Hello,
I have been hardcore reading MMM for several weeks now both on the site and on the app, and I'm ambitious to start growing my mustache even before I graduate from university. I have started my second year at University and I have to make an important decision before my spring semester. This decision is whether or not to go on the study abroad semester in Rome. I was hell-bend on doing whatever was necessary to acquire enough money to afford the semester in Rome, but now that I have been reading the blog, I am starting to have doubts. Should I decide to go on the semester, I would be spending nearly every penny of my savings and also maximizing my incurred student loans for the semester. I have included my current finances to date in the hopes that they will help in making a decision. By the time the trip date arrives, I will have earned a little more through work-study and other small jobs I can find.
Usable FundsChase Savings account: $1500
Vanguard Roth IRA: $579.41
Usable Funds should I choose to accept themFederal Subsidized Loan: $2250
Federal Unsubsidized Loan: $2000
Money I can earn between now and the end of the spring semesterFall Work-Study: $650 (I started with an $800 cap for the semester, and earned almost $600, but got an email on Wednesday about an additional $400 being added to my work-study funds, and I intend to earn every penny of that before this semester ends)
Spring Work-Study : $1000 (I will be working on the Rome campus to earn this money)
Earnings over Christmas Break: $500 (I don't know how much I will earn during the break, since I take any tax-free under-the-table jobs I can find and the schedule is not consistent.
Approximate Cost for the semester (not including student loans): $16,121
Approximate Cost for the semester if I were to accept offered loans: $11,871
(Note: This cost is not all tuition, etc. This also includes estimated travel costs, books, etc).
I currently have no credit card debt (I am extremely careful about this one, I treat it like a debit card with benefits, paying everything off once a week, but ever since I started reading MMM, I have made almost no purcahses, which is a sharp decline from my old 2 Domino's Pizzas a week lifestyle)
However, like most people, I do have student loans that I have gathered from the previous semesters:
Subsidized: $3500
Unsubsidized: $2000
I have applied for many different scholarships, and am waiting to hear back from many of them, but any scholarships I currently have are reflected in the approximate costs for tuition above.
Any advice on what decisions I should make from a financial standpoint would be greatly appreciated. My long-term goals are to be just like MMM, retired by age 30 with no loans and a young family with my amazing girlfriend I am currently dating right now.
Let me know if there is any other information you might need and I will update this post.
If you want to do any deep research on the Rome Program offered by my university, you can follow this link for more info:
https://udallas.edu/rome/index.php. It is an amazing program from what I have heard, and my two older sisters have both gone on this semester abroad and speak very highly of it. Luckily enough, they were able to get through college debt-free before my dad decided to up and leave the family. But that's all in the past and I don't let that slow me down at all.
Thank you,
Michael