Question:
$3000 monthly salary in Ekiti, Nigeria vs Ph.D. Scholarship in the US?
Family size: 5
Spouse cannot work in the US
Answer
PhD scholarship in the U.S.
What better way to set those three kids up for success than to give them a proper K-12 education in the U.S.?
We need to retire the mindset that “spouse cannot work” = “spouse is not contributing financially.” This is not true.
When a spouse is not working, s/he is typically spending that time on things that would have otherwise cost money eg child care (which is expensive), home-cooked meals (much cheaper AND healthier), home keeping, etc As such, the family still comes out ahead financially.
I would recommend strongly the PhD in the U.S.
The $3K job in Ekiti may not be there tomorrow, and the person will now be “too old” to do a PhD. Better to go for it now, and secure the future for themselves and their family.
No age is too old but if that person is struggling with the decision today, they will struggle even more in 5 years. So in this context, the sooner, the better. This is a decision that will get harder, not easier, to make. Better to make it now, than procrastinate.