Trucking or University?

One thing your not hearing here is that Trucking can be very rewarding!!!! Lots of people with college degrees don't make the money the truckers do. However Trucking is 90 percent you and what your willing to do to make it in the business.. Like in the real world nothing is handed to you that's worth wile.... But I do agree you can get close to a degree in a couple years after High school and have that as a back up if needed.

 

The best thing about the pay in trucking is also the worst. It doesn't take very long to get top pay especially compared to other industries. The problem is, once your there, your there. Very little chance for promotion or any significant raises. Not impossible, just rare.

 

Just going to college can be a big waste of time & cause massive debt. Most people in college treat it as grades 13 - 16, hoping it magically leads to a good job. Don't go to college just to see what happens.

Develop a plan for a particular job or career. Does that job require a degree?

If you go to college don't borrow more money (total) than your post-college job pays in first
year. Tons of people have borrowed house-sized debt to do non-degree jobs that can never repay that debt.

Take a year after high school to work or better yet, join the military for a couple of years & then use benefits to pay for college. Prior service students have a focus & drive to get their career started. They also don't have debt like an elephant on their back. Don't go to college until you know why you are there. It's not a guarantee of better jobs, it's almost a guarantee of massive debt.

It took me 20 years to pay off my student loans. The degrees were just expensive paper. I would have been better driving a truck earlier, making more money.

 

My life has been a twisting road to where I'm at. I've been a mechanic for 5 years hated it. Retail. Hated it. Autoparts retail and wholesale. Liked it but pay was ####. Wound up driving truck. I enjoy it. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably go to college for a business degree and then get into trucking with the idea to learn the industry and then eventually move into the office side of the industry.

Justy 2 cents.

 

Planning in advance is a good thing. As someone who has two college degrees and a cdl, here are my thoughts.

The world of work is changing and not for the better. Imagine that you worked hard through high school to get good grades, showed accomplishments in extracurricular activities and volunteered for social work in your spare time so you could get into a top-tier college. You get your acceptance letter then get to work on your financial aid package. Through loans, grants, scholarships and contributions from your extended family you figure that you can get your B.S. in mechanical engineering with only $100,000 in loans. That's o.k. though because you'll be starting at $60k/yr. working as an engineer for Caterpillar and you can work your way into a six-figure salary by the time you're 40.

You spend 60 hours a week studying, give up your social life and graduate near the top of your class. Caterpillar offers you the job you've worked hard for over the last 9 years (many engineering degrees are 5-year programs). Happily ever after? Two years later your boss walks into your office with someone from India, China, Vietnam or some other country with lower salaries than the U.S. He tells you that you're being let go, but you have a choice: You can either train the new guy to do your job for the next 60 days and continue to draw your salary and receive a good reference and a small severance package or you can pack up your things and leave today with nothing.

Many companies view money as something to pay executives or give to shareholders NOT to pay employees. Every year, CEO's go before Congress and swear that they need more H-1B visas because they couldn't find anyone in this country who has the skills they're looking for so they have to bring foreign workers into the U.S. to stay competitive. Currently, 800,000 foreign workers are legally in the U.S. and 85,000 more come in every year.

These same weasels are pressuring the government to allow robo-trucks to deal with the, "truck driver shortage". Ever see empty shelves at Target with a sign saying they couldn't find a driver to deliver the products to the store? Ever hear about factories closed down because they couldn't find a driver to deliver the raw materials they needed? No? That's because the freight that pays well always finds a driver willing to take it. The, "shortage" only affects the low-ballers who expect a driver to deliver their load for less that the cost of the diesel it takes to get it where it's going. The real problem is they don't want to pay the market rate for freight. The horror!

With all that in mind your first priority is to learn a skill. Driving a truck, welding, brewing, carpentry, plumbing or whatever. Why? Well, the return on investment is much faster - you can usually make $20+/hr. in two years of less. Even if you decide you don't like welding in less than a year you can earn enough to go to truck driving school. Cash flow gives you options. Also, most of the skills can turn into your own business. You can pay a new guy $20/hr. and bill his time out at $50/hr. You're not at the mercy of a large corporation with a set of skills that only large corporations want.

Got your skill? Got disposable income? Take some classes at your local community college. Learn what you like. No need for loans. If you find something you like you can study it further and get a degree or not. If you decide to go to school full-time you can cut your work to part-time to pay for it. If you decide that isn't for you and you want to drop out or change your major you don't have to add tens of thousands of dollars to your student loans.

I know a girl who went to college for three years then dropped out. $60,000 in student loans and no skills. She then enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu and graduated - another $40,000 in loans. She got a job as a pastry chef at an Indian casino that paid $10/hr. The point is that at 18 you don't know enough about life or yourself to go into debt for decades while you figure it out.

 

Its true. Once you get out into the workforce, its harder to go back to school. Especially if you're tied down with a mortgage and other loans. I've been wanting to go back and get a welding ticket but that would mean taking a big pay cut for the next 3-4 years. I've even considered going back and getting a Bachelor of Education so I could teach in trade school one day. Again that means trying to squeeze college in around a work day or taking 2-4 years off and becoming a full time student.

 

@Lunatic Fringe very well said

Driving can be very lucrative. It can also be very impovrishing. Want to get home regularly? Better find a company that does specialty crap in your area. Don't care about getting home? Box your crap up and leave it at the parents house. Live in the truck (sounds extreme but a few months on the road you won't think it so bad) and SAVE THAT MONEY. With staying out 3 weeks or more you will likely be taking home 1000 a week at the right place...with no rent or utilities to pay for you can live off 75 bucks a week or less on the road. Stack the cash and eventually you could buy your own truck, a house, start a buisness, or invest it. 10% a year on your money is doable. Eventually after 5 or 10 years you could live off returns on investments

 

Got a bunch of welding certs before getting a cdl. You think driving is boring how bout staring at a weld puddle for 12 hours a day lol

 

I wouldn't want to do it all day long. I'm fairly decent with the stick welder and cutting torch. Would like to learn to TIG aluminum and stainless though.

 

Do both.
Use the first, university, to wizen yourself about a particular subject or topic that interests you. The debt that people are carrying on about..... You're going to be indebted one way or another, so that's fairly irrelevant. What's $20 or $120,000 when you don't have 0.50 cents to spare? No difference.

If schooling doesn't lead to a job you're happy with, start trucking.

If school lands you a job you're happy with and you still wanna truck, do it per diem.

Isn't one single thing wrong with educating yourself, even if the cost is outrageous. But at the end of the day, ensure you've done it for you - not anybody else.