Back to school...
Tyler is going to school!
He's been talking about grad school for a while. There are pros and cons to the Master of Library Science as a degree, but I think it's the right thing to do. He loves his job and the degree would open a lot of doors for him, and for us. I've been encouraging him to go, and he's finally decided the time is right. Bits and pieces are coming together, and it looks like he's going to start this coming fall semester.
Which means I am figuring out how to pay for a masters degree. Not because Tyler can't or won't, but because I like to. In school I never thought I was a math person, but it seems that as an adult when I'm nervous or excited or unsure about something, budgets are where I go. I find seeing possibilities broken out by cost helps me think and plan and feel good about spending (or saving) money.
The school he has picked out is online campus of a school in PA. A bunch of his coworkers have gone through the program and given it good reviews. It's also one of the cheapest MLS programs that still has all the proper accreditation. I have not done exhaustive research, but I get the impression that makes it on of the cheaper legitimate masters degrees out there. But I just recently looked at what that translates to in dollars: hot damn, but that is a lot of dollars. Education is fucking expensive. I had to go look up tuition for other programs to reassure myself it could be much, much worse. Still, it is a scary number of dollars. Deep Breaths. (This is when, sequentially, I go nuts with the cocktail napkin budgets and write the first version of this post.) The numbers being actual and uncomfortably large instead of conceptual and soothingly fuzzy doesn't actually change anything; it's still a really good decision.
It's also something we can afford. The school has no-interest installment plans and low interest loans. We make a decent amount of money for people without kids, and we can make this happen.
We had previously set one number for our joint account contributions and a smaller one to be earmarked from that for college. Now that we've run the numbers on tuition both of those numbers go up. Our other savings won't accumulate quite as quickly as they would have. But if we do that as planned we should be able to pay for at least the first year using their installment plan without even touching loans. After that it'll depend how many classes he takes per semester. I don't know exactly how long it'll take Tyler to finish the degree, but I'm pretty sure it'll take us about three years to pay for it.*
If we do look at loans they'll be small, just enough to bring the monthly payments in reach. If we go that route, we should be able to pay off whatever we borrow immediately after he graduates using the money we put away that’s not specifically for school. If you're thinking it sounds weird to take out loans while also putting money in savings, I get that. There’s some avoidable interest expense in there, but having some cash on hand instead of all tied up feels prudent. I'd rather have the money in the bank and a little debt than the same net worth the other way, even if it costs a little in interest.
The more I think about it the more I think the timing is kind of perfect. In the last eight months we've gotten used to living on less. I've been bringing in some money from unemployment and part-time work, but not like an actual full-time job. Even before I got laid off, we were both putting away money pretty aggressively for the wedding. So now I'm bringing in money again, and we just... don't change anything. I still haven’t gotten my first full-sized full-time paycheck, and when I do, it will already have this plan built into it. The balance of money between us will shift a little, I'll be able to pay my part of the non-bill stuff we share.** But essentially we just don't increase our standard of living like we otherwise would, and that makes a graduate degree happen in a few years.
It means not upgrading anything for a while. Not moving to a nicer apartment. Not upgrading the netflix account or going back to two WoW accounts. Not buying the laptop I've had my eye on since my last one was stolen. Not going out for dinner or movies or any of that more than we do now. But honestly, we haven't been living on the austerity budget we planned out before I started getting unemployment; it hasn’t been all rice and lentils and staying home with library movies. We've been pretty comfortable, we’ve had little luxuries. Now we'll be that same kind of comfortable with a lot more stability, a lot more backup plan, a little extra cash, and in a couple of years a debt-free graduate degree.
It strikes me as weird that just not upgrading is such a big deal. It says a lot (though none of it new) about modern life and consumerism. There's definitly a part of me that's all 'But I wanted to just have extra money! Wannh! Let's buy new clothes and DVDs!' but that part is small and stupid. We want things, they cost money. Pulling it off the top before we ever see it sounds so much better than getting comfortable on two salaries and then having to find a masters degree worth of money in that budget. People talk about ‘living below your means’ as the way to have money for big projects like grad school and a house and all those other pesky things people want. I always wonder how much I have the willpower to actually do it. I've always kept a savings account, and I've saved up for specific things, but nothing on that scale. Not actually making the lifestyle shift that leaves real excess in the bank. This seem like the best possible way to make that transition, or at least the way that's going to feel the least like an epic act of willpower.***
Of course, there's the plan and then there's life, which rarely resemble each other too closely. Three, four years... it's a long time. We'll prepare and plans for this thing and we'll see how that goes.
* this is a weird amount of time. It feels long to me. I'll be 28/29 by then, and it is weird to be planning on that scale. And yet, compared to the 20 years it will take to finish paying for my undergraduate education it seems miraculously quick.
**Yeah, it's a big deal to me. Tyler has been incredibly gracious while I've been kinda’ broke, but I'm glad it's over. This is one of those things I know I have to work on; money won’t always be straight-up, by-the-numbers equal between us and that’s going to have to be okay.
*** Not that willpower isn't a good thing to have, I just don't trust it. Systems and structures historically have a higher success rate, with me personally for sure, and with the rest of humanity as far as I can tell.
