, usually with an apprenticeship or a low level job, you would still be making money. But let's just pretend like you're not making any money whatsoever, two years after high school. So they basically have a two year head start, and they'd be making over $6,000 a year more than the average college graduate. Clearly, this is a better option than just getting an average college degree, all things being equal. However, let's see what happens when you compare a really good degree like electrical engineering to a really good trades option like electrician. Now, as you can probably guess, the average electrical engineer will eventually pass up the average electrician. But the only question here is how long would I actually take? So using the same scenario as before, the electrician will have a two year head start, and there's about a $44,000 median difference between the pay of an electrician and the pay of an electrical engineer. So from the age of 18, it'll take the electrical engineer about five to six years before they even get to a $0 net worth. And this calculation isn't perfect by any means, but running it through an excel sheet, it will take the electrical engineer around the age of 29 to 30 before they catch up with the electrician. But if you look back to the BLS statistics, there's actually a lot more demand for electricians in the next 10 years. And so I really think those are both great options, and electrical engineer does win out by a little bit after about a decade. Now again, these examples are not perfect by any means, the electrical engineer is likely working a lot more hours than the electrician, for instance. And so if the electrician decided to work more hours or maybe start their own business, they could potentially make comparable amount to an electrical engineer. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't go into the trades. That's definitely not what I'm trying to say here. What I'm saying is that if you get a good college degree, one where you're guaranteed to get a good high paying job, it is probably a very good investment. So if you do your research, you look at degrees that are actually worth it, and you decide that none of them are for you, you should look into some alternatives. And some of these include finding one of those 30 million high paying jobs that don't require a college degree, going into a trades career, joining the military, maybe starting your own business, becoming an entrepreneur, something along those lines. Or at the very least, you can take a gap year and basically just start working so that you can get a little bit of a taste of what the real world is like. Welcome to the real world. And then when you do decide to go to college, I really highly recommend going to a community college for the first two years to save money. If you still don't know what you want to do, you can just take general classes until you find something that interests you. All of these are much better alternatives than spending $80,000 on a degree that won't give you any advantage or edge in the marketplace. Now I've talked about this in other videos, but after all, the reason the student debt crisis exists is because about a generation ago, they privatized student loans. And so if you get an $80,000 art history degree, you're making some rich guy on Wall Street even more rich. Now let that sink in for a moment. And I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue your passions at all. That is not what I advocate on this channel. No, no, perhaps you misunderstood me. If you're passionate about something, you can either do it as a hobby, pursue it on the side, or if you really want to do it as your profession, you're going to have to get creative with it. You're going to need to start a blog. I'm a food blogger. I'm staying all over a YouTube channel or something along those lines. Great idea. So for instance, I love history and I spend a lot of time either reading history books or listening to history podcasts. I'm also really passionate about film and personal finance. And so what did I do? I started a YouTube channel about personal finance and all of this is possible because I got a degree and something that I really enjoy, but it's not necessarily the thing that I'm the most passionate about. And it's so important for you to find the balance between passion and practicality. And I think one of my subscribers, David, summed it up perfectly when he said, passion is a buzzword to sell garbage degrees to suckers. I know because I was one of them. Make sure to check out my videos right here. I made them just for you. Go ahead, smash the like button, hit the subscribe button, ring the little notification bell, and then comment down below any ideas or comments that you have on the video. Thank you so much for watching and bye for now.