Thinking about getting my Mechanical Engineering degree.

Hi all, I'm 24M working in aviation as an Apprentice AME, and will be licensed by the end of the year. I made about 62k last year, this year should be the same or more. Since I'll be licensed by the end of year, I'll get a decent pay bump and I should be making anywhere from 80-90k next year. I enjoy the job although i travel a lot of work, about 4-5months away from home. I don't think this is something I want to do long term. Unfortunately with most AME jobs, its either night-shifts or travelling.

So I've been thinking about going to university, in Mechanical engineering. Ultimately my main concern, which is why I'm posting here, I would be taking a pretty significant pay cut for 4yrs or 3yrs if i do some summer semesters, and once i come out of school, I'd be starting out around 60k a year. The same as what I'm making now. I'd be 4-5yrs behind on salary. As an AME I could likely be making 120k+ 5yrs from now.

To be able to go to university I would continue working, saving over the next year, and applying for 2027. I currently live with my mom and she is very supportive of going back to school. She'd let me stay with her for as long as I'd need. As of now I have about 30k in savings/tfsa, I think I could easily save another 30k this year.

It would be much easier to just stay in my career and maybe switch around jobs to find something that satisfies me, I'd have more money, I'd be able to buy a house, nice cars and all the typical adult things. But I'll always have that "what if" and maybe I'd end up regretting it. That's what my mom thinks, she thinks going to school is never a bad thing even in my case. I have 2 sisters that are older than me and still in school, one doing a masters and the other a phd, even my partner did her masters and might be doing a phd, they're all suggesting to do my Meng degree.

So I'm seeking the advice of my fellow redditors, I've been thinking about this in my head too long that my brain is just ping ponging.