Income Insecurity

Yes, hot off the heels of my ‘high heels’ shopping post, I do dare discuss our impending income insecurity. I’m waffling so much lately between hopefulness and insecurity as I consider what the future holds for us and our finances. I suppose this post is more to get it off my chest than anything else, so bear with me….

As some of you know, I’m currently in school to become an educator; I am finally starting my student teaching in the fall. For those who don’t know, student teaching in my particular program means 9 months of work without pay, plus a summer of who knows what. Now, obviously I could attempt to work a part time job on top of my internship, and if it becomes necessary I probably will. Unfortunately, I actually had to sign a contract with the school stating that I understood working while student teaching is frowned upon and if my work suffers as a result I could be kicked out of the program. Do I think this is a little drastic? Yes! Do I know for sure? No. Point one of my insecurity: I just don’t know if my school work load will enable me to work.

I will be optimistic and say that my husband and I have done a lot to prepare ourselves for this situation. We’ve both busted our bottoms to get debt free, and while we’re not quite there, it is realistic to say that we could get there or very close in the next few months (side note: this does not include my minimal student loan debt that we will inherit once I’m out of school). My husband’s vehicle was paid off in February and mine will be paid off in November at the latest. So, point one of hopefulness: our funds outgoing will be cut substantially by fall.

I have actually been a student for about seven years now, and I will be receiving my Bachelor’s Degree 10 years to the date of my high school graduation. Point two of hopefulness: I cannot believe it’s FINALLY here. Sadly, the current state of affairs concerning budget cuts in education has left thousands of teacher’s without jobs and who knows what the future holds. Point two of insecurity: After all this time, will I even be able to get a job? Point three of hopefulness: I do have a year and half before I’ll even be ready for a job and a lot can change between now and then. **fingers crossed, big prayers**

I’ll refrain from continuing this list because I could literally go on and on. These thoughts and many others run through my mind constantly as of late. I can’t ever decide how I’m truly feeling about the situation because the hopefulness honestly does outweigh the worry but the worry never ceases. The fact of the matter is this: all of these things are question marks that I can’t answer to until we’re there. And so, between now and then, I’m going to try my very best not to worry my little head about it because there’s simply no fix for something that ain’t broke.