We found out yesterday that DH was accepted to the PhD program he applied to! It was his first choice, and we're incredibly excited. It means a lot of changes ahead, but mostly it means that he gets to dive into something he's truly passionate about, and leave the job that has been eating away at his soul for a couple of years now.
Also, it means that we can stop speaking in hypotheticals and start planning in earnest, which is an absolute relief.
That planning will involve me starting the process of finding a job, researching our new city (2 hours away) and planning our move that will happen in June when our lease ends, and trying to wrangle our financial future once that happens. He'll have an assistantship with the university, which means a stipend income of about $20k per year, but there are a lot of question marks where my job is concerned.
It's cause for a bit of anxiety, but I'm trying to focus on the positives.
In just a couple of hours I have a meeting with the financial planner from my networking group to go over my student loans and see if there are any options out there for reworking the situation to make it better. I'm paying over $500/month and not making much headway because my interest rates are through the roof. The loans originated back when I was an undergrad, with little to no credit, no cosigner, and before I was married. So I feel like things can only improve. I'm hoping, anyway.
Let's hope this meeting will yield more good news!
Hope you all have a great day!
DH was Accepted :)
December 7th, 2016 at 02:21 pm
December 7th, 2016 at 02:47 pm 1481122021
Beware of any financial "advisor" that wants to sell you products or manage your money for a percentage of your assets. Run from anyone that wants to sell you life insurance or annuities as "investments." These folks are salespeople, and they do not act in your best interest.
December 7th, 2016 at 03:43 pm 1481125406
Now, are your loans private or federal? And I assume you aren't taking out NEW loans for DH?
December 7th, 2016 at 04:08 pm 1481126938
December 7th, 2016 at 05:46 pm 1481132804
December 7th, 2016 at 09:19 pm 1481145554
December 7th, 2016 at 10:36 pm 1481150170
Hopefully your meeting with your advisor yielded some useful advice. If not and you are looking for a new advisor, here are my suggestions (I am an advisor with two year's experience (i.e., newbie) in the field working for an RIA who serves high-net worth clients).
See if you can find an advisor who will do some planning for you based on an hourly rate--that seems to be what you need at the moment rather than ongoing investment recommendations and management, which is what most advisors prefer to do (so the hourly fee based people can be a little hard to find).
An RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) is most likely to provide this kind of service; RIAs are monitored by the SEC and are subject to fiduciary standards; Broker-Dealers are monitored by FINRA and are not currently subject to fiduciary standards. Some advisors are both RIAs and B/Ds (hybrid).
In particular, if you can find someone who is part of the Garrett Planning network (google and use their Find An Advisor feature to see if anyone is near you), they will meet those standards. The Garrett network is focused on the "middle market" and more likely to be knowledgeable about things such as student loans and debt management.
Actually an advisor doesn't need to be near you--many advisors also work via Skype or other video conference, Go to Meeting, and Phone, but you may feel personally more comfortable having at least the first meeting in person--also depends on how tech savvy you are.
Good luck!
December 7th, 2016 at 11:20 pm 1481152828
December 8th, 2016 at 05:59 pm 1481219960
December 11th, 2016 at 05:41 pm 1481478062