Anyone who knows me well knows I am a worrier. My husband was blessed with a blissful, “it will all work out” attitude, but not me. This is most apparent when it comes to money. I regularly monitor and adjust our budget. Moreover, I consistently think about and plan for our fiscal future.
I pay attention to gas prices at every station we pass.
I lay awake at night working out what we would do if our car suddenly went out of commission, or if we had an unexpected health emergency.
I am the scrooge that has to be convinced every time Kyle wants to start a new hobby or get me a nice Christmas gift.
I live in mortal fear of loans. In fact, it wasn’t until after our engagement that I found out Kyle had previously taken out a student loan. Luckily it was only 4,500 bucks, or it could have been a deal-breaker.
For this reason, marrying a sophomore in college was never very high on my future-husband wish list. College sophomores don’t make a good living and they tend to cost a lot. After all, I was a college graduate with no student loans. Didn’t I deserve someone as fiscally safe as myself?
Allow me to take this moment and sing my husband’s praises. Although he doesn’t have the same fiscal phobia that plagues me, he has always been very sensitive and understanding of my need for financial control. He has also done EVERYTHING in his power to finish his schooling in a timely manner. He took more than 20 credits for three semesters in order to finish his undergrad and masters by the age of 24. Pretty impressive considering that he also served a two-year full-time mission before we got married.
Luckily for Kyle and I, Brigham Young University – Idaho is not an expensive school for undergraduate degrees. We were able to pay for Kyle’s schooling without too much trouble. Paying for a masters degree, however, has been much more challenging.
After paying for Kyle’s first semester we both became a little panicked about saving enough in the next four months to pay for winter semester. We cut out every nonessential from our budget, including karate, date nights, fast food and random hobby investigation. I started taking the train to work and we were careful about setting the thermostat too high. We sold stuff in a yard sale and bought the things we needed secondhand. We drew out a big thermometer to symbolize our savings account and taped it to our fridge, coloring in the amount we’d saved on paydays. And, miracle of miracles, four months later we were able to pay off Kyle’s winter semester in full, without running our savings account aground.
By then we were four months pregnant and staring down the barrel of another tuition payment, due shortly after our first baby. It’s been a little bit of a bumpy road, but we’ve seen plenty of miracles along the way. First of all, our car has continued to survive, despite the fact that it’s leaking oil, coolant, and transmission fluid. Secondly, Kyle landed an awesome paid internship working at the state’s capitol in the Governor’s Office. Thirdly, I carried the baby full-term. Fourthly, we found a great 2-bedroom apartment at an even better price. And finally, Kyle earned a partial scholarship.
Yes, yes, despite all odds, just one year from our first tuition payment and subsequent financial panic, Kyle’s masters degree is officially paid off!
Now if we can save up enough to pay off his student loan before he graduates I’ll really be doing summersaults.
