Anybody put their home on line for nursing school

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Has anybody put their home on the line to go to nursing school? Things haven't wrapped up quite as nicely as I had hoped and so I may not be able to make my mortgage once school starts. I'm 41 so I kind of feel like it's now or never and I think I'm willing to risk it. Anybody else put themselves in this position?

Specializes in NICU, PICU.

cmonkey- good stuff...

Check out Daveramsey.com. You MUST get your finances in order first...before starting school. You can call radio show and speak to him personally. Also...there is no garantee that you will finish school or get a job when you are done. My hope is that will not be the case for you but life does happen and last I read about 47% of people who start college don't finish.

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im considering selling my condo to finance nursing school, but our market has tanked and it will be like a ten year wait i think for the markets to become robust once again thanks to all thats been goin on in real estate and banking and all. hmmmm:jester:

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My last job (career) provided me with a house to live in as well as utilities. Unique benefit right there. However, I decided I no longer wanted to live there and work there so I decided to back to school. I chose nursing school. I moved an hour, albeit back to the college I graduated from, and got a new job, found a new place to live, and I go to school.

I chose not to spend much of my money on school because moving jobs took me from kind of at the top to the very bottom, lol. That said, I make a lot less, but it's enough to survive. I had no debt before so that makes things easier. I did, however, take out a loan to pay for tuition since I didn't want to spend any savings on school, and the total amount of the loan will amount to less than the cost of a new vehicle so it can be paid off in just a few years or sooner.

Some options you may consider are refinancing, renting out a room to another college student, perhaps a kid in your class, and selling it followed by a downsize in living arrangements and pocketing of whatever equity you had in the house. If your sentimental, as I am, that last option may not help.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

here is some food for thought. each person’s position is unique.

let’s assume you have $40,000.00 that you will make off of the home. depending upon how much home you buy, that amount of money can easily be a 20% down payment. today’s rates are 4.25% (20% down with a 760 fico score). with less down, you are talking a 5.50% interest rate. now, let’s say you decided to purchase a $200,000 home and you had the $40,000 as a down payment. your principle and interest would be $787.10. let’s say you used the $40,000 to pay for nursing school. now, you are financing 97% of the loan with the 5.5% interest rate. your principle and interest payment would be $1101.51, a difference of $314.41/month.

suppose you took out a direct student loan from the government for the $40,000. given that amount, you will get 25 years to pay it back at 4.5% (current direct subsidized undergraduate rates), your payments would be $222.33/ month. you would be saving $92.08/month.

there are other advantages too. first, there are forbearances and deferments on student loans, but not on mortgages. in the event you had to file bankruptcy in the future (i hope you don’t), you keep your home and your student loans can go into forbearance until you get back on your feet.

the biggest perks are the many loan repayment options the government provides. there is one in particular that is based upon your adjusted gross income. here is a link with really good information http://www.direct.ed.gov/student.html

i am not sure if you know this, but there are also loan forgiveness programs for nurses.

http://www.hrsa.gov/loanscholarships/repayment/nursing/

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/loanforgivenessmarch18.pdf

you have to decide what is best for you. i just wanted to present this information so that you can make an informed decision. good luck to you. and if there is something i am missing, please someone feel free to add to it.

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Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.

Lots of great advice! I would also suggest researching the market for new grads in your area very well before proceeding. In some areas jobs for new grads don't exist in any field. It would be a shame to put it all on the line and then graduate to find you're begging for a job in your previous field.

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