1st year college student thinking of dropping out to pursue REI

[Benjamin Williams]

Hello I am 20 years old in my 2nd semester of college. I live alone, am single, have no children. I have no dependents, no car notes, nothing except rent, gasoline, food. The bare minimum. I have a part time job that just barely is getting me by. I am being as frugal as possible to get through school.

An associates works out to be 2 years if you take 5 classes per semester for 4 semesters. I have to take at least 4 classes to qualify for financial aid and I am taking 4 classes now. It is starting to be a struggle to work and support myself and pass my classes. I have 9 credits now, and hopefully will get my 12 this semester. That being said it may take me 2+ more years to just get an associates if I continue to skimp by as it is. Who knows how long the bachelors may end up taking.

Doing all of my assignments and studying is incredibly time consuming, and I have to keep my part time job to survive. Often times my work gets in the way of my studies. I have little to no free time in my current situation.

MY POINT IS:

If I drop out I already have a job lined up making almost $8 above minimum wage. If I start working full-time I will literally at least triple my income if not more. I will always have money to pay my bills and then some to invest with. I will have more free time to learn about the RE business and start building. I attended a local REIA meeting and met a lot of people that could be an amazing help to me in my Real Estate journey. Getting the time to work with them could be life changing.

Don't mistake what I am saying though. I know a degree is a very valuable thing to have. My only concern is that the time it takes for me to acquire it may be better spent doing other things like RE investing. 

My goal is not to be rich. My goal is financial freedom. 

Thoughts? Don't sugarcoat anything!

Thank you for reading

[Frank Jiang]

This is a math decision, same as a real estate investment.  TN min wage is 7.25 so your current dropout option I'll assume 15.25 hourly based on the information given or 31,720 annual.

You didn't really state how many hours you currently work but let's assume 0 for sake of simplicity.  Staying in college and not working creates an opportunity cost of 31,720 per year for two years.  You should also count the cost of tuition which I'm assuming is relatively minimal for community college (I assumed 5K).

If you manage to come out of college with a 45K annual salary (21.63 per hour), the IRR on your investment into getting a college degree is 15%. This is a pretty good return. Probably as good or better than any real estate you could currently pursue. 35K to 45K after two years isn't even an inconceivable jump.

Your return skyrockets over time if you can get even a slightly better salary, which I think a CS student should be able to easily achieve.  Stick it out, small advantages add up to a lot and are a big deal at your age.