Should you go back to school to earn a graduate degree? More than 25 percent of employers are hiring employees with master’s degrees for positions that had been held primarily by employees with four-year degrees, according to a 2016 CareerBuilder Survey of 2,338 hiring and human resources managers.

This may seem disheartening to those of us with four-year degrees, but it is just one in four employers—still a minority. For the other three, it’s business as usual, right? Actually, nearly a third of employers have increased their educational requirements for new hires over the past five years. And of those employers, most have done so for mid-level skill positions.

Because of this decision, they’re seeing positive results in the areas of improvements to work quality, productivity, employee communication, customer loyalty, and revenue.

So, if you’re in your late 20s to early 40s, is it time to go back to school for a graduate degree? You’ve got 20, 30, or even 40 years to go before you retire. Is the financial and lifestyle setback of a hiatus from work worth the potential rewards?

Costs vs. Benefits

Before you hand in your resignation, consider the costs vs. benefits of pursing an advanced degree as it relates to potential benefits over the course of your career. According to Peterson’s research, “On average, annual tuition at public colleges and universities totals nearly $30,000 and at private schools nearly $40,000. Other costs include books, supplies, and transportation (unless you live on campus).” For many families, this cost is far out of reach, and taking out loans presents a risk that comes with too high a level of stress to bear. After all, not all students graduate from these programs, and not all graduates find success in the field.

The costs for a graduate degree can be reduced by attending an online program while working full-time. This option also saves time, tuition, and fuel expenses, while enabling many professionals to keep their health insurance as they earn a degree. Of course, not all programs are created equally, and in some fields, in-person training is more effective or the only feasible option.

Where to Find Salary Data

A great place to start your research is with this Forbes list of the best and worst master’s degrees and the 2016-2017 Payscale College Salary Report’s Highest Paying Graduate Degrees. You’ll find some overlap between the two sources, but there are many differences. As you might expect, degrees in statistics, computer science, management information systems, and software engineering rank at the top of both lists.

Money isn’t everything. Both of these lists provide some additional data to make a more informed decision, including stress level, career satisfaction, and career meaning (presumably fulfillment with your contribution to society) ratings.

There is yet one more factor to consider: What can you achieve in your career in the time it would take to earn a degree? Let’s assume for a moment that you take two years to attend a full-time master’s degree brick-and-mortar program. If that degree could enable you to progress to mid-management, you might be able to achieve the same result by learning on the job and working your way up—all while earning instead of bleeding money.

Then when you become a curmudgeonly retiree someday, you can sit the grandkids on your lap and say “Back in my day, we didn’t need any fancy degree. We just worked 10 hours a day.”

Back to 2016 … If you earn an average of $65,000 per year compared to spending $30,000 per year, the net difference in two years would be $190,000! That would be the true cost of a two-year traditional master’s degree program.

In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But for many middle-class-white-collar workers, it is at least informative to sit down and perform a rudimentary cost vs. benefit analysis. Making a proactive, informed choice about your career direction can provide conviction and confidence in the path you choose.