If you\’ve been considering going back to school to complete your degree but find the idea daunting, you\’re not alone. A return to the academic life will take an adjustment, however working adults make the decision every day—and within no time, they\’re adjusted to their new routine of school-work balance.

If you\’re in search of motivation to get you started, here are three reasons to go back to college that have nothing to do with education.

1. You Can Earn More Money

You may have heard it said before and never believed it. However, it\’s true. College graduates earn on average $650,000 more over the course of their careers than those who hold only high school diplomas. In fact, a recent study by the Pew Research Center indicates that over the course of a 40-year career, those with high school diplomas will earn $770,000, while college graduates will earn $1.4 million.

2. You Are More Likely to Have a Happy Marriage

What does having a college degree have to do with marriage? Quite a bit, in fact. In decades past, women felt a strong need to get married earlier so they would have someone to provide them with financial security. The job market wasn\’t always good for women, even those with college degrees. Men were supporting their families and sought after women who looked up to them, rather than women who were their intellectual equals. That\’s why so many generations of smart women have played dumb to their dates….they thought it made them more attractive.

This may have been true years ago, but it no longer applies today. Now, men and women who are college educated are more likely to wait until they\’re older to get married. They also marry more for companionship, friendship, and love, rather than financial security and an ego boost. This makes for happier, more stable marriages regardless of income. In fact, college grads who wait until they are older to get married have a lower divorce rate, regardless of gender, than those without degrees and/or who marry younger.

3. You Are More Likely to Be Healthier

According to CollegeOnline LLC, a college degree can improve your quality of life. One of the ways it does this is through your health. Excluding all other factors, people who have more years of education under their belts are more likely to live longer and be healthier than those with less education. The children of better-educated parents also tend to be healthier than the children of less educated parents, too.

The reasons for this are complex. However, the two greatest reasons that stand out are that people with more education obtain more health knowledge through their education than those with fewer years of schooling or without access to higher education, and the additional money earned by those with more education gives them access to health services that people with less education cannot afford.

>Author Bio: Gretchen Guzman. Gretchen is a graduate student and social media intern for an online magazine.