Today, my Aunt told me:

More lucrative job opportunities await you at my company with a Master's Degree.

Her company's not the first to tell me that about Computer Science, especially when they're talking about "machine learning" and other "data science" careers. Sick of school, sick of hearing that I need to pursue more school, and not really caring what field I end up in, I decided to find out the truth about salaries myself. Near the bottom of my Computer Science department's website, I found out that the average Computer Science undergrad makes $72k, while the average graduate makes $102k. Also, tuition is around $9k at the time of this post. Also, we'll presume interest rates are at a conservative 7%. Well, get strapped in for some math!

To get a Master's, it'll cost me $9k * 4 semesters + $72k * 2 years = $180k. We can even be technical and subtract the part time jobs I work during the semester now, which would be $20k/year at most. Then, it'll cost me $180k - $20k = $160k to get my Master's, which can be paid back in just 3 years of working my new fancy graduate job, right?

Wrong.

You have to look at the difference between $102k and $72k, which is only $30k. In that case, it will take $160k / $30k = 5 years to pay off the opportunity cost of grad school, not a meager 3! Not to mention that all the money I save by graduating early (at least 50%) is going to be growing in index funds at an effective rate of 7%, which will amount to an extra $29k over those 5 years. On the flip side, the graduate student will be in debt $36k, and have a negative interest rate on that!

5 years in the future

But oh, I'm not so Smart if I don't factor in after those 5 years. Most people work 40 years, so getting that extra $30k/year really pays off in the long term, doesn't it? Nope. How many 40 year olds in computer science get paid more because they have a Master's? Also, do you really want to work longer? Personally, I want to go crazy and retire in my 30s so I can go out and make a difference in the world doing what I love, not stuck behind a desk until I'm so old I only have 20% of my weakened life left.

Let's say even with lots of career progression it will take me 5 years to "catch up" to a master degree's salary, and that it happens in one big pay raise. Then I'm losing the starting gap over 5 years, which is ($102k - 72k) * 5 = $150k, still less than $152k I lose by going to school. Once you factor in the 3% income tax bracket jump at $92k over 5 years, it's closer to around $140k. Also, you have to factor in that I'm going to be saving at least half my salary for those 2 years in index funds, which amounts to 70*1.07^5=$28k extra over those 5 years, which will compound even more in nice IRAs over my lifetime. So really, getting a Master's would lose me around $152k + $28k - $140k = $40k in just 5 years!