[USER]

I am a 34 year old RN and alot of the people I graduated my bachelor’s with are graduating with their masters or doctorates and I am feeling regretful that I didn’t go back too.

I tried and I dropped out because my child was 2years old at the time and It was too much for me to work full-time, be present as a mom and go to school. I also couldn’t afford school and I didn’t want to take out student loans. I instead decided to work on my savings and get my financial life inoder.

I have managed to save 61k in a 401k, 6 months worth of savings (30k) and cash flow home repairs. I don’t have any other debt. None of this would have been possible if I had gone back to school. I also chose to work remotely for the flexibility of raising a child.

My job is great and very flexible. I am able to work any hours and can work anywhere in the United States. The pay is less than I would be getting if I was working in a more traditional RN setting. Now I wonder if I should have just kept chugging along.

Sorry, I’m not even sure what the point of this post is I guess, I’m just venting or looking for any words of encouragement.

Please be kind.

[Suky]

Sounds like you’re in a good financial position. I think others would love to be in your position; job flexibility, cash flow. What other reasons do you have to pursue additional degrees?

[Darryll]

You made decisions…they made other ones. Why are you worried?

You have a solid income, flexible job, money in savings, and money in retirement.

You said yourself you wouldn’t have had those things if you went back. Don’t compare yourself to what could have happened.

If you want to go back you can (probably need to make lots of sacrifices). You could do it in 5 or 10 years too. But if it wasn’t worth it 10 years ago I’m not sure it will be worth it 10 years from now.

[Kathy]

You have no student loans no debt , your job sounds amazing so flexible. You have done great saving . I think you are perfect right where your at especially no student loan good for you . The best part is you get time with your baby..

[Darryll]

So….when my kids were just Jr and Sr in highschool I went back for my Masters in Healthcare Administration in preparation of my next chapter. Now at 43, I’m halfway through my Doctorate. If you want it…go get it!

[Lisa]

You have time, why rush. I wanted out of my parents house so bad I didn’t go to college right away, I got a job. 13 yrs later I got a bachelors degree in accounting. 3 yrs later I started a second career (36). At 45 I became a CPA.

I tried when my sun was a toddler and just couldn’t do it. Do I tried when he was older.

After 16 yrs in my 2nd career, I just moved to a new firm and am getting paid Market value. It’s an amazing increase and I never knew I needed the change of people, clients, job roles. If you’d asked me at 34 if I’d be where I am today at 53, I’d have laughed. If you want to get your masters down the road, you can.

Enjoy where you are at, be proud of no debt and savings in the bank and being present for your child. Yay for a flexible job. I’m proud of you and I don’t even know you.

[Jacob]

I got an expensive (100k) masters I don’t use! The grass is always greener. You pursued life balance and killed it! Don’t be jealous of others. I think you’re doing well from what you shared!

[Kerri]

It sounds like you made choices that were in line with your priorities in regard to your family goals and finances. Is the lack of Master’s or Doctorate keeping you from achieving something you wanted in your career?

For what it’s worth, you could always go back to school at another time if you felt like you were in the position to do so. I went back at 38, and at 43, I’m still chugging along.

[Leeza]

Talk to your school’s financial aid office to get a clearer picture.

[Michelle]

Federal loans: I believe you’ll need to be in school at least half time to qualify for federal student loans. you filled out your FAFSA, which means you should get a financial aid offer, and since this is grad school it’ll be primarily federal loans. You’ll accept them if you want them, or accept a smaller amount (and you could always go back and accept them later if you don’t now, or reduce them later, etc. so you don’t have to decide everything now).

Then you’ll need to do 2 things, a master promissory note and loan counseling. The loan counseling is online and takes like 20 minutes. The master promissory is just something you sign. You won’t get any loan money until you complete both. Once you do all of that, they’ll break up the loan money based on how much you accepted and your schooling situation (aka if you accept $20k and you’ll be on semesters then they’ll give you $10k for each semester). The money won’t go through until just before school starts likely. It’ll go straight to your university and will be applied straight to your bill.

If you get $10k for the semester you’ll end up having slightly less actually given to you because of the origination fee. Once you get some money applied in your account, you can log on to the FAFSA website and see your loan and your servicer and you could start going onto your service site and making loan payments whenever you can. Ideally, pay off any accrued interest before your loan goes into repayment, that way you don’t pay interest on interest.

The loans don’t require good credit but they will start to build your credit because they’ll show up on your credit report. Assuming you go to school at least half time, you don’t have to pay on the loans until 6 months after you graduate or drop below half time status. Once you go into repayment, you’ll have a variety of options for repaying and of course can also repay as quickly as possible.

Other questions?

[Author]

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