This isn’t a post to say LOOK AT US!!! And there are absolutely no secret tips — but hopefully this inspires someone else to give doing graduate school debt-free a try.
My husband just finished his masters degree in Music Education. I am SO proud of him. He startedit right after we moved, we have 3 kids and it’s not like being a marching band director is only a 40 hour/week job. It was, to put it bluntly, ugly — at times.
When I initially thought of getting his masters, I just figured we would get loans out. I knew that we would increase his salary by him getting the masters. I actually sat next to an ASU loan officer on one of my trips to AZ. He mentioned that you can’t get a loan if you’re part time. I brushed it off, figuring he didn’t know what he was talking about.
Turns out, he did. No loans when you’re only taking one class. Phooey. I figured with just one class we could foot the bill. BUT, when we got here he had to pay out of state tuition. That’s about 50% more. Yay! We decided it was worth it to just get it DONE before our kids got too old.
I then figured we’d just take out a student loan when he went full time in the summer. Seems reasonable, right? Or, he’d get scholarships.
Turns out they don’t give scholarships much to people who are only taking one class, and they also don’t give them out for summer semester (when he would take the bulk of his classes). True story. He was awarded a scholarship during his middle year, which we were really grateful for. We were never able to secure anything else, though.
So, here’s my 5 tips for doing your Masters without debt:
1. Have a back-up plan.
I don’t think I could have eaten our savings down REALLY low without a home equity line of credit for any emergencies. I am a planner, you know. I kept thinking we’d use the home equity loan to pay for school (it has a great interest rate!) if we needed to, but we somehow always squirreled enough together to make tuition payments
2. Live poor.
Somehow, by having hardly ANY savings we just thought more poor. Does that make sense? If I had a loan but still had 10k in savings, I think I would have been more apt to spend. But, since I had nothing in savings I was more careful with each dollar.
3. Tighten that budget.
My budget has always been tight, but I kept it pretty tightly wound when we moved here. I kept it tight enough to have a few thundered to put into savings every month (and then any “overflow” money we had also flowed there, but it was important for us to have savings budgeted. Pay yourself first {aka, pay ASU first}
4. You can use an IRA.
We had a small ROTH-IRA that we used for a few thousand of the tuition. As far as I understand it (and I am NOT a tax professional) you can take any principle that you put in, out for education. The IRA started out pretty small and I am sure it was a good investment to take that for school. That 4k will end-up making us much more in the long run then it would have made on the stock market. I wouldn’t advise this for everyone, but it was a solution for us to make up the last bit.
5. Get it done.
Drew took a TON of classes each summer, and he tried to load his schedule as full as possible. The truth is, that a lot of people give-up halfway through, but then your money is just wasted. Pack your schedule full and get it done. And if you’re the wife. Suck it up. Get it done. Be strong.
6. I worked.
I still work, but I certainly picked up extra shifts on days I’d rather spend at home to help pay for it. My personal philosophy is that it is better to work then to be in debt. You have to decide where you stand on that issue. We were, however, lucky to find good daycare (that doesn’t mean it was always easy to leave her) and I have a flexible job.
7. We paid tithing.
Some might call it luck. Some might call it a blessing. I’d be in the latter group. To somehow squeak by is just a miracle. God is mindful of us, and I am glad that He is.
There was a point in time that I REALLY wanted to take my kids to Disneyland. I weighed using our tax return to pay tuition or to pay for Disneyland. I REALLY wanted to go, but ultimatelyI decided we’d go to Disneyland after he was done, and it would be THAT much sweeter. Thankfully, we’ve been able to save for the Disney trip and will be taking that soon. It will be sweet.
So, here’s my pom-pom moment. If you’re wondering if you can do graduate school debt free— you CAN. Just buckle up for a bumpy ride and it will feel SO good when you’re done. You can Do it {shish-boom-bah!}
If you liked this post – -check out my abundance budgeting checklist and my other money-saving posts below that.
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