Here's the story:
Husband and I will be 40 and 39 this year. Husband lost his job in Dec 2009 when the plant closed;he was an associate engineer with 7 years work experience but no degree. His assoc. degree is now worthless, so we decided to send him back to school for engineering, knowing it would take 4 years and be expensive. One semester into this plan, we discovered I was pregnant (surprise!). At this point we figured the problem was insurmountable and we abandoned school.

April 2012....our son is one. Husband has been staying home taking care of our little guy during the day and working retail PT eves and weekends (I don't make enough to support all of us). we've been completely unable to find any kind of comparable FT job. We are paying our bills, but savings very little and making only minimum payments on everything. I'm realizing we were very lucky to find him the previous job without any kind of degree. I'm reconsidering the education plan.

Now, it would be very expensive...still 4 years to go. All of his education expenses and childcare (we have no family or friends in the area to help) would need to be paid for by loans. I'm guessing this will set us back around $70K over the next 4 years. Our current debt includes a $219K at 5.5% home mortgage, my own $61K student loan debt at $5.375%, and a $5K car loan at 4.9%. We have only a small amount of retirement around $35K, split between my 401K and a Roth IRA. A decent emergency savings around $20K. No credit card debt. No way of selling our home and downgrading for the short term; we are underwater and could never sell.

I am completely undecided what to do. Part of me says yes, take the financial hit for 4-5 years, we'll still have 20 years to recoup + he'll make a decent living with an engineering degree. The other part of me thinks I'm crazy for considering taking on THAT much debt at this stage in our life, with an already large student loan, a small child, and not much retirement savings. The reality is though, there is not much out there for him with his current education and skills. I don't really think we'd ever find him a truly decent job especially in this market.

Looking for advice. What do you all think?!

Jamie

What is a realistic earning potential when he gets out of school?

Starting salary in our area with a bachelor's degree (and he'd have experience) would probably be about $50-$60K per year. It would go up from there.

Something that might be worth looking for is university assistantships and/or scholarships. For example, I was able to basically get a free graduate degree because I got an assistantship which gave me a tuition waiver along with a monthly stipend for living expenses. In my case, I had to teach undergraduate students as a teaching assistant (not really "assistant", to tell you the truth, but that was what they called it lol). Anyway, I realize in your case your husband doesn't have a B.A. (so he couldn't get the same type of assistantship that I got), BUT, there are undergraduate one's I believe. I'm not sure if they really cover all of the tuition but that might cover some part of it.

Another option would be to consider trade schools to get certifications (which would cost less than universities, in theory. Or community college for 2 years then university to finish it off.

In my personal opinion, I wouldn't just go straight back to college in the traditional manner, because there's no guarantee that he could get a job immediately after getting a degree. And you don't want you debt to become unmanageable. Personally, I would only consider if you could find a way to do like in the examples I mentioned above. But that's only my personal opinion and I'm not the most qualified since I'm just in my 20's. Anyway, good luck!

PLEASE tell me your husband has ample life insurance.

If he were to drop dead tomorrow, you would be completely ruined.

You guys are in a mess. You have a massively negative net worth. More debt is not the answer. That said, I agree that you have an income problem, and need a way to increase it pronto.

But surely there's something between "continue working PT retail at night" and "4 years and $70k more debt", no? Does he have any interests/talents he could potentially monetize? Is he good with computers? Woodworking? Cars? Plumbing? All sorts of training and certification could result in a substantial income boost with just a few months of training, rather than 4 long years.

But seriously - your #1 priority right now should be making sure both your lives are amply insured. I'd say at least $500k each.

If he has his associates why is it going to take 4 years for a BS? Why doesn't he do CAD of Dental Hygienist something that won't take as much time but the potential to earn more is pretty good.

He may not get hired easily because of his age especially in that field imo.

How obnoxious...just wrote a nice reply and got kicked off the server. Here we go again...
Yes, of course we have life insurance. I receive ample through my job, and we purchased some for my husband after we had our son. I am appreciating everyone's honesty but in no way do I consider ourselves "in a mess." We easily pay our bills with my FT and husband PT. We chose to do the PT route for the first year so we could keep our son at home. One--because we wanted to. But primarily, because childcare is SO expensive in our area and we are not lucky enough to have family in the area to help. I agree our retirement savings are really poor, though. It was very frusatring to me to finally get a decent, well paying job after getting my Master's, start to save save save and then see the recession hit and much of my newly earned savings vanish (we used to have more than the $35K in retirement).

As for the "why 4 years" question: if we chose to do an actual engineering degree, we discovered his 20 yr old mechanical drafting degree is all but worthless. we chose the 2 yr community college + 2 yr university route, and maybe 4-6 credits transfered. And yes, we checked numerous community colleges & trade schools.

We are definitely considering something smaller scale, a 1-2 yr associate/ trade program as a viable option. Our main goal is to find something that pays a decent wage and something that fits his skill set/ interest. So, dental hygient, absolutely not; CAD or machinist or something similar, definite possibility, and we are investigating that as well.
Thanks for all of the replies--

While I agree with some that you should seek alternative solutions, I wouldn't rule out a 4 year degree off the bat. Realistically, your husband could still have 20-30 years of working after getting his degree which could EASILY pay for itself and much more. Also, he may want to change industries/jobs again in the future and a BA/BS degree is, many times, a pretty clear cut barrier to entry. Having it can open many more opportunities.

What I would do is focus on the cheapest way for him to get the 4 year degree, which it looks like you are already doing. 2yr community + 2yr university is a great start. Make sure you look at 2yr at a state school. Perhaps he can get scholarships along the way to help out, maybe even focusing on the fact that he is a non-traditional student. Also, part time work (or closer to full-time if he can swing it) to help offset costs would of course be helpful. One option would be to look into work-study options.

