School

What do men do in January? My husband started back to school last night. He has been trying to complete an educational degree so that he can quit his high-paying job to do something less stressful and more satisfying. He is only taking one class per semester so it is a slow process. Our long-term plans are for him to attend school full-time starting in Fall of 2008. First, we have to trim down our financial responsibilities (spelled d-e-b-t). I think that if we live for 1 year on only 1 income then when he does start teaching it will be like getting a raise.

Lots of people we know live on only 1 income and we often wonder how they achieve this. We tried it for a short time while my babies were small (actually I did work part-time) and managed okay. Then my husband tried an upstart company for a few months working without a salary and we managed that okay. The truth is it doesn't take long to live up to your means whatever they are. We are still making payments on one of our cars and we have a home-equitly loan we are trying to pay down (from building a detached garage for hubby's many hobbies). We try to contribute to our 401K and IRA and we do save some. I have a goal of paying our house off before my oldest starts to college. (We have the Alabama PACT fund for tuition.) But in general we spend what we make. We go on nice Vacations (DISNEY), we dine out alot, we buy what we want and pay off our credit cards every month. Every spring the IRS sends us a big check and we go a little CRAZY.

So I am hoping that we can trim back and send my husband to school and live on only my income for 1 year. Luckily, I work in a profession that is always hiring. (I often joke, I could quit my job this morning and have another one this afternoon!) And also, it is not hard to pick up extra shifts for more income.