One has to consider their age/experience as well. When I was 25 I was living in an apartment, intended to buy a house "some day" but in the meanwhile I was simply enjoying the freedom given by a job I enjoyed and paid more money than I'd ever seen. Learning to fly had been a dream since about age 5, so I bought an airplane, something I had never thought I'd ever be able to do, and put the house-buying plans on hold for a few years.
Financially, it was a dumb move - every nickel of disposable income went to the airplane, and I could have bought a house easily in two years if I had saved the money instead. This was in 1975, not a good year for the economy.
But it was also one of the most fun times of my life, and I figured (correctly) that I'd be 50 before I had another chance to do that. There's nothing like taking two weeks off and lazily flying to Oshkosh, WI to see one of the world's biggest air shows. I camped in a tent under the wing, right on the airport, and woke up every morning at 6:00 AM to the sound of a 737 taking off about 80 yards away. I had a blast and I'd do it again.
But the most costly mistake I made was marrying someone with about zero financial sense. Money burned a hole in her pocket like a five-year-old's. The tuition bill for that error was very high, but I was relatively lucky - no kids and there was time to financially recover.
So you pays your money and takes your chances. I believe a college degree is worthwhile. A lot of employers, especially government, sometimes don't even care what the degree is in, they just want to see the perseverance that getting one requires. Law enforcement is one of those - they want that wide range of expertise.
And considering the compounding effect of even a slightly higher salary over one's lifetime, the payoff for a degree makes it worthwhile, I think, even if it does take ten years to pay off since the benefits are lifetime. That said, it is hard to make a case for an ivy league school when the state school is a quarter of the tuition, or go to a community college first and then transfer. Military service is another option, that's been the ticket out of poverty for millions of people.
Learning to walk, everyone skins their knees more than once. Why would handling money be any different?