School and Bills

[Truth_seeker]

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I've got a question as I'm thinking through this issue. How do some of you quit work and go to school full-time yet continue to pay bills? I'm cautiously kicking this idea around but it'd be a MAJOR deal to do this as our family is fairly dependent on my current salary. Do you take out student loans or private loans? What's the best way to do this? My wife makes an OK salary but wouldn't even cover the cost of our mortgage each month let alone the other bills. I'd say her check covers most of our other bills but the mortgage is what would be left in the cold and maybe a few other bills. We have no credit card debt and only pay on school loans from undergrad. Any ideas would be awesome as I definitely think it would help speed things up a bit. Thanks fellow non-trads!!!

 

[clsr2nrvna]

Not sure about all aspects of your situation, as i'm unmarried/no kids. However, as long as you are taking a "full-load" of credits (it can vary from 6 credits to 12), most loan companies will defer your payments. Although, keep in mind, interest accrues, though i'm hoping that the payoff of a stable and higher paying job will, in the end, allow me to pay them off much quicker then current pace! ;-). PM me if any other ?'s about loans.

KATiE

PS> I have a total of $40K from UG/Master's, and am just fulfilling prereqs at the moment.

 

[Truth_seeker]

I am married with two awesome kids. So I have the regular bills that any family has. I guess my question more concerns how to pay the monthly bills while taking classes full-time. Like how do you pay your mortgage, child care, cable, food bill, etc. each month. Where does that money come from since my salary would be potentially gone if I chose to quit working and go to school full time.

 

[Law2Doc]

I am married with two awesome kids. So I have the regular bills that any family has. I guess my question more concerns how to pay the monthly bills while taking classes full-time. Like how do you pay your mortgage, child care, cable, food bill, etc. each month. Where does that money come from since my salary would be potentially gone if I chose to quit working and go to school full time.

You take student loans, private loans, family loans, minimize your expenses and use up whatever savings you have. Once you get to med school, use whatever financial aid you can get -- in state tuition, scholarships, etc. If you cannot afford the home you live in, you get a cheaper one. Since you have a spouse that works, that will help. You will often be able to earn a couple of thousand over the summer between first and second year of med school, which can help. You can pull in a few hundred dollars here and there volunteering for experiments -- lots of med students walking around with patches on their arms. Try to avoid credit card debt if you can as that is far worse interest than any other form of loan you could ever get. But there is no magic trick here.

 

[clsr2nrvna]

I agree w/ Law2Doc, if you can get student loans (from gov't, bank, veteran's, etc.) the interest is just about always better. Some loans go directly to the school, and any extra is given to you in check form for cash (how i helped pay rent/bills through undergrad), and then some loans leave it up to u to decide whether to use on classes, or mortgage...shop around.

 

[ShyRem]

I'm married with two kids. My husband works - I used to before I went back to school. In undergrad, I took out max stafford loans (sub & unsub) and needed nothing more. It paid for my schooling, daycare for my son, all my expenses for school, and a little bit for household expenses (my husband also worked and covered most expenses at the time).

Now I'm in med school. I took out stafford loans and private loans to the max cost of attendance (COA) allowed. It includes some funds for housing, food, travel, books, utilities, etc. Certainly not enough for an entire family, but enough for a single person. My husband took an enormous pay cut to move to where I go to school - almost 50%. And we were just making ends meet before I got into school. Where I'm in school, housing is more expensive. So with the student loan money, I pay the mortgage and he pays the rest of the bills. It works and there is enough loan money to do it. (I suppose you could say I pay half of all the bills and mortage if you want to look at it that way - bottom line, loans pay for about half of all our living expenses for a family of four). We don't have enough for vacations to Disney Land - but we do have free picnics and hikes. We go window shopping and don't buy anything (but do dream of what we might buy "when Mom's done with school"). We rent movies rather than see them in the theater. We don't eat out except for MAYBE once a month. We cook from scratch whenever possible - it's cheaper. We look for sales. We buy in bulk. We buy meat from the farmer and put it in a chest freezer in the basement. We look for the free day at the museum. It's doable.

Oh - and I do pay the interest on my loans while I'm in school. That adds up FAST if it gets capitalized.

 

[Truth_seeker]

Thanks for the helpful insight. I really appreciate it. Sounds like it's tough but definitely doable.