My mom went back to finish her bachelors degree in her late 30s and started law school at 40. All while raising 6 children. While she did take on some additional debt to do so, I don't think she would change things if she had the chance.

Make sure you are right about his job and salary prospects after getting the target degree. There are some fields out there (lawyers as just one example) where the degree may or may not ever pay off, because there are more graduates than jobs.

Also make sure that you can see the program through. If he gets 3/4 done and then gives up for any reason, you will be in far worse shape than you are now. That reason might be that you or your hubby change your minds (which you've already done once), you can't get any further loans, you experience some kind of catastrophe, including but not limited to medical problems and/or disability. You are going to get pretty close to the edge and you don't want to put your family in a situation where one small thing not going according to plan derails everything.

Also try to consider some alternatives. I wouldn't want to be a dental hygienist, either. But how about something technology related?

Do you think it might be possible to pursue parallel paths on the 2 years CC + 2 years University option and the CAD/trade school type of options? I'm not sure how much overlap there is but there are probably 2 year programs with employable outcomes that also would contribute 75%+ of their credits towards the BS degree if he decided to continue towards a BS.

In my opinion the main problem with starting out in CC is that the peer group you have is potentially less motivated or less ambitious, on average, than the university crowd. I recall reading studies on this - 4-year graduation rates are lower because the trends among your classmates are 'contagious'. Since you are not in the typical college demographic and I'd assume your husband would be quite motivated either way, I see no reason not to save money by starting out with cheaper courses at CC.

Good luck!

I work at a university and am an engineer. It has been over 20 years since I knew of an engineering student that finished in 4 years. 5-6 is more typical if you are efficient and well prepared.

I don't say that to discourage you. I say it to help you. If your husband decides to do this then he should certainly be up to speed in math to at least calculus before starting and should get a few of those "physics problem solvers" to brush up on physics. Things go very fast in the early engineering classes and it's difficult to catch up if you start to fall behind.

If you go the 2-2 route make sure there is an iron-clad articulation agreement between the university and community college you pick.

I certainly don't think 40 is too late to start an engineering degree but it is NOT easy. You and he will need to make a lot of sacrifices beyond the financial issues. You need to be prepared for that. Many 40 year olds are too set in their ways to do what is needed to get through. Those that do though are usually very good students and do very well.

Jamie, I didn't mean to be insulting, I only wanted to point out that you and your husband are considerably "behind" in terms of your ages and finances. You have a negative net worth of at least $11,000, in addition to however much negative equity is in your home, and you're asking us about going $70,000 further into the red. At your age, your net worth should be mid-six-figures in the positive, not negative, and thinking about going deeper.

I'm glad to hear you have life insurance, I'm hoping it is (as I said) at least $500,000 each. Employer-provided coverage is usually limited to 1 or 2 years' worth of salary, and with your husband being only part-time, I worry that it's merely a token amount. I hope the supplemental coverage you mention tops him up over $500k.

All that said, I still think it's too late/too expensive to be starting from scratch with such a time/money-intensive program. I think the best way he could serve his family would be to find a profession which is in demand in your area, get the necessary training and certification (maximum 2 years), and work his butt off and graduate at the top of his class. He needs to build his network, volunteer his time for experience during his training, and make himself into an in-demand superstar in whatever field he decides to pursue.

Maybe your husband could spend the next 3-4 years doing the "2 year" community college part of his degree part time while still working and you guys could pay for that part as you go, and then when your kid is old enough for public school (or public preschool if you guys have that option) then he could do the university part without having to borrow money to pay for child care.

It's a longer wait by 2 years, but moms make this kind of compromise all the time, and you could come out with less debt.

I read what DoingHomework wrote, but all of the engineers I know graduated in 4 years, and from a very good school, so I'm sure it varies. Adult students also tend to be a lot more focused than 18 year olds.

My dad got his bachelor's degree at age 52, a few months after I got mine. He did it through 10 years of night classes, first at the community college getting his associate's, then doing correspondence courses. Totally different situation, but now at age 60 he has a lot of job security and there's no doubt in my mind that without the degree he would have been laid off when his company shrunk by 70% 5 years ago.

Everyone, THANK YOU for all of the thoughtful responses. (kombat, no insult/offense taken...I'm here because I want some straight + honest replies! FYI, my insurance via work is currently $350K because I pay extra to multiply my salary. My husband's is 500K.)

This is all a lot for us to think about, even considering we need to take action very soon. The biggest stumbling block really is the childcare-- it's one thing to take out a loan for school, quite another to take one out for daycare, even if it's "cheaper" but still quality in home care.

Right now, we are leaning towards an associate degree that is standalone and leads to a job ASAP but is still part of a 2+2 program in case we want to do what a PP suggested, and send my husband to the university part after our son is in school. There is a very good technical college in the area that offers some arrangements, for example offering a Machining/CAD program that can be combined to create an industrial or mechanical engineering degree. He did get some of his 'core' classes out of the way with our attempt a few years ago, so that might help as well.

DoingHomework makes good points about the difficulty of the program. That is certainly a big consideration... physics and calculus don't show any mercy to the ill-prepared.

My friends and I all finished in four years though, from a top-20 program. None of us took summer courses either - we interned in the summers. 5-6 years is admittedly very common, but there were also people who did double-degrees and still finished in four years... so it all depends on the student, the workload they can handle, and the time they can devote to their studies.

Internships and co-ops can really help make the program more affordable and are also almost required for landing a full time job upon graduation. Expect the potential to earn a few thousand per month from June-August if you go this route.