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Post by moveablefeast on Jul 8, 2014 0:18:46 GMT
That doesn't make life insurance a better safety net for a woman with three kids than an education and a career path.
The right safety net depends on a lot of factors. Life insurance is important for sure. Without it I would be sunk in the event of my husband's death. But I know how far it won't go in this economy and with the expenses we have, so I consider it a very temporary solution.
I can think of few things I would want less than to have to go back to school immediately following my husband's death so I could go back to work. They tell you not to make any major decisions for a year - there's a reason for it. Grief, dealing with bills and money and helping the children through - not the time to be getting a degree if you have the option. Wiser to do it now when life is not in an upheaval - puts you a very solid step ahead of many of life's possibilities.
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Post by traceys on Jul 8, 2014 0:48:23 GMT
That doesn't make life insurance a better safety net for a woman with three kids than an education and a career path. No, but a B.A. in English really doesn't provide you with marketable skills, unless you're certified to teach. Around here, it basically puts you possibly in the running for any job that just requires a degree in anything. I would be hesitant to take on debt for a degree that did not have a pretty secure return on investment. Especially when the OP doesn't plan on going into the workforce afterward and has one child just a few years away from starting college. I would do pay as you go for now, and maybe ramp up the insurance a bit so that if something did happen to dh in the near future, there would be enough to finish paying for college and cover the time needed to finish up.
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Post by eebud on Jul 8, 2014 1:55:12 GMT
Here's another suggestion to take classes as you can afford to pay for them without going into debt. In the meantime, while you're working toward your degree, take out a hefty life insurance policy on your husband. When our kids were little and I was at home with them and dh worked full-time, we took out a $750,000 policy on him and a $250,000 policy on me. The policy on me would have covered after-school childcare expenses for as long as necessary. The policy on him would have paid off our house and provided enough for us to live on while I worked part-time so after-school care wouldn't have been necessary. I think both policies cost us around $50 a month or so. Now that the kids are 18 and 21, we're keeping the policies. Ditto all of this! Take out term life insurance to cover death of you or your DH and take classes you can afford without going into debt. I would take a term life insurance on your DH for at least 5-6 years your DH's annual income. Take enough on you to cover child care for your youngest and maybe some household help.
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Post by eebud on Jul 8, 2014 2:03:09 GMT
A large life insurance policy can be spent through in a much shorter time than one might need. If my DH died tomorrow I could expect to live another 50 years. It's difficult to get a life insurance policy that will last through 50 years of expenses - paying off a house, retirement savings, college, and so on. But a career with a steady income and retirement savings is more likely to provide for the needs of the family for the duration. I would not personally want to rely on life insurance for my livelihood if I were younger than mid-50s. She doesn't need an insurance policy to get her through 50 years. She needs an insurance policy to get her through a few years to finish her degree and get back on her feet as a single mom if her DH dies. Keep in mind also that if her DH died, her kids are probably going to receive SS until they are 18. This will replace some of the current income. She will probably also receive SS as the surviving spouse who is caring for the minor children.
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Post by Scrapbrat on Jul 8, 2014 11:56:58 GMT
Is your degree going to be in something that you could find a job in relatively easily? How old are your kids? If you want to be a stay at home mom while they are younger I would take one or two courses at a time and by the time you are done the kids will be older. Extra $$ you earn from working then could go to help defray their college expenses. Edited to say that term life insurance and disability policies are a fairly inexpensive means to protect your family from an unexpected catastrophe. We do have life insurance that would pay off the house and leave some extra, but would not be enough to keep us going for more than a few years. My kids are 14, 11, and 8. Part of why we are feeling the push right now is that we would like to have me done before oldest dd starts. My degree will be in English. I think it would be fairly easy to get a job at the college once I have my degree. Every year they are looking for advisers or various other staff positions. Also, one of my friends works in the student support services office (they help struggling students) and she called me last week to see how soon I would be done. She wanted me to teach a couple of her student support classes. (I laughed at her and said even with a bachelors degree I would be grossly under-qualified for that one! She said the last two teachers of that class only had bachelors!) We live in a very small community with a shockingly low rate of college degrees, so the college is always looking for people with degrees. You make a good point about the extra money going toward the kids college expenses once we are done paying for mine. I should look at that more closely. Thanks so much for the feedback! I am messing something up, but I can't figure out why my reply is showing up in the box of the stuff I"m trying to quote?? Anyway. In my opinion, you first need more life insurance. I''m not discouraging education by any means, but if your DH is currently the sole breadwinner, adequate insurance on him needs to be a big part of that safety net. Secondly, I agree with most others tthat I would not go into debt for a degree I didn't really plan to use. And your degree is going to be in English? Honestly, that is about the most unmarketable degree you can get, and I was an English major myself! You may be right about your job prospects where you are now at a small college, but that isn't representative of the larger job picture. If you for some reason aren't living there anymore, your English degree (especially an English degree with little or no work experience) is not worth much.
