This & That
Posted by Gail | Filed under This & That
I received 23 Entry Posts for the Getting to Debt-Free section of the site. Thank you all for sending in your stories. Watch over the coming weeks for when your story is posted. I chose by random Pull a Name from a Hat method two names. The winners are:
- Diane’s Story, Getting to Debt Free, Accepting I Can’t Keep Up With the Jones’
- Doreen’s Recipe for Good Debt Versus Bad Debt
Please send your snail mail addresses to getgvo@gmail.com and I’ll ship ‘em off to you right away so you can get busy using them.
Lynda wrote to me to say she wants to join or set up a Gail Club in the Windsor/ Essex County area. If there’s an existing group, or people who want to join Lynda is setting one up, reply to me at the above email and I’ll send your contact info on to Lynda. Then, when you’re set up, let me know and I’ll blog your existence so others can join in on your fun and learning. Lynda, in my frenzy to clean up, I think I deleted your email so send it again.
Speaking of which, remember, if you want me to broadcast your group’s existence, just email me at the above address and I’ll blog about you so people can find you.
On my last blog, Marie posted this question:
Why isn’t there a separate line for interest accumulated on loans or credit cards [on my budget worksheet]? It seems VERY efficient on the show when you highlight how much of the budget must go towards that expense and it would make people look it up. How much are you wasting every month?
That’s a terrific last question, Marie. The reason the budget doesn’t break out the interest you have to pay separately from the principal is that I just didn’t think people would got to the trouble of using it. It’s easy to add a line to the budget and break out the interest from the principal when you download the budget, so anyone who wants to see in black and white what their debt is costing them, I encourage you to break it out.
Josef asked:
When I was reading the first few words of your recent blog, I thought for a second you were referring to piggy bank jars. I’m recently starting to fill one up. What’s your perspective on them?
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “piggy bank jars” Josef. If you mean using a jar to accumulate your change, that’s okay as long as you put that money into an account earning a decent amount of interest at least monthly. After all, if you have loads of money just sitting in a jar, that money is doing nothing to earn you more money.
Recently I’ve had a few of questions dealing with life and disability loan insurance, like this one from Jan:
Hi Gail. I have a question about my lines of credit. I have a loanprotector insurance premium coming out of my line of credit. It is $60 on a $50,000 line of credit. when I asked the bank they said that it is insurance on the line of credit in case of disability. Is it worth it to have this kind of insurance on the LOC?
Jan, while the insurance seems really expensive (it is really expensive), if you have no other disability insurance, then it’s a good way to protect your cash flow should you become disabled. After all, what could be worse than losing income to a disability and then finding what little income you do have eroded by debt repayment.
In a perfect world, you would have your own individual disability insurance, and you would have no consumer debt, so loan insurance wouldn’t be necessary. Until you manage to achieve debt freedom, loan insurance is part of the cost of doing business.
BTW people, if you’re breaking out your “interest cost” separately from your principal repayment costs, you’d add your loan insurance costs to your interest costs to see just how much of your hard earned money is going to supporting your debt habit.
And finally, a short case study for those of you who love ‘em:
Bobbi is a 24-year university graduate who feels she’s carrying too much debt. She’s currently working as an ESL teacher earning about $1600 a month net, and she plans to keep this job until she goes back to school to do her Masters in September 2009. Bobbi has a student loan of $23,000, which her Dad has agreed to pay off on her behalf. She has another $25,000 on a line of credit, and $4,000 in credit card debt. When Bobbi goes back to school for her Masters, she expects she’ll have to take on another $25,000 in debt. Bobbi feels overwhelmed. She believes if she starts making smart decisions now she can slowly build a bright financial future for herself, but she just doesn’t know where to start.
What would you recommend to Bobbi? Make sure your recommendations are supported by cold, hard numbers (i.e., what Bobbi will have to pay monthly to deal with her total debt load before and after her Masters degree.) You want to convince Bobbi that the path you are recommending is one that will take her where she wants to go. Firm, realistic, and supportive recommendations make the most lasting impression.
Do me proud, people!
January 19, 2009 at 8:32 am
I can’t offer any numbers, but as a graduate student (without any debt), I can certainly offer some tips:
1. I don’t know the nature of your degree, but most universities offer entrance scholarships to graduate students. If you can go to a university that is offering to pay your tuition, you ought to go there.
