Student loans for graduate programs are 6-7%. Cut back on retirement temporarily.

Scale back on retirement.

A student loan is not going to be sub-4. Might be 4.5-5, or above 5.

I have no idea what kind of rate you can get on your student loan right now, but that should certainly be the deciding factor. If I were in your position my tentative plan would be to take out a loan and take the full 20 years to pay it back. I would only deviate from that if the rate is lousy - for me it would be a no brainer to things that way if the rate is sub 4; above 5 and I might pay in cash now; in the middle it could go either way.

Personally, I would not take on more debt when you could use cash by pulling back on 401k for a short while. If you get the better paying job, you can catch up later. OTOH, if you take a loan and don't get the better paying job, you've got even more debt to deal with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You already have enough student loan debt in your household. If you need the certificate for your job, you make the job pay for it.

I want the certificate so I can get a better job. My DH refuses to look for something more lucrative, so here I am.

Your DH makes 60k has 100k in debt and refuses to look for something more lucrative? That would be a red flag for me unless there is a darn good reason like tuition benefits for college or an incredible pension.

You have no idea how many times I have posted in the jobs forum about trying to encourage him to look for something else and the flack I have gotten for it and people telling me to get a different, better paying job myself. I’m just a money grabber, according to some.

Anyway, he has an incredible person, and we have a child together, so, again, here I am. I just want to be able to afford a place to live that isn’t 30 miles from work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You already have enough student loan debt in your household. If you need the certificate for your job, you make the job pay for it.

I want the certificate so I can get a better job. My DH refuses to look for something more lucrative, so here I am.

Your DH makes 60k has 100k in debt and refuses to look for something more lucrative? That would be a red flag for me unless there is a darn good reason like tuition benefits for college or an incredible pension.

In this case I'd scale back retirement for a bit. If you're maxing out, that's 20% of your income so lots of wihgle room. You could cut back to 10% and free up 8-9k that way. Seems reasonable for something that will likely advance your career.

I would pull back on 401k. If you make 90k then maxing it out is 20% of your income. Nothing wrong with doing 10% or less for a year.

Anonymous wrote:You already have enough student loan debt in your household. If you need the certificate for your job, you make the job pay for it.

I want the certificate so I can get a better job. My DH refuses to look for something more lucrative, so here I am.

You already have enough student loan debt in your household. If you need the certificate for your job, you make the job pay for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would be the interest rate on the loan?

No idea yet. What is the going rate on student loans?

Also, OP here. I have really excellent credit (over 800), so I anticipate being able to get a very good rate on a loan that I would try to pay off in 12-, or 18-months, tops.

Anonymous wrote:What would be the interest rate on the loan?

No idea yet. What is the going rate on student loans?

What would be the interest rate on the loan?

I'm looking at doing a part-time certificate program with a tuition of about $10,000 all-in that I hope will lead to a higher paying job. I have to do more research but I think I can take out student loans to pay for it. It's in the evenings, so I would be able to continue working.

I currently max out my 401k, so I could pull back on those contributions to help pay for it, or I could take out loans. I have $10,000 in cash right now, but I'm hesitant to not have that money available in case of emergency. I currently make $90k, DH makes $60k (with $100k in student loan debt on an IBR plan), and one kid in daycare at about $1650/month.

Only family debt is car loan (currently $16k at 1.75%), and mortgage at 3.875%.