I'm planning on starting a 2 year, full-time graduate program starting next year. My wife and I have enough money saved to pay for the tuition in cash. Our annual expenses are roughly $40k. We have two children, ages 10 months and 3 years old. We live in New Hampshire.
I am trying to determine if there is an optimized approach to our plan. It will be an intensive program, so I'm trying to put the least amount of stress upon my wife as possible. She is an RN, and can make roughly 70k per year, or roughly 40k on a part time basis in 24 hours. That would cover nearly all expenses, plus we have extra savings we could tap into (to avoid taking out loans at all) She becomes eligible for health insurance at 24 hours and gains access to the hospital day care facility (expensive, but the only place in the area that will cover a 7a-7p shift).
She could also pick up a non-benefited job that allows for 8 hour shifts, but no access to the health care and we would need to find a day care provider. If we have no health care option, we could get access to government subsidies for insurance, and the coverage is far better than what is provided at her employer.
We've never dropped our income to 40k before, so I'm wondering if there are loopholes or advantages that I don't recognize. We dropped from a double income house last year to single income - from 150k to 80k. At 40k our kids would qualify for CHIP, further reducing the cost of insurance for the two of us.
Any thoughts or suggestions in helping us navigate our choices?
Thanks in advance!