2. Again, I don’t know the nature of your degree, but if you’ll be working with a supervisor, I suggest contacting your prospective professors now to establish some sort of relationship. Professors are receiving grants all the time. If your supervisor knows you well, and you hit them up for a part-time job researching for them (or doing some other sort of task), you can earn some extra money while studying.
3. Are you going to be a teaching assistant or a research assistant (two positions assigned to you by the university)? If so, find out if you are part of a union or a graduate student’s association. Both of these organizations often provide bursaries to needy students.
4. In relation to the above, if you are part of a union, you might have certain health-care benefits. I grew up with a self-employed father, so all of my medical costs (eyeglasses, dental, etc.) came out of pocket. Once I got to grad school, I found out that these things were free (relatively speaking, of course — I have to pay union fees) and believe me, I’ve made the most of them!
5. Grad school is most expensive in September and January (because that’s when tuition is due, but also when students have the most free time because they want to go out and party!) so I’d keep that in mind and budget to need more money for those two months. There is a lot of socializing in graduate school — you’ll want to learn to pick and choose what you want to do. I abstain from drinking alcohol (because it’s too expensive, not because I don’t like it. Jack Daniels and I go waaaay back) and still have a good time (and a decent amount of money in my pocket on the way home).
6. You shouldn’t need to buy any textbooks in graduate school (well, depending on your degree, I guess). It’s been my experience that professors provide photocopies of articles, etc., but you ought to check out the local bookstore for used books, or contact former students to see if you can purchase theirs.
7. You’ll be on the same schedule as a lot of other people who will want to take “breaks” between classes (read: buy a coffee, which invariably leads to buying a cookie). This can get expensive. Bring your own snacks to school, and bottled water, juice, pop, whatever, so you can be social without spending extra money (unless you decide to budget for those small purchases, of course).
8. If it’s possible for you to take on a part-time job now, do it. It will leave you more time for your studies, and leave you less stressed about money.
Sorry I couldn’t provide any specific goals, but I hope these tips help! Best of luck
January 19, 2009 at 9:09 am
Oh! I LOVE THESE!
Here’s my answer to the Bobbi Case Study.
Thanks for posting such a fun exercise.
Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“
January 19, 2009 at 9:20 am
Two specific tips for Bobbi:
1) Definitely look into financial aid given by the university. Aid for graduate students is generally FAR more generous than for undergraduates, and well-paying part-time jobs are usually available on campus (for example, at uOttawa, our graduate TAships and RAships pay $36 a hour- but you can only work 10 hours so you have time for your classes and thesis)
2) Think carefully about whether to work full-time during grad school and take classes part-time. There are a lot of benefits but also a lot of drawbacks. On one hand, working full-time allows you to bring in a steady cash flow and build experience. You may also be able to get your employer to cover part of the cost of your courses. On the other hand, working full-time does NOT allow you to qualify for most financial aid or research jobs on-campus, as well as other student discounts like cheaper transit, and you may wind up paying more in tuition than you would otherwise, since your degree will take longer.
I chose to work full-time while getting my Master’s, and I have to admit, I wish I had put more thought into the number-crunching before I made this decision. It’s not as clear-cut a calculation as you might expect.
January 19, 2009 at 9:22 am
Bobbi is quite young and is, in fact, carrying too much debt; however, her father’s offer to help might make things more manageable. Assuming Bobbi’s student loan is a government student loan then when she returns to student status, she will have her payments waived and interest will not accrue on the balance. As a consequence, given her other debt, it makes much more sense for him to pay off the line of credit over the student loan. Bobbi should ask her father if he would immediately redirect the $23,000 onto her line of credit instead. The end result would be of much greater assistance to Bobbi both over the short and long term. This could leave $4000 in credit card debt, $2000 on the LOC, and $23,000 in student loan debt.
Now Bobbi can pay the credit card with her LOC, assuming her LOC has a much lower interest rate. This means she now has $6000 on her LOC. Bobbi should pay this off before she returns to school. Doing so would, however, eat up almost 50% of her net income. Since no detail is given about her other living costs, it is impossible to know if such a plan is feasible. If, however, she did this and managed her spending much more wisely than she obviously has in the past, she could start her graduate program with only her student loan debt, the payments for which she can defer until she completes her studies. Unfortunately, she would also have no money saved to pay for her program of studies and will likely have to accrue much more student debt to obtain her graduate degree.
