What does one more step up the educational ladder do for your career earning potential? Or, perhaps more practically, what's the ROI (Return on Investment) of going to college or getting a master's degree? On average, the ROI for every step in your educational journey is positive -- getting another degree will justify the cost over the course of your career. Interestingly, there is no expiration date for advancing your education. The ROI is positive very late into your career, making going back to school a smart decision for almost everyone except lawyers and doctors. You may be thinking that getting a masters or a PhD is not your cup of tea, but it's important to remember that each step along the way matters. In fact, going from less than high school to a GED is a better ROI than getting a masters after college. Here's a look at how career earnings improve with your level of education:

The Average Arc

We started by looking at what an average earner makes each year of their career using Census PUMS Microdata.



Grouping together workers by age, you can see how an average person's income rises throughout their mid-forties where it plateaus until retirement.



This may look familiar as we started here with our analysis of dead end careers. The Impact Of Education

When we break down incomes by education, it becomes clear that more education equals higher earning potential.



However, the percent increase varies from degree to degree. The Biggest % Jump

What really stood out to us was the percentage increase in earnings between certain levels of education.



The most glaring is going from a bachelor's to a professional degree (lawyers mainly). That's a 95% increase in lifetime earnings, on average, worth a cool $3,100,000. The Jump That's In The News

The job in earnings everyone talks about is from a high school degree to a bachelor's.



Assuming you don't saddle yourself with crippling debt and complete the degree, you're looking at an average increase in lifetime earnings of 91.5% percent -- worth $1,500,000 in absolute terms. The Most Underrated Step In Your Education

It may not look very impressive visually here, but get your GED.



Finishing High School really helps your career earnings with a bigger percent increase than getting a masters after college.



If you make the jump all the way to an associates your ROI is better than getting an MD after college.

Calculating The ROI On Education While the graphs above make it seem like everyone should become a lawyer -- figuring out your personal ROI to education isn't that straightforward. Specifically, it's all in nominal terms that fails to account for inflation and how that impacts earnings over your career. Plus, there are plenty of lawyers that fail to make the average salaries listed above. So it's important to calculate your personal ROI of obtaining the next level of education given the following conditions: Your age -- the older you are the less time you have to "earn" back the cost

The direct cost -- tuition, classes, etc.

Opportunity cost -- the money you could have earn while you go back to school

Inflation and the time value of money -- money earned today is more valuable than money earned five years from now As you can see, the calculation gets rather complex quickly and doesn't even take into account what exactly you are going back to school for or the overall job market when you get out. Additionally, because the shape of the graph peaks later in life, you earn an especially big premium on your education as you age. This makes advancing your education even later in life potentially worth it if you plan to retire at an older age. With that in mind, we tried to account for the variables listed above in the following calculator. Is getting that next degree worth it for you?

What's Your ROI On Education? Details Age: Current Level Of Education: Less Than High School High School Associate's Degree or Some College Bachelor's Master's New Level Of Education: High School Associate's Degree or Some College Bachelor's Master's Doctorate Professional Current Income: Age Of Retirement: What's My ROI?