He's been talking about grad school for a while. There are pros and cons to the Master of Library Science as a degree, but I think it's the right thing to do. He loves his job and the degree would open a lot of doors for him, and for us. I've been encouraging him to go, and he's finally decided the time is right. Bits and pieces are coming together, and it looks like he's going to start this coming fall semester.
Which means I am figuring out how to pay for a masters degree. Not because Tyler can't or won't, but because I like to. In school I never thought I was a math person, but it seems that as an adult when I'm nervous or excited or unsure about something, budgets are where I go. I find seeing possibilities broken out by cost helps me think and plan and feel good about spending (or saving) money.
The school he has picked out is online campus of a school in PA. A bunch of his coworkers have gone through the program and given it good reviews. It's also one of the cheapest MLS programs that still has all the proper accreditation. I have not done exhaustive research, but I get the impression that makes it on of the cheaper legitimate masters degrees out there. But I just recently looked at what that translates to in dollars: hot damn, but that is a lot of dollars. Education is fucking expensive. I had to go look up tuition for other programs to reassure myself it could be much, much worse. Still, it is a scary number of dollars. Deep Breaths. (This is when, sequentially, I go nuts with the cocktail napkin budgets and write the first version of this post.) The numbers being actual and uncomfortably large instead of conceptual and soothingly fuzzy doesn't actually change anything; it's still a really good decision.
It's also something we can afford. The school has no-interest installment plans and low interest loans. We make a decent amount of money for people without kids, and we can make this happen.
We had previously set one number for our joint account contributions and a smaller one to be earmarked from that for college. Now that we've run the numbers on tuition both of those numbers go up. Our other savings won't accumulate quite as quickly as they would have. But if we do that as planned we should be able to pay for at least the first year using their installment plan without even touching loans. After that it'll depend how many classes he takes per semester. I don't know exactly how long it'll take Tyler to finish the degree, but I'm pretty sure it'll take us about three years to pay for it.*
If we do look at loans they'll be small, just enough to bring the monthly payments in reach. If we go that route, we should be able to pay off whatever we borrow immediately after he graduates using the money we put away that’s not specifically for school. If you're thinking it sounds weird to take out loans while also putting money in savings, I get that. There’s some avoidable interest expense in there, but having some cash on hand instead of all tied up feels prudent. I'd rather have the money in the bank and a little debt than the same net worth the other way, even if it costs a little in interest.
The more I think about it the more I think the timing is kind of perfect. In the last eight months we've gotten used to living on less. I've been bringing in some money from unemployment and part-time work, but not like an actual full-time job. Even before I got laid off, we were both putting away money pretty aggressively for the wedding. So now I'm bringing in money again, and we just... don't change anything. I still haven’t gotten my first full-sized full-time paycheck, and when I do, it will already have this plan built into it. The balance of money between us will shift a little, I'll be able to pay my part of the non-bill stuff we share.** But essentially we just don't increase our standard of living like we otherwise would, and that makes a graduate degree happen in a few years.
It means not upgrading anything for a while. Not moving to a nicer apartment. Not upgrading the netflix account or going back to two WoW accounts. Not buying the laptop I've had my eye on since my last one was stolen. Not going out for dinner or movies or any of that more than we do now. But honestly, we haven't been living on the austerity budget we planned out before I started getting unemployment; it hasn’t been all rice and lentils and staying home with library movies. We've been pretty comfortable, we’ve had little luxuries. Now we'll be that same kind of comfortable with a lot more stability, a lot more backup plan, a little extra cash, and in a couple of years a debt-free graduate degree.
It strikes me as weird that just not upgrading is such a big deal. It says a lot (though none of it new) about modern life and consumerism. There's definitly a part of me that's all 'But I wanted to just have extra money! Wannh! Let's buy new clothes and DVDs!' but that part is small and stupid. We want things, they cost money. Pulling it off the top before we ever see it sounds so much better than getting comfortable on two salaries and then having to find a masters degree worth of money in that budget. People talk about ‘living below your means’ as the way to have money for big projects like grad school and a house and all those other pesky things people want. I always wonder how much I have the willpower to actually do it. I've always kept a savings account, and I've saved up for specific things, but nothing on that scale. Not actually making the lifestyle shift that leaves real excess in the bank. This seem like the best possible way to make that transition, or at least the way that's going to feel the least like an epic act of willpower.***
Of course, there's the plan and then there's life, which rarely resemble each other too closely. Three, four years... it's a long time. We'll prepare and plans for this thing and we'll see how that goes.
* this is a weird amount of time. It feels long to me. I'll be 28/29 by then, and it is weird to be planning on that scale. And yet, compared to the 20 years it will take to finish paying for my undergraduate education it seems miraculously quick.
**Yeah, it's a big deal to me. Tyler has been incredibly gracious while I've been kinda’ broke, but I'm glad it's over. This is one of those things I know I have to work on; money won’t always be straight-up, by-the-numbers equal between us and that’s going to have to be okay.
*** Not that willpower isn't a good thing to have, I just don't trust it. Systems and structures historically have a higher success rate, with me personally for sure, and with the rest of humanity as far as I can tell.