Here's How Much the Typical American Made Last Year Based on Their Education. How Do You Compare?

Typical Salary for Americans, by Educational Attainment | Create infographics

Senator Rand Paul has said that you could fix a lot of problems in this country if people finished school, got married and had children, in that order. This graphic and the accompanying article illustrate the wisdom of following the first step in the process ad what it leads to -- a good job that can sustain not only ones self, but also a family.

A good education and a good job are the two best tools to reduce the number of children living in poverty. The proper order of family planning helps and it is the leading path to poverty for many, many people in this country.

People don't plan to fail, but they do fail to plan properly. Senator Paul's outline sounds old-school,  out-dated and some would say overly simplistic given the modern world we live in. But first, success never goes out of style and secondly, every dang generation thinks they are somehow different, but sometimes it pay to focus on the fundamentals. And here, it doesn't get any simpler than when football coach Vince Lombardi would open training camp with his famous line Gentleman, this is a football." Fundamentals never go out of style either.  

from Motley Fool:
Here's How Much the Typical American Made Last Year Based on Their Education. How Do You Compare?:

Those with just a bachelor's degree earn 47% more than those who have an associate's degree or who started, but did not finish, college -- and 70% more than those who stopped after finishing high school.

In terms of lifetime earnings and net worth, these differences have a huge effect. Those who earn more are usually able to save more. As those savings are invested, they compound more rapidly year after year, creating an even greater gap between those who can save and those who can't.

What to do about those rising costs? This creates a vexing paradox. While college costs are rising to the point where some are having trouble affording it, getting a college degree is becoming the demarcating line between those who earn enough to save and those who can't.

Of course, scholarships and grants can help for some, but certainly not for everyone. And those who take on onerous debt levels to finance their college education are often left with little at the end of each month after making their payments.

But amid the doom and gloom of such costs, there are two important things to remember.

First, a disproportionate amount of the student debt that has piled up in the past decade has come from those who start, but never finish, their classes at for-profit universities. This tells us that while the headlines make it seem like everyone is getting into financial trouble because of college, this small subsector accounts for much of the problem. While attending one of these schools might make sense for some, prospective students should investigate the public (and often much cheaper) alternatives available.

Second, every student-to-be should read our own Morgan Housel's plan for how non-rich people can afford college. In essence, it involves going to community college to get your associates and then transferring to a four-year public institution for your bachelor's -- all while working part-time.

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