Most graduate programs offer substantial financial assistance to students and perhaps Bobbi will attend such a program. There are also scholarships available through such programs as SSHRC, OGS, the Trudeau Foundation, etc. though if Bobbi has not already applied for these programs, than she is too late to apply for 2009.
Bobbi should seriously reconsider starting graduate studies in September 2009 and taking an extra year of two to accumulate some savings to pay for graduate school. Bobbi is quite young and taking and extra year or two before starting graduate school is not unreasonable. If she takes this extra time, Bobbi, once paying off her LOC, could contribute a portion of her income to an RRSP which would achieve an immediate tax deferral and then could withdraw this funding to pay for her studies, without incurring a tax liability, under the Life Long Learning Plan. This money would need to be replaced and she should consult the information about the plan on the Canada Revenue Agency’s website to obtain information on the repayment requirements.
Bobbi should take some time to estimate how much graduate school will cost (including living expenses), how much she can expect to earn during her studies (see Dotty’s post), to determine how much additional debt she will accrue. Bobbi also needs to consider what employment opportunities will arise once she had obtained her degree and what starting salary she can realistically expect (I find most university students overestimate their starting gross salary by upwards of $30,000). Based on this salary, she should calculate what her student loan payments, giving due consideration to how much she will accrue during graduate school, and determine if she can afford the payments.
Bobbi also needs to learn how to live on her income and cut her reliance on LOCs and credit cards.
January 19, 2009 at 9:22 am
One more tip:
Bobbi should do some serious research about whether a graduate degree is likely to increase her income and/or mobility in her chosen field before she commits to graduate school. I suggest meeting with her undergraduate university’s career counsellor, tapping into their mentor network, and contacting colleagues and superiors in her field to determine a graduate degree would really be of benefit (and when).
January 19, 2009 at 9:47 am
I think Bobbi should ask her dad to cover the line of credit rather than the Student Loan. Normally if you are attending school so there would be no payments required once Bobbi returned to school in September, but the bank requires that you make a minimum of Interest Only payments on a Line of Credit regardless of your student status (this will free up some cash and be one less payment that Bobbi needs to worry about during the school year).
It doesn’t actually state this, but I am assuming that Bobbi lives with her parents, so her housing costs are low and the money she earns is her money. If she paid the CC off (4000$) she would have approx 7200 of earnings available to her between now and September. If she could save half of that, she would have 3600$ in the bank. Bobbi could also look at getting a part time job (perhaps as a tutor), this could be a job that she can continue to have during her school year. This would allow her some money for spending during the school year. Also, let us not forget about TAX season! Bobbi is likely getting a return so that money could also be used to finance the coming year’s tuition. She also has lots of time right now to also apply for scholarships and bursaries.
52000$ is a substantial amount of debt but most of it is good debt (school) and the fact that your Dad is willing to cover 23000$ of it is fantastic. If there is a way for you to borrow less money to finance your schooling during the coming year, you could come out with your Masters and be in much less debt than you currently are.
January 19, 2009 at 10:08 am
First of all, Bobbi has waaaayyyy too much debt for her net income — she needs to find a way to increase that. I don’t know where she lives, but in Vancouver she would be sliding deeper into debt every month on a net income of $1600 with $29,000 in debt. If she works as an ESL teacher (that’s a notoriously underpaid and exploitative field) she may be able to make some extra income by doing private tutoring, picking up extra shifts, working at another school, whatever. A job at a coffee shop that made it impossible to spend any money for a certain number of hours per week would help.
I’m not sure what she wants to do a Master’s degree in, but she needs to consider carefully the opportunity cost of that degree. Of course, she won’t be forgoing a lot of income, but if she can’t expect to be able to increase that income significantly after the Master’s, her time would be better spent finding better-paid work in the field of her education or ambition.
Then, too, she should think very seriously about spending $25,000 for her degree. I know that that’s the price of a car, and a better investment in the long term, but while she’s carrying $29,000 in debt…. There may be ways to get through grad school with little or no debt. Depending on the field, she may be able to work at least part-time or nearly full time. My Master’s degree consisted of 5 courses — 10 hours a week of classes. I had an RA which paid me very little, half what Bobbi’s earning now, but I lived on that. I was happy to live very frugally, but I would have had lots of time to take a part-time job which would have supplemented my income, and I had no debt in those days to worry about.
