[jtaby]

I'm starting to realize that those who do what they love find more success than those who do what they "need" to do in the long term. I'm fairly sure that the children would also rather have parents who are having fun and are happy than those that are sad and bored but bring in an extra $20,000 a year.

I don't have children though, so I can't really empathize on a deep level, I'm just going by intuition.

[redschell]

It's a fair point, but you need to consider the fact that the extra $20,000 a year could mean the difference between a big college loan and a smaller one (or no loan at all!), and the size of your college loan, which will in time become college debt, can have a profound psychological effect on what you want to do with your life. I'm not sure I'd be confident in a start-up as opposed to a stable job if I had $20,000 more in debt looming over me.

[Rickasaurus]

That's one reason I'm glad I did the community college -> public university transfer route. My years in community college were about 5K each, and my public university were more like 15K.

I was able to pay it all off in about three years after getting out by just sticking with the college lifestyle while I worked.