To get my MSW or no...
Currently, I am a substance abuse counselor fully licensed for 4 years, 10 years in field overall from the ground up starting entry level in the behavioral health field and moved my way up, working at a crisis stabilization program that has a medical withdrawal management program attached (where I work in) and high-intensity residential inpatient services for clients with substance use disorders (it's an expanding jail diversion facility with a sobering center being in the process of being built.). I'm in my mid-30s, I make about $62K a year, give or take, $30-32 DOE shift differential pay, working day/swing to grave hours 11 am to 10 pm with flexibility Sun-Wed, my student loan debt is paid off which was about $10K. I don't have any biological kids and don't plan on having any, I'm married with indefinite plans of divorcing and currently cohab with my spouse as we have a $250K mortgage together with under 3% interest rate. My credit score hovers around 850. An emergency savings fund built up. And have retirement funds totaling less than my annual salary. I know given my circumstances I have lived a very fortunate life.
I have also been debating back and forth about whether to pursue my MSW to make more and be dually licensed in both MH and SUD, but I am not sure if it's worth the debt-to-income risk. I love the idea of being able to be dually licensed to better serve clients and just for my professional growth, but concerned of the financial hardship that getting my MSW will bring. As it stands even as a substance abuse counselor, I'm in high demand. There is a severe shortage of substance abuse counselors in my state. Although, being dually licensed would make even more valuable. Part of me also likes the idea of doing a lot less paperwork. I do full substance use disorder assessments and they are 20 to 40 pages each per client and I see up to two to three clients a day doing them. I'm told and have seen the paperwork for MH be a lot less, substantially so. Part of me is a bit daunted though by working with mental health clients with high acuity in mental health crisis stabilization as I know they can be mentally draining, my work offers anywhere from $28-45 an hour for dually licensed, offers to pay for half the tuition for those pursuing a master's program.
I'm also slightly worried about balancing work and school life for 2 to 3 years depending on whether I'm a part-time student and full time worker or a full-time worker part-time student. I have spent my entire 20s in school getting one bachelor's and two associate degrees 9.5 years of schooling total and I only use one associate degree and some knowledge from my bachelor's to apply towards my career. Given all my circumstances, should I consider going back to school to get my masters or know when I have done enough and to enjoy the duration of my career only licensed in substance abuse counseling as part of me feels like I haven't lived in terms of going out on vacations while my body is still physically capable.