But before you get ahead of yourself and start dreaming of which ridiculously expensive car you’ll buy and what exotic destinations you’ll jetset to for long weekends, ask yourself this:

How would your life be different if you were $50,000-$150,000 poorer?

You’d probably eat more beans and rice at home than wine and dine at the classiest restaurants in town. But if you’re eating at home anyway, you could at least have a great-looking piece of paper to stare at — the one designating you an MBA.

Google “Is an MBA worth it?” and you’ll find many articles explaining that an MBA is really just an expensive golden ticket that almost everyone can get their hands on. Forbes, Fortune and The Wall Street Journal have all published articles this year arguing against the degree.

Even if your employer’s tuition assistance plan helps you out, you need to ask just one question before shutting everything else down for the next two years of your life: Will an MBA really make you more money in your field of work?

Seems simple, right? You don’t need a complicated decision tree or a life coach to determine if an MBA is right for you. All you need to know is if you’ll see a return on your investment and if you can still enjoy what you do for a living without starting over at another company. It’s not rocket science — that’s way more expensive.

When an MBA makes sense

You need only tools that can add to your opportunities, which should match your interests and long-term possibilities. MBAs call this value. Most people call this obvious. Passion doesn’t need to factor in just yet, since most people don’t develop their passions until they get deep into their work.

In many business functions, an MBA is still either a rare commodity or the minimum entry requirement — think human resources and investment banking. If a quality MBA is rare in your field because most people have other interests, you can create a niche for yourself. Just make sure the additional business knowledge will add value to your work. The money you’ll spend on the degree could be a bargain compared to the added benefit of job security.

Alternatively, if an MBA is a requirement for your field, then your answer is obvious as long as you’re committed to sticking with the work when it gets tough. In this case, the MBA won’t provide any distinct advantage relative to your peers, meaning you’ll have to make up the difference with hustle.

In either of these cases, applying to business school is a smart move. Anecdotally, several people in my cohort hadn’t thought this through and had already expressed shades of buyer’s remorse by the end of the first term. That’s an expensive lesson to learn.

Knowing your fit is key because using an MBA to jump into a new field is more difficult than it might seem. An MBA doesn’t prove to gatekeepers that you can or want to do the work required. (Click here to tweet this thought.)

When to skip the MBA

Though Internet and business media claim grad school is an expensive mistake, it can pay dividends in the long term. That said, if you’re stuck with the whole bill or a significant portion of it, you’ll also need to consider the psychological and familial impacts of carrying debt.

Of course, you can skip the MBA and learn on your own. Pick up Harvard Business Review’s Must Reads Boxed Set, which include required reading course materials from many top programs. Then move onto books like The Lean Startup and watch The Wharton School’s first-year MBA finance courses, which are completely free. You’ll get a good enough formal business education, which is more than Henry Ford or Steve Jobs ever had.

In the right context, an MBA can make sense, even as companies like Zappos shed the excess hierarchy of management positions in their workforce. In many fields, working your way up in the corporate world still requires some sort of credentialed validation.

Fortunately, lots of flavor combinations work well with beans and rice.

David Buckmaster lives in Seattle, WA and works as a compensation analyst for an international NGO. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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The post The Most Important Question to Ask Before Seeking an MBA appeared first on Brazen Life.