NIU

debt consolidation

Posted by Stacy on Friday, June 06, 2008 7:07 PM

The strange situation of a graduate student is something that I feel needs a little bit of attention. I have a great friend right now who is a grad student here and he is also a father. He met a his partner as an undergraduate and they got married as seniors. Now they have a little girl and they live in the on campus housing. He is spending most of his time out of the house with both school and work. When he is at home he is trying his best to be a good dad and work on the research for a book he is trying to write on American history. His partner is doing the stay at home mom gig right now and so he also has to program in time for her to have for herself sometimes. So he is definitely the busiest person I have ever met in my whole life. I know him because he was a professor of mine at one time and now I baby sit for him sometimes when he and his partner go out on dates and to school events. What blows me away is just how he seems like everyone else in his daily outlook. The other day I was talking to him about how he manages to both go to school and have kid without being massively in debt. He told me that he is a self proclaimed master of debt consolidation. His father was a financial consultant and has personally helped him along with his trying to eliminate debt. Though he lives well beyond his means and doesn't take handouts from his parents, he has found ways of keeping payments and bills low low while also keeping his salary as high as possible. We usually like to sit and talk about school topics like what he has been researching and what I have been studying lately. This week though I have been really trying to pick his brains about this whole consolidate debts thing because I think I may want to go to graduate school and I think if he can do it with kids and a family house then I can do it as an independent person with ease. I just need to figure out all of his little tricks and then I will be set.