College and Career Choices

In 2008, I decided I wanted to go back and finish my Associates Degree. I love to learn and no one in my immediate family had finished college at that time. Also, I’m in banking and I see the big banks crashing. There is a good deal of job insecurity happening. I decided I needed to finish school or I was never going to. This was a way to create a sense of security (I thought). This is also around the time I got married. We did a very FI thing, we saved a little money, went to the beach and came back married. I had the white dress and beautiful photos, but no drama or stress! Everything is moving along in life and I found out I was having our one and only child. We did another very FI thing next. We bought a small home within our means. The owner was willing to 100% owner finance. We just had to pay an attorney to write the Promissory Note and Deed for filing. Much cheaper than a bank loan and a very modest rate of 4% over a 10 year amortization. So I am sitting very pregnant, in a community college with unmarried and not pregnant classmate on my “lunch break” and at night to cram this degree in before my due date. I even took out a few small student loans (around $7,000) to get me finished just before our son was born. So all the time I’m paying back student loans (as I’m working full time still) and they are in deferred status. Essentially it was a 0% interest rate. I didn’t make it, I had my son 5 weeks early and in the middle of my last term. God saw me through though. My teachers send assignments via email and I went in to take 1 test on Maternity leave. By goodness, I got that degree!!! I took a year off of school to raise my baby, but returned to work just 8 weeks after having him at 23. From 19 to 23, I had never negotiated my salary and saw minuscule “cost of living” raises. I was worried about how to provide for my new family and thought I could go for a Bachelor’s Degree and get a “better paying job”. I was still living pay check to pay check with the new expenses of a mortgage and baby. I had to finish my last 2 years of college over a 3 and 1/2 year period. Very FI like and paying out of pockets. One thing about being broke and good at school, the government will give you money instead of asking you to borrow it. I kept paying on the loans (again in deferment), keeping my accrued interest near 0%. In 2013, I was the first in my immediate family to earn a Bachelor’s Degree.