I think that you should borrow, keep your saving for later

The reason I post this is to talk about retraining and the costs and benefits available...

This last year, I was making $13.65 as a school bus driver... it was fun, but I figured that I could make a better hourly wage by upgrading my education and skills..

Heavy Equipment Operators should be making in the $30 / hr range, especially in the oil fields.

Making $17 more per hour is a good return on investment IMO....

Even though it will take me a few hundred hours to pay back the investment for the Heavy Equipment operators course , it's still a better investment than if I kept my $5000 in the bank at 2% interest.

One of the places that I talked to that uses Heavy Equipment Operators and 1A drivers is the Operating Engineers 870 local union...
http://www.iuoelocal870.com/

They have call outs to such places as CCRL (Consumers' Co-operative Refineries Limited) in Regina
http://www.ccrl-fcl.ca/current.htm

I am taking a heavy equipment operating course in Kindersley, SK through Great Plains College... it's a four week course.

http://www.greatplainscollege.ca/

OMG... not only is the course going to cost me $5100, but I have to rent accomodations for a month, along with food and gas..

Not only that , I've got to pay for my regular household expenses...

The question is... should I take money out of my savings, or should I borrow the money, and pay it off with future earnings??

The good thing is that there is a ton of work for 1A & Heavy Equipment Operators in Saskatchewan, Alberta right now.

I"m pretty confident that I can pay off $10000 worth of debt in a short period of time... other wise I have to reduce my emergency funds by $10000 which would leave me running on fumes.

Any thoughts?