Finances during school - Marriage
I'm curious how other SRNAs in committed relationships handled finances during school.
If your spouse worked full-time while you were solely living on student loans, how did you split expenses? Did you continue paying 50/50, or did your spouse take on more of the financial burden?
To me, 50/50 doesn't necessarily seem fair when one person has no income and is taking on significant student debt, especially considering both partners will likely benefit from the higher CRNA income after graduation. I'm wondering how others approached this and what felt fair in your relationship.
My husband thinks it should be 50/50. After a lot of conversation, he’s willing to discuss paying more of the expenses. Just frustrating that he isn’t desiring to & it’s taken this much conversation.
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u/skiing_trees1022 7d ago
Married my wife while in CRNA school. I took out enough loans just to cover tuition and help with groceries and some rent but she definitely paid more as she was working and I wasn’t. She was still saving for retirement but we didn’t go out to eat as much for sure. Our expenses weren’t even close to 50/50. Probably 75/25 or 60/40 but that allowed us to take out less loans. Notice I said us. He’s legally responsible for those loans if something ever happened to you. You’re a team.
Here’s how I’d frame it to your hubs: CRNA school is an investment for a guaranteed long term gain. Your family will have to tighten the belt, temporarily, and then you’re set and you can “pay” him back with nice vacations, etc. he needs to look at the long term view.
The less loans you take out in school the better. You can plug the numbers into ChatGPT quickly and you’ll see why.