If she’s planning to enter a program that would make working simultaneously very difficult (although somewhere out there, someone is doing a 40-hour per week Master’s program and working too), she should seriously consider whether or not she will see an increase in salary sufficient to pay off the extra debt. She could pay off $50,000 within 3 years, but doing so is going to cost her upwards of $1500 per month, and at an entry-level position in many fields, and even a job that gives her $30,000/year net will only provide about $2500/month. Can she live on $1000/month? Can she live on $1600/month now?
As someone who didn’t really enter the working world until the late 20s, I advise Bobbi to do the math and think long and hard about her options. She should thank her father every day for helping her out in this fashion, and ask herself whether accruing more debt is the best way to respect his generosity. If she’s an ESL teacher, going abroad for a few years might allow her to make more money, in order to pay down some of that debt. But before jumping deeper into the hole, she needs to think about her options very carefully before going back to school, and have a plan for doing so without accumulating more debt unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.
January 19, 2009 at 10:43 am
Hello!
Here is what I see regarding Bobbi.
I did not have the interest rates for her credit card or line of credit, so I made the assumption that they were 18.9% and 7% respectively. Ultimately, the exact rate does not matter for what I’ve determined.
I calculated that to pay off the current debts of $4,000 credit card and 25000 line of credit in 3 years, it would cost $933.18 per month total.
Given that Bobbi makes 16000 net per month, this is an exorbitant debt burden — more than half her monthly net pay. So, immediately, two things come to mind:
1) see if she can consolidate her 4,000 into her line of credit to lower the Card interest rate (and making her payments a little bit smaller each month).
2) Earn more money by taking up a second job on the weekends.
However, even if she did this and managed to pay down $933.18 per month, after one year, she would still have approximately $2860 (credit card portion) + 17096.92 = $19956 and change in debt. (and paid about $2000 in interest).
So, my third recommendation, in addition to the two above, is: postpone your Master’s education for two additional years while she pays off her existing debt. Try to be as conservative as possible with regards to rent and living costs during this time to maximize income. (small flat, frugal living).
Also – if there is any room in her budget, she should open a high interest savings account and put as much money aside for her $25,000 future educational needs. If she opens a high interest savings account, to reach $25,000 would entail setting aside approximately $660 per month over 3 years. Given her debt load, this may not be feasible even with a second job to cover costs, but any amount saved would help.
Finally: Look into the Student Budget Sheet on this website and make sure that it will truly cost $25,000. She needs to have a budget organized for her return to student life. Also, look into scholarships, grants etc — they are not a sure thing, but well worth applying for and may help out considerably. Finally, if possible, having a job whilst being a student — TAing, part-time work etc. — is worth looking into.
These are my recommendations regarding Bobbi’s plans!
Good luck!
xx
Chantal
January 19, 2009 at 10:59 am
Hey Gail et al.
As a numerically challenged individual, i have no ‘hard numbers’ which would help ‘Bobbi’. I do however, admire her choice of ‘job’ for the moment – ESL teacher and equally applaud her desire for a graduate degree. The only advice that i can offer is to say THANK-YOU to a man who will help you with student debt and not to ‘mortgage’ your future for a goal which could be pared down or somewhat adjusted until more cash is available. Don’t shelve your Masters/PhD objective, perhaps backburner it for another semester or two.
On a different note, i just wanted to thank each of you for your resolve strengthening words everyday. I read Gail in the am and your subsequent comments later in the evening. As a result of doing this and watching TDDUP for years, our budget/finances have never looked better. We are consumer debt free and even in the throes of this economy are moving faster toward our goal of debt-free than i thought my accountability avoiding self could move.
My ‘hunka, hunka, burnin’ love’ and main bread winner is in the auto-supplier business…the foundational impetus for the financial resolve. Late last week he found his name on an org. chart in the office…we cheered and danced a jig…safe for the moment!!
again, thanx all for your insight and tips…
January 19, 2009 at 11:06 am
The first thing I thought when I read the case study was that tuition must have skyrocketed! I graduated 10 years ago from an undergrad and had
about $15,000 in total debt, and I wasn’t particularly frugal! Having said that, I think Bobbi needs to get real about finding another job.
I don’t know what degree she has, a degree should get you a job that pays a decent salary. Perhaps Bobbi wants to teach, so keep teaching and find another part time job. OR, volunteer to teach ESL a few hours a week, and find a job that will pay you a decent salary. I’m making a few assumptions, based on the fact that Bobbi’s take home is $1600, I’m guessing that she is working for $12.00/hour, or she is not working 40 hours.
