#FinancialAdvice #CRNASchool #SingleIncome #TeacherSalary
Hey everyone! I’m reaching out because I could really use some financial advice. 😊 I’m a 24-year-old teacher, and my boyfriend, who’s also 24, is a nurse. We’ve been in a relationship for almost six years, and we’ve had dreams of getting engaged, getting married, and eventually buying a house together. However, things took a turn when he mentioned wanting to go to CRNA school. 🎓
Here’s the situation: he needs to complete a few years in the ICU, so if all goes according to plan, he’ll finish school in about three years. That means he’ll be around 30 by the time he graduates. While I fully support him chasing his dreams, getting married at 30 isn’t quite the timeline I envisioned. I want us to tie the knot sooner—perhaps at 26. 💍
The financial aspect is where it gets tricky. Since he won’t be able to work while in school, we’ll be relying solely on my teacher’s salary during that time. Here are some concerns I have:
- Living Expenses: How do newlywed couples manage everyday costs on a single income?
- Budgeting: What’s the best way to create a budget that accommodates our needs while saving for the future?
- Emergency Funds: Should we consider building an emergency fund to cover any unexpected expenses?
From what I gather, newlyweds often face financial challenges, especially when one partner is in school and not earning an income. It can feel overwhelming! I think a possible solution might be to start budgeting now and tracking our expenses closely. Maybe even look into scholarships or financial aid options for CRNA school could lighten the load. 💸
So, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been in a similar situation! How did you manage living on a single income while your partner pursued further education? Any tips or tricks you found helpful? Let’s get a discussion going! 👇
Maybe your boyfriend should have saved money to get him through the next 3 years?
> but getting married at 30 isn’t something I want to do. We can get married still at 26
Why does the 4 year difference matter to you?
To answer the question:
> How do newly-wed couples pay for living expenses while in CRNA school & a single income?
If you’re not sure that your income will be enough to support both of you during this time, you build up substantial savings before he goes back to school.
You live cheaply and the person in CRNA school finds some income.
Honestly? With loans. Since you do have some income coming in, and hopefully he has some savings, possibly you can live frugally and only take loans for tuition and not for living expenses. I’m sure you’re aware of CRNA starting salaries. The tuition loans will be worth it.
He will make substantially more income as a CRNA than a RN if that is what you are saying his current position is. I personally would never financially support someone’s ambition that I’m not married to, though.
Getting married is inexpensive, just get a marriage license and go to the courthouse. Once he completes school you can then have a bigger wedding if that matters to you.
What does your savings look like? What does your monthly spend look like?
Do the math to see if maybe loans might fill in some gaps. Math = estimated income after graduation / monthly payments for however much you owe.
Most people in CRNA school survive on loans/ savings. CRNA students cant’t work past at most the first semester of school. So while he is getting his ICU experience start saving up money now to offset the loss of income while he is in school. The payoff for CRNA income wise afterwards will be quite worth it.
Getting married doesn’t necessarily have to be put off, but buying a house may have to be delayed. You need to factor in the loss of income for his years of schooling.
Why can’t you get married at 30? CRNA school is difficult but your boyfriend can’t do a PRN schedule and work like 1 shift a week to get some income in your house?
If you are all serious, I recommend you get a second job or a better job. Maybe look into charter schools or trade schools to see if they will pay you more than what you’re making now. I also recommend your boyfriend look into loan money. I normally don’t recommend this, but he’s in a situation to make a huge amount of money in a very high demand job if he can make it through this. There are alot of hospital systems that will offer tuition reimbursement or sign on bonuses to help pay back the cost of him going to school.
I guess you’ll need to think about what your goals are for the next 3-6 years, and what you can accomplish while on a joint lower salary, and how much his elevated salary will be able to boost those goals. I certainly wouldn’t want to be unmarried and supporting a partner through grad school.
You may want to check out the white coat investor forum, they are pretty adroit at handling this stuff.
What is your teacher salary? Will it go up? Honestly, for the pay bump for when he completes, you could consider supplementing your living situation with loans, but I wouldn’t co-sign on them.
It really depends on your salary and the state you live in. If you’re in a state that pays ~$35-40k to starting teachers it could be very hard, if you want to buy a house or do much besides live paycheck to mouth for the next few years. If you’re in the $60k+ states, look at what your large item budgets will be (housing, transportation, utilities, etc). Will you have to move for his schooling? Can he walk/ bike to the hospital-nursing school? You can pare down a lot of what you spend, and still have a pretty decent life.
