Numbers

I really liked one of decker's recent posts, which contained quotes from Albert Einstein. The one I liked best was the one he apparently had hanging in his office "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts".
The numbers that matter to me at the moment are very simple ones. I'm trying to work out how I'm going support myself next year when I go back to being a student (hopefully a full-time student). Part time work, perhaps. puzzlement said I might be eligible for youth allowance (which will be odd considering I'll be thirty at the time). I'd really feel much more comfortable if I knew how I was going to support myself through full time study before I was doing it.
Then there's the question of how much time I want to spend studying. I've been trying to narrow down which maths course I'd like to do - a full bachelor's degree or a postgrad degree. I'd made the snap judgement that I'd like to go to UTS, partially because they have a Masters course which I could switch to if my finances started looking dicey and because I was a bit intimidated by USyd. It's also close to where I'm currently working. But I've just looked through the course program of the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and I think I'd find the pace of the course a bit frustrating. Granted, it's been ten years since I studied calculus but I don't really know whether I'm going to be able to spend a year going over things I already know. I can't believe it's going to take us a year to get to linear algebra - when I was going to UWS we covered that material in first semester. Perhaps the Masters really is the better option, or perhaps I really should be evaluating other universities and other courses - even the scary ones like USyd and UNSW.
Last time I tried to study mathematics, I was a cocky eighteen year old who didn't really pay very much attention to what I was learning. The only time I ever put any serious effort into any of my maths subjects was when I was afraid I was going to fail something, and I got 93% in the final exam. This time, I'm extremely focused and motivated to do well. Perhaps I should be braver in my choices.