With a university degree, there are jobs that should pay her more. Has she tried to find a job at a utility? Government? Factory? This is a debt crisis, and having started out with about half the debt Bobbi is carrying, I can say that I don’t envy her. There has to be a better paying job she would qualify for.
Additionally, I would recommend living with parents or finding an extra roomate and seriously limiting spending. (use gails jars, they work!)
I also like all the ideas posted above that advise trying to figuring out a way to find TA work or scholarships during university. I would also seriously consider putting off grad school for 1 year or looking into a shorter college diploma that would get her into her chosen field sooner. WHile is whole heartedly believe that education is valuable in itself, please don’t bankrupt your next 10-20 years to get a degree that won’t help you get a good paying job.
Best of luck in the future, Bobbi. I hope that my advice has sparked at least one idea.
January 19, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Gail, I just wanted to thank you.
I read this blog nearly daily and watch your show often. Today, I was paying my bills and thought, “I can’t send XX (my highest interest rate credit card) an extra $600 because we won’t have enough money to just spend.”
Then I heard your voice in my head say, “Are you nuts?”
And you were right. LOL. If I keep the extra in our checking we may just blow it. So I wrote the check for the whole $600 extra and sent it off. I feel liberated because I didn’t give in to temptation. I already paid everything else and grocery shopped so we don’t need the extra right now anyway.
Thank you for becoming my conscience!
January 19, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Student Loan
What is great about the student loan is that it is tax deductible and is usually at a lower interest rate. As a long term approach, she might want to consider keeping this loan as long as possible, i.e. a ten year period. Instead of paying down the loan, invest the payments. This is the same thing as leveraged investing except that she is unlikely to qualify for any sort of investment loan at this point.
For example, instead of her father paying down the student loan, she should invest the money. At worst, the credit card and line of credit (not deductible) should be paid down first.
Going Back to School
This is something you want to do soon, before you get too comfortable having a regular income. Don’t postpone it. A frugal lifestyle will help her the most. She needs to pay down that credit card and then stop using it so much. Talk to the bank about getting a student rate on the line of credit while you are doing your masters.
If she is doing a research thesis masters, talk to the supervisor about getting funding and assistance.
Invest your new loan in something secure as soon as you get it.
January 19, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Hi there Gail and everyone else here,
I don’t have a tremendous amount of time to post, so I’ll keep my answer very short and sweet. Despite being very eager to go get her masters, I think it would be very wise of her to pay off her current debt first , before adding another huge bundle.Stay with the ESL position, as well as consider working another position part-time and battle with that debt bulge and save as well until its gone. There’s nothing wrong with her to go back to school within a few years. Her situation is way too risky, it could ruin her life!
As a side note to Gail about the coin jar, I’m not planning to grab the change on a monthly basis to deposit and collect interest on the small amount (maybe 25 dollars a month?). My goal isn’t to make more money than what’s in there, but more so to save some coins from myself and family members and wait for about a year to see how much I collected to utilize those funds towards a necessity of some sort (such as winter tires for next year!) Should I collect
and deposit the money on a monthly basis with this situation?
Respectfully,
Josef
January 19, 2009 at 12:30 pm
The first thing I thought when I saw that Bobbi expects to be $25k more in debt after a Masters degree is…huh? Why? She should get a nice bursary, and she can do TAs every semester and an RA whenever possible to make more cash. Live frugally, and it is far easier to come out of a Masters degree with little to no debt than it is to do so for a Bachelors. And don’t forget the possibility of a part-time job! I ended up grossing about 30k/yr while I did my Masters.
January 19, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Teaching English pays better overseas than it does in Canada. I’d recommend that Bobbi defer plans to do a master’s immediately and spend a couple of years teaching English overseas instead. With her degree plus her experience, she would likely be able to find a position overseas that would pay her living expenses, give her an interesting experience, prepare her more completely for her master’s (assuming she wants to stay in her field) and pay off her debts.
Many positions provide housing, and there are often opportunities to earn extra money. I recommend Bobbi looks online at “Dave’s ESL Cafe” to get a sense of all the possibilities.
