Tuesday, August 12, 2008

School Anyone?

I am going back to school to finish my masters.  I’m trying to pay for the sucka without student loans and I had no idea how much graduate school really costs.  It’s a shame, I know.  6 hours of classes will be around $1200.  Whooo!  How the heck am I supposed to fit that into my budget?  The problem is I really don’t have to take six hours.  Five would be good enough, but at 6 hours my students loans can be deferred and technically I wouldn’t have to pay  interest for the time that I’m in school plus six months.  I could use the money that I would normally use for my student loan to pay for school, but I hate the thought of not paying for it through my discretionary spending.    

I am definite that I will pay for school through my own means.  That is, cutting back on miscellaneous spending and putting any extra money towards school, but what should I do about my student loan being deferred?

  1. I have no credit card debt, but I do have a smaller student loan valued at 2,500 that I could pay on.
  2. Emergency fund.  My emergency fund is looking pretty skinny ($1,500).  That extra $200 would really help me out.    

Hmm, Yeah.  I’ll do my emergency fund.    I’ve learned my lesson about loaning money and it would be so cool if I could reach my Efund goal ($18,000 by 2013) a few months earlier. 

“Girl, why don’t you just continue to pay on the student loan?”

Hmmm, You may not agree with my reasoning, but the interest I pay on my student loan is tax deductible, I am clocked at a 20 year pay off and I’ve grown to accept it (pitiful I know), and finally having a good healthy efund is just good sense.   However, I believe I pay about $30 towards my principle ($190 on interest!!!) per month and I’ll continue to pay that so that I don’t extend my pay off period any longer. 

 

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