I disagree, very few in that industry (physical construction part, small scale) have advance degrees. It’s pretty typical.
And frankly, it doesn’t matter if you have a degree or not, 20 years in an industry, you’re marked. A complete start-over is possible, but it’s a big uphill battle. Everybody will look at you like you’re going to hop ship as soon as your ‘industry’ turns-around.
Keep planning well, the desolation train is coming for many on this board, programmers, software engineers, medical people, your good job days are numbered.
They had until about 2008 to get out with money, a little money, that $100K equity turns into $50K cash in pocket after commission and tough post bubble sales cycle.
You going to rent to a family with $50K in the bank, no jobs and two kids, a credit score that’s already getting beaten because of the house payments? Are you going to take 60% of that last next egg and give it to some schmucky landlord for a place to live for year when the news has been running stories about renters getting caught in the landlord’s foreclosure? It might be a non-zero number, but I suspect the number of landlords that won’t take that deal is much larger. Needle in a haystack solutions are really viable solutions, they’re flukes.
They spent pretty wildly, but be honest, being in a home you bought for $321K and is being beaten on by agents to sell for a million plus is going to leave you feeling pretty flush.