A Decision Made.....Sort of

All this past week I secluded myself in my room and researched the heck out of schools and jobs. I drove myself batty, changed my mind a dozen times, remembered exactly why I did a Bachelor's in Anthropology/Archaeology the first time (nothing else gave me the warm fuzzies), and finally brought my head, heart, and wallet together in some sort of compromise. I think.

You see, yesterday morning I was all set on going for a Bachelor's in Accounting. It is a career path with the potential to make a decent amount of money and I think I'd have a reasonable chance of doing well at it, perhaps even enjoying it. However, as I looked through the class offerings at my old alma mater I could tell that my heart just wasn't quite sold. And so, my uneasy feelings, combined with the thought of paying for another Bachelor's degree in a subject I wasn't sure about, left me feeling a little cold.

So I researched again. This time I came up with Medical Billing & Coding. There's a lovely little accredited community college about an hour and fifteen minutes away from me that offers this as an Associate's degree. Best of all, they offer an online program for it. Bad news is I'm pretty sure I'm too late to sign up for fall and I'm not sure if I could start in the spring or not. The only good thing about starting later is that I would have time to look into scholarships.

Then I started thinking, maybe I should do the Bookkeeping Certificate at the local school as well. It's only a year-long program and I could probably handle doing both at the same time for one semester if I started the Billing & Coding in the Spring. That way I'd have two potential career paths.

But then two things happened. I looked up the median salary for Billing & Coding and I came across an article (which I can't find now or I would link to it) on the Choice Moms site that had the results of a Choice Mom income survey. Most of the women that answered said they made in the $60,000 - $90,000 range, I believe, with a good chunk making more than that. The median salary for Billing & Coding doesn't even come close to $60,000, in fact it is far less and since that is the median income there is a chance I wouldn't even make that much. Would it be enough to raise a child on my own?

This has led me to test the waters of Computer Programming, another career choice I would probably need a Bachelor's for, and so far I am undecided on this one.

So, my plan for now is to probably sign up for the Bookkeeping Certificate. Meanwhile I will attempt to make a career path choice in time to sign up for Spring or Fall 2014.

Unless a lucrative job, that I would feel confident doing, comes my way in the next couple months (hear that Universe??).

If anyone has advice on jobs or career paths or the cost of raising a child (or two) on your own, please chime in, any advice would be helpful. I know money is a sensitive subject, and one few people feel comfortable openly discussing, so if you'd rather e-mail, my e-mail address is in my new Other page. Also, I have seen this PDF and read most of the Can You Afford It? page on Choice Moms, if that helps.