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Education has traditionally been one of the largest determinants in predicting an individual's financial success. There is a direct correlation. Those with higher levels of education earn substantially more money throughout their lifetimes. There are multiple reasons for this.

• Higher levels of education correlate to higher levels of employment. According to a U.S. Census study in 1999, 83.6% of those with professional degrees had full time jobs, as opposed to 73.9% that had dropped out of college. 73.1% that had never attended college, but were high school graduates had full time jobs, while only 65.3% of high school dropouts maintained full time employment. What were the other 34.7% spending their time doing? We probably don't want to know.

• The same study found that, not only were those with higher levels of education more likely to be employed on a full time basis, they also had higher annual salaries. You'd hope all that time spent slogging through the mud on the way to class counted for something. Those with a professional degree pulled down an average of $109,000 every year, while those with Bachelor's degrees averaged less than half that, $52,000. If you snoozed through high school, but at least walked on graduation night, you were rewarded with an average salary of $30,400, according to the survey, while snoozing without managing to make it across the graduation stage only netted you an average of $23,400.

• In addition to the education itself, the academic setting lends itself to social networking opportunities. Avail yourself of those, and maintain those relationships throughout your adult life, and you'll be made aware of all sorts of interesting investment opportunities, jobs, and great business & political connections. The value of those is probably incalculable. Many of the best jobs are unadvertised. Various estimates place the number of jobs that are unadvertised at between 75% and 85%. That means you have to know someone to get them. That means networking. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's 2002 statistics, 23% of jobs were landed through alumni or other school contacts. Networking is why sports like golf have been traditionally associated with business. When I was in college, my golf instructor even went so far as to say “You may think this is a PE class, but it's not. Golf is a business class.”. The old adage, “It's not what you know, it's who you know” has never been more true.
  

If you've no, or very little education, don't despair. The world is replete with stories of those with lower levels of education who have made large fortunes. Those were all, by definition, exceptional individuals. Most have done so through keen insight, sheer force of personality, and plain hard work. Is that you? Take the world's richest man, William Gates III. He dropped out of college. He is, however, a man with a vision that caused a paradigm shift, one unafraid to tackle anything head on, and a tireless worker. Les Schwab, was an orphan with no extended education who, starting with a single store, went on to build the second largest independent tire & automotive services chain in the U.S. They now have over 400 stores and sales of over $1.5B.

You can go back to school and get an education, but it's difficult when the pressures and obligations of modern life intrude. Many people today are taking advantage of on line degree programs from universities that target working individuals. Two of these a DeVry University and the University of Phoenix. You won't get the social networking benefits of a traditional education, but you'll receive the other benefits. The numbers, however, are on your side. Those with an advanced degree will earn, on average, over $2.5 million throughout their lifetimes. Those with a high school education will pull down less than half that. Which group would you like to be in?