Saving vs. Large Loans

[Moonspellpecado]

Hey all! Perhaps this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it. I want to get your two cents on this. Right now I am a year and a half away from applying for nursing school. I am a single 27yo gal who supports herself 100%, no kiddos, no help from family. Currently I am working full time as an MA and going to school full time. I am planning to cut down to working little to none while in the nursing program. I do not have family I can move in with. I rent a room in a house from a woman to try and keep expenses down as much as possible.

There is my back story. Here is my real question. I am taking out loans to pay for school and stashing away money to pay for living expenses while in the nursing program. Is it best to continue to do this so I know my personal expenses will be close to being covered while in school, resulting in less loans later for personal expenses. OR should I be paying off all student loans now and not be stashing money?

I get an extremely low interest rate (about 3.4-3.8%), where if I take out additional personal loans while in the nursing program the interest rate could double.

And one more weird question that someone might have an answer to. Right now I am stashing money in a fireproof gun safe I have that is bolted to the ground However, I would love to have it in an account where it can accrue interest! If I put it into an account though, my FAFSA see it and I will receive no financial aid. Any ideas for a work around on this? :)

Thank you all for taking the time to read this!!!

~Erica

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Lok into a 529 plan or Roth IRA.

I think you will be able to take out what you put in, but not the growth.

But it's not safe to keep cash in the house, and you may need to claim large cash assets anyway.