While he’s in the CRNA program, he won’t be able to work at all? Not even a weekend shift or two? I find that incredibly hard to believe. Even if he just works two 12 hour shifts a month, he should be able to boost your household income by 25-50% He may be able to get some of his ICU hours that way, too. He doesn’t have to stay at the same hospital.
You would both have to decide what your priorities are, how much money you want to put towards them, what it would look like.
Whatever you do, don’t get married, put a bunch of stuff (marriage) on loans or credit cards and then slash your combined salary. Keep driving the cars you have now, or get rid of one if it has a silly car payment amount. Don’t neglect contributing to your own retirement accounts just because his salary will go up in a few years. Make sure the state you live in and want to live in compensates both teachers and CRNAs well. I have one friend who did it in MO and makes over $300k, but can’t move to Colorado without taking a $50/hour paycut.
You’re not married. He could easily dump you after you supported him through his schooling. People do this all the time. So, just no.
There is nothing holding you 2 back from getting married. You may need to wait on having a reception/party but can get married. As a RN, he should be able to make some
Money while in school. Hospitals are open 24/7, so getting work on weekends shouldn’t be hard. The other option is to delay school by 1 year and pile up the cash so he can have some money while at school. Either way, holding off marriage until he finishes school is a lame excuse
Honest opinion I feel like you’re rushing all of this. If he wants to do CRNA, that’s fantastic, maybe you guys save for a couple years, he works a bunch of OT, and he studies in his free time. I wouldn’t be rushing to buy a house right now with current prices and interest rates, or having an expensive wedding, knowing that you’re soon going to be down to single income. You guys need to have an honest look at the finances and how you’ll be able to prepare for this before making any decisions.
Lot going on here.
Getting married takes fifty bucks and a trip the court house. If you two want to get married than there’s nothing stopping you now or in 3 years or whenever.
If you want some big opulent wedding then that’s a different story and discussion. Broke people shouldn’t have big opulent weddings unless someone else is paying for it.
While he’s in CRNA school, you two will have to live a college a lifestyle, because guess what, he’s in college. That means probably not owning a house and living on a pretty slim budget. That’s okay, because after sacrificing a few years for CRNA school he can make 200k/yr rather easy and your family will be set for life if you don’t goof things up.
But really, this is just a communication issue. The money isn’t the issue here, it’s you two needing to communicate on how you want the next 3-5-10 years to look like.
My advice: get legally married now. You don’t need a fancy ceremony. Once he graduates, throw a party as a celebration of the two of you (and his success) and go on a honeymoon.
Financial Answer: he takes out loans and gets contracts that pay off his student loans.
Relationship: don’t push people your timeline to get married.
You wanting to get married at 26 is irrelevant if your partner does not want to be married at 26. That is the end of that conversation. You get married when both are ready.
As a CRNA he will make WAY more than he ever will as a nurse. My mother became a CRNA after working for almost 20 years as a nurse and the one thing she always kicks herself for is not going back to school sooner. You can pay for school and loving expenses the same way everyone does: loans. It’s worth it.
I am a CRNA and just went through the same scenario that you are describing. I lived with my girlfriend of many years and we combined expenses and worked it out but it was VERY tough and put strain on our relationship. We are now 30 and just got engaged.
He can’t work the whole time he’s in school? Funny because I worked as a waitress for years and we had students that worked with us every fall through spring and then went home for summer where they had other jobs.
He could absolutely work a few days a week doing something. He could absolutely work during his time off! He just needs to find a job where it’s a bunch of people doing the same thing.. which is why servers work really well … And then he can pick up more on his weeks or months off because there’s always somebody that wants days off.
I understand during his ICU experience time he won’t be able to work a different job but don’t they get paid for that too? I know it’s not a lot but it will help. Is there any way to figure out how much that would be? In my state it says it’s $17 an hour. With the amount of hours interns work that wouldn’t be chump change.
Are you not living together now? If not who’s he living off of now? If not, I’m not understanding what the problem here is. You’re just deciding whether to get married before or after he goes to school?
He will take out student loans for
Living expenses in addition to tuition. Average CRNA has 100K loans on graduation.
Nurse so take the max he can get in federal loans, 85% can be forgiven in 3 years working at a high needs facility nearly everything with a ER is around me at least.
The finance piece here is a math problem, and you just need to run the numbers. I earn a six-figure tech salary, but my wife and I live off of her teaching salary and invest my income towards early retirement. We live in a lost cost of living area though, so that’s a lot easier to do.