January 19, 2009 at 1:26 pm
She should also consider the fact that as of a few years ago, scholarships and research assistantships are tax-free. They do not count towards income if she is also paying tuition. This will let her bank her tuition/textbook/fulltime-student tax credits until she starts working again. Banking these credits for a couple years will definitely help her quickly pull down her debt when she starts working again since she’ll save the tax at least for that first year after she graduates (when she claims these credits). She should keep in mind though that RRSP contribution room will not accumulate based on scholarships/RA since the gvt doesn’t count it as income.
January 19, 2009 at 1:50 pm
my concern for bobbi is what might happen if her father falls ill, or is laid off, or heaven forbid passes away. then that loan is not being paid off anymore (it’s my assumption that he has just taken over the monthly payments–not paid it off in full) and she now has the 25K debt from her masters, her cc’s and her LOC and possibly a mortgage, car loan too!
i guess my point is that the debt is in her name and until it is all paid in full she needs to incorporate having to pay that off into all her budgets/job choices/education requirements.
gail–i think i’m cursed never to win one of your contests!
thanks for everything gail.
January 19, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Dinah…I’m with you on that one…I never win anything!…And I’m too tired to do the numbers on this case study. My 6 month-old was up 3 times last night…the third time from 2:15 til 4:30 ish, kind of blurry now…ha ha
January 19, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Let me preface my comment with the fact I went to college in the US. First I feel that the consumer debt should be paid off first as it is very likely the APR on this is significantly higher than the student loans (for example my student loans have a fixed rate of 3.125% versus my only credit card which has a fixed APR of 6.99% even though I have never carried a balance). Bobbi needs to meet with a financial aid advisor hopefully one that spends a lot of time with grad students. Grants, scholarships or TA positions may cover tuition/books and maybe a stipend for housing or food, which would hopefully mean that any other work would be to cover rent or food. In the US (I’m not sure if it is the same in Canada) any student loan payments are suspended while in college. If the loan is subsidized (someone else pays the interest) great but if it isn’t Bobbi should at least pay the interest on the existing student loans while in grad school even if the payments are deferred. In the mean time Bobbi should only be spending money on needs (start living like a student now) and either putting as much in savings as possible or paying of the consumer debt. Also find extra income by either finding a better paying job or by working on the weekends and/or being a private tutor in the evenings. One plus to working all the time is that there is little time to go and spend money. One drawback (at least in the US, I don’t know about Canada) is the more you work/earn the year before school (each year preceding the academic year i.e. earning year 2008 for academic year 09/10) the more you are expected to pay for college and the less aid you would qualify for (it was always a catch 22 for me to earn the extra money especially since the only debt I had was of the subsidized loan variety).
Another thought on the Masters program. Bobbi needs to look at the total package not just the actual cost of school. Sometimes more expensive programs are able to offer better financial aid packets which can either mitigate the cost difference or even result in a lower out of pocket cost. Also look at the cost of living in one area versus another and what your transportation options/costs are (my tuition for college included free use of the public bus system in town year round anywhere in town not just to the college). I would especially suggest that Bobbi build her college budget now before she pays tuition. It may be an eye opener as it may end up costing more than she thinks to complete her masters. The cost of the Masters degree also needs to be weighed against the expected increase in earnings. If there is going to be little to no increase in earnings then the degree doesn’t make sense until Bobbi is completely debt free. On the other hand she may earn enough in the first few years after college to pay for any additional debt incurred for the new degree.
January 19, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Hi Gail, I was excited to read about the “Gail Club” being started in Windsor, are there any starting up in the London area? I tried to find more information about them but had trouble locating them on your site. Please let me know if there is a place to look for more information.
Thank you, Lisa Waterman
January 19, 2009 at 10:18 pm
I’d like to add to the “Grad studies shouldn’t cost you that much money” camp. For me, it’s been a way to fix my past mistakes, while picking up better habits (thanks to PF blogs like this one!). It’s been a financial lifesaver.
By reducing my expenses and working part-time, I’ve been able to come out well in the positive during my grad studies. I live mostly on my part-time earnings and I’ve put my fellowship money toward debt repayment and savings. Most schools offer money to all of their thesis-writing students. If you’re not writing a thesis, you have time to work… A master’s shouldn’t make you poor.
September 14, 2009 at 7:55 pm
[...] 9 Comments I love these!!! (Shut up. I’m a geek. I know.) Here’s what Gail posted as the case study: Bobbi is a 24-year university graduate who feels she’s carrying too much debt. She’s currently [...]