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tracylynn
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,899
Jun 26, 2014 22:49:09 GMT
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Post by tracylynn on Jul 8, 2014 12:56:22 GMT
Have you looked into Western Governors University? It's completely online as well, non profit and accredited. And cheap. You can do a 6 month full time term for around $3000.
It's a great school, you should check them out.
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back to *pea*ality
Pearl Clutcher
Not my circus, not my monkeys ~refugee pea #59
Posts: 3,149
Jun 25, 2014 19:51:11 GMT
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Post by back to *pea*ality on Jul 8, 2014 13:47:54 GMT
Here's the thing. I'm a stay at home mom. I really have no intention of going into the work-force post graduation. I am getting my degree more for self-fulfillment than career goals. I am not sure why you would use Pell Grants and other taxpayer source funds and not expect to pay for your personal enrichment yourself. I took student loans for my education and paid them back. Our family is in no way rich, we are middle class. DS got zero grants for college and based on the fafsa we should be able to pay all of his college costs. I guess we could if we didn't pay our mortgage and eat! I am not saying he should have gotten 100% of grants but even 25% would have helped. The system is all for some and nothing for others and it stinks.
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Post by Fairlyoddparent on Jul 8, 2014 13:55:41 GMT
I am older than you but decided to go back to school to finish my degree knowing that I may or may not be able to earn any more money because of it. It was a hard decision but I really wanted to finish my degree for personal reasons but also because my dh went through a serious illness and it scared me. Most jobs I looked into didn't care what my degree was in but they wanted a degree.
Fortunately, I was able to get quite a bit of grants and some scholarship money but I will still graduate in December with a small student loan for my final semester. For whatever reason I didn't get much financial assistance this coming school year so I have to pay out of pocket. It is my final semester so we just decided to bite the bullet and take out the loan.
That said, I would go into debt very thoughtfully. Those student loans will not go away and, if you have no plans to work, I would be hesitant to accrue that kind of debt. Also, be sure your degree is very marketable. Too many people graduate with a useless degree and it limits their earning potential.
Good luck to you!
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Post by khaleesi on Jul 8, 2014 14:08:22 GMT
Congratulations on your associates! Both my DH and I went back to school to get our bachelor's within the last four years. He is done and we are paying on his loans now. I will be done in September and also have loans. We both work full-time and our degrees are in business management. I am not a fan of going into debt for things but I do believe education is important and wish I would have finished it when I was younger! If you have plans to go back to work I would go ahead and pursue the degree. Even if the job is only to pay on the loans it will give you work experience and can lead to other things. I would look at various universities and see what is available. My school has an online program, Cornerstone University. Look under the Adult and Graduate Studies section.