I just don’t understand why going to CRNA school means he can’t work part time to help with the finances. There are plenty of folks that worked full time while paying for college including myself. Hard work will only bring appreciation when you succeed if reaching one’s goal. If this is truely not an option, then you will need to dramatically reduce your expenses. Take a step back and write down your current expenses and net income to see if you will be able to cover them for the next few years.
I highly, highly, highly suggest not supporting someone financially without that ring.
You can walk into any courthouse and get married same day in most places (not all), so that’s simple.
As far as the money side, you figure out what your net income is and then live within those means. You will have to budget and watch every penny – kind of like people did for generations before the proliferation of credit and credit cards.
Home ownership is out of the question until much later when you’re both stable and can afford it.
Would have have time to do Uber, instacart, door dash?
Any income he can bring it will be of great help. And he could work at his own time on the apps.
I’m not understanding why you couldn’t compromise – create a financial plan to get married earlier and save up money to ease the transition into CRNA school. I personally wouldn’t have felt comfortable subsidizing someone’s living costs in a significant way unless it was a married relationship myself.
I think this is a great time to talk about your goals as individuals and as a couple to ensure they are compatible and you’re on the same page. I think one of the challenges of meeting your partner at 18 is that you may not have a clear idea of where life is taking you yet so moving into a married relationship with someone you met young may require flexibility as your needs evolve.
It may be a good time to ensure that what you both want out of life makes sense together. Not everyone has these conversations before getting engaged (though I personally believe everyone should) and if you’re not on the same page it can create big problems after marriage.
Lots to take into consideration here.
How is he planning to pay for CRNA school? It’s not exactly a cheap program if he makes it the outcomes are good.
From a legal aspect, you should probably do a courthouse marriage if you are going to combine finances and try and support him. This protects both of you but especially you much better than where you are today should you or he decide to split in the future. You should also look at how this might affect any financial aid he is planning on receiving. I see no reason to wait till he actually graduates.
Financially unless your getting a special deal from family or something else, I think it would likely be very hard to support two young adults on the income of a new public school teacher in many areas of the country. I’m betting you both have existing debt from school to get you to where you are today. Get used to living on a budget and being frugal now, it’s going to be your new reality for a while.
CRNA school is really competitive, Acceptance rate is 15-25% according to Google for many programs. You both need to be prepared for rejection and reapplication and or a plan B if he continues to have trouble getting in. The 3 years he is getting his ICU experience prior to going back to school should be focused on working, paying off any high interest debt he has and then saving for the time he plans to be in school. There is a real possibility that he may need to use some student loans to live off of if he can’t work.
Penultimately, make sure your both taking the steps necessary to achieve your dreams and not derail that by say accidentally becoming pregnant. Financially that would likely significantly change the hopes, plan, dreams and reality.
Lastly, If you both can make it through this, and he graduates and works long-term in the field and you have some financial discipline you should make for a pretty comfortable life a head financially.
Or you still keep things separate and he takes loans. You don’t support him financially through school. Just take things at a normal pace. You aren’t obligated to financially support him he can take loans.
I’m assuming he already has his MSN? Yes the schooling is another 3 years to get to CRNA but if he’s only 24 he could use his MSN degree to make a grip of money before advancing his education. I know a lot of people go into HUGE student debt so evaluate how much of his/your budget will be affected as newlyweds/homebuyers/etc…
FYI: Also next year in 2025 CRNA’s will be required to have a doctorate! The timeline is already changing
he takes out student loans and you both continue supporting yourselves separately until he is finished with school and then you get married. you don’t want to be having kids while he’s busy with school and clinicals anyway, so what’s the rush to be married?
I wouldn’t support someone financially who I wasn’t married to.
Plenty of people go to college while in school. Financial aid, small apartment. It’s not a big deal.
I got married to my husband while we were both in college and had a 500 square foot apartment and tight budget. No regrets.
As many others have said, you can easily and affordably get married without having an all out wedding, and do the wedding celebration later when you feel more established. It will also give you time to plan it exactly how you want, give you time to save more for expenses you may not have thought of, etc.
Living on a single income can be difficult, but not impossible
You sacrifice a lot now and reap the rewards later. I know it isn’t popular opinion, but think about it.
Don’t pay for schooling/living expenses of someone you are not married to.
You don’t NEED a princess wedding. Small family gathering, vows, judge/minister.
CRNA make much more than RN, 3 years lost income will be paid off in under 2 probably.
How do people do it? Budget, live below your means, sacrifice luxuries and make up shortfall with student loans.