How to plan your own investments in education?
Paying for your own education is indeed an investment, as it will bring a positive return to your pocket in the medium and long term. See some important steps you need to follow to be able to plan your investments in personal education.
Define your professional goals
If you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll end up going nowhere. This applies perfectly to the context of academic training. First of all, you need to think about your professional goals.
By high school, this involves choosing a university course. But, after graduation or when the individual is already inserted in the labor market, decisions regarding specialization courses and training must take into account their profession and career progression.
Bearing this in mind will help you decide whether you want to direct your investments in education towards an MBA or a master’s degree, for example.
Discover your return on investment
Decisions regarding its training should be based mainly on the financial return it will generate. So, calculate in a practical way how much you will need to invest and what will be the increase in revenue you will have.
For example, let’s say you need to invest 10,000 in a specialization course lasting 18 months. Upon completion, you will have an increase of R$ 1,500 in your salary. So it will take you about 7 months to recoup your investment. However, after 1 year of training, you will have R$ 8 thousand more in your pocket.
Even if the return is not as immediate or expressive, remember that investing in education is a long-term undertaking. A title you earn with additional training is carried over your entire life.
Know how much you have to invest
Some courses and training are shorter and more punctual. Others require a long-term commitment, such as an undergraduate or graduate degree. This means that it may be necessary to postpone travel plans, the acquisition of goods and even having children. Your investments in education will be the seeds that will reap the harvest of all this, however, later. So it’s worth the wait.
This will also affect how much you have available to cover the costs. It is necessary to balance some points, such as the teaching modality (face-to-face or distance), size of the institution, characteristics of the course, etc.
So, if the course you want to take at the chosen institution is above your budget, it might be interesting to postpone the plans until you have gathered the necessary amount.
Negotiate payment methods
You can find very flexible payment options. Some institutions allow you to continue to pay the investment even after completing the course. In other cases, you can seek financing offered by banks or the government, as is the case with FIES (Student Financing Fund) .
It is also always valid to look for public educational institutions that offer free quality education, as is the case of federal and state universities.
You can also multiply your investments in education by getting good discounts by paying in cash or by paying the course installments in advance. You can use both your educational savings and salary additions, such as 13th, vacations and other bonuses.
Create a reservation
As you have seen, everything can come out much cheaper when we have an amount to pay for the investment in education in cash. And it is important to remember that academic training is not a one-off action; throughout your career, you will need to hone your skills and update your knowledge many times.
So, have a financial reserve to pay for your investments in education. In this way, your professional development will not be compromised or abandoned to chance.
Why is it worth investing in education itself?
The driving force for the multiplication of assets is study, so that if you need more budget space to invest in your children’s education, you cannot neglect your own education. And there are reasons for that.
Increased competitiveness in the job market
Being competitive is molding in yourself a set of skills that allow you to face the forces of market competition, presenting yourself as differentiated and interesting to the strategy of any company. And that changes your salary.
According to data collected by researchers at Insper, a worker with a university degree can earn up to 5.7 times more than others.
Skills development
Investing in education expands your versatility in the market, creating and honing new skills that will make you a more complete professional, capable of seeing business dynamics from its multiple aspects.
It would be the example of a lawyer who takes a second degree in Information Technology (IT) to work in the area of Digital Law. Or an engineer who specializes in robotics, taking advantage of the explosion of new technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Career qualification
You can also stay in your area, but deepen your knowledge more and more. You can take a postgraduate course, study abroad or attend conferences and seminars relevant to your industry. All this strengthens your career qualification .