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Post by shanni on Jul 8, 2014 16:22:24 GMT
You have all given me so much to think about, thank you! This is one of the reasons I love the peas so much! DH and I sat down and talked last night, and I think we have a plan. Looking closely at our finances, we won't need to take out the unsubsidized if we cut back a couple other places. As far as getting a job after I'm done- I know it sounds stupid (and it is) but I hadn't really given much thought to what I would do with my time when I am finished. I started back in school when youngest went to first grade, but didn't really have any plans to work when I was done with the degree, because I haven't in the past. By the time I am done with school, youngest will be in middle school. I think I'm going to need something to fill my time anyway, and I'll want a job. Even if I don't particularly want to work, many of you made the point of not letting the degree go stale and getting work experience. That is something that I hadn't considered, but makes complete sense. It would only take a couple years of working to pay off the debt, then we get into the most expensive time of our child-rearing days; college and weddings! The extra income would help ease the squeeze during those years. I know many are dubious about the marketability of an English degree, but really the jobs I am looking at don't particularly care what your degree is in, they just want you to have a degree. If that for some reason doesn't work out, I could take an extra year and get my secondary certification and teach English. My other thought is that I may continue on at some point and get a Masters of Library Science, and an English degree seemed to be the best fit for that long-range goal/possibility. Thanks again for all the feedback! You all really helped me to solidify what I really want out of the next stage of my life. I've been mommy for so long, I honestly hadn't thought much past that, but it's definitely time to!
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Post by shanni on Jul 8, 2014 16:37:35 GMT
Here's the thing. I'm a stay at home mom. I really have no intention of going into the work-force post graduation. I am getting my degree more for self-fulfillment than career goals. I am not sure why you would use Pell Grants and other taxpayer source funds and not expect to pay for your personal enrichment yourself. I took student loans for my education and paid them back. Our family is in no way rich, we are middle class. DS got zero grants for college and based on the fafsa we should be able to pay all of his college costs. I guess we could if we didn't pay our mortgage and eat! I am not saying he should have gotten 100% of grants but even 25% would have helped. The system is all for some and nothing for others and it stinks. Thank you for your feedback. I agree that the system needs to be revamped so that it can help more students. I'm sorry your ds wasn't able to get grants. I'm sure you must be so frustrated. I had the same problem when I was going the first time and that's part of the reason I never finished. My parents didn't make enough to pay for college, but made too much to qualify for assistance. I went to school part time, and got a full-time job to pay for it. A few years in I met dh, and the rest is history! I respect your opinion that I should not take grants. I feel okay about taking the money though. I will have much better earning potential as a degree holder, making it so I pay more into the system than I would working at WalMart. The additional earning potential would also help keep me off other government programs should something happen to dh.
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tracylynn
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,899
Jun 26, 2014 22:49:09 GMT
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Post by tracylynn on Jul 8, 2014 17:50:49 GMT
Here's the thing. I'm a stay at home mom. I really have no intention of going into the work-force post graduation. I am getting my degree more for self-fulfillment than career goals. I am not sure why you would use Pell Grants and other taxpayer source funds and not expect to pay for your personal enrichment yourself. I took student loans for my education and paid them back. Our family is in no way rich, we are middle class. DS got zero grants for college and based on the fafsa we should be able to pay all of his college costs. I guess we could if we didn't pay our mortgage and eat! I am not saying he should have gotten 100% of grants but even 25% would have helped. The system is all for some and nothing for others and it stinks. I don't think that's fair. If she qualifies, then she should take them. It's not her fault that your son didn't qualify, yet she does. That's the way the rules are written. Are they fair? Maybe, maybe not, but to tell her she shouldn't have taken them doesn't change the situation with your son. I didn't qualify for free money either. My parents weren't rich by any means, and we probably lived on the lower end of middle class at best at that time. I had to take loans because it was either that or I didn't go to college.
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Post by pierogi on Jul 8, 2014 18:24:19 GMT
You've gotten great advice. And I agree that if you're eligible for grants, you should take them.
I'm going to be the odd one out and just say I think it's great you're studying English. If you love it, and it's a subject you in which you thrive---go for it! Believe me, you will use it, no matter what you decide to do. Critical thinking and solid writing skills are more essential than ever to succeeding now. Heck, I read somewhere that English is one of the most common undergraduate majors for students accepted into med school.
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Post by monicad on Jul 8, 2014 19:20:25 GMT
I'm in the same boat--been a SAHM and am now getting my paralegal degree. It's tough financially, but I'm hoping it will pay off when the kids are in college and we have two incomes again (I'm hoping to find something in the 25-30 hour per week range). But I know that feeling of wanting your degree...not having one has always been a huge regret. Plus, I love school and love learning.
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