Contemplating moving to part-time

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MonaLyssa33
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19 May 2019, 3:41 pm

I've been working full-time at my job for the last 3.5 years. My job qualifies me for student loan forgiveness, but only if I work full-time for 10 years. I've found that I've been taking a lot more mental health days from work the last year (so I'm constantly out of PTO), so I'm weighing the benefits of staying full-time. I frankly don't know what to do. If I can stay at my job (or another public sector job) I would, hopefully, have $50,000 of my loans forgiven in 6.5 years. For the last 4 years I have managed to keep my depression in remission, but I'm feeling like I'm struggling lately and I do not want to relapse.
In addition, I'm planning on starting grad school in the fall and in order to get tuition reimbursement, I also need to be full-time. It feels like I have to figure out if my mental health for the next two years (when I will hopefully be done with grad school) is more important than more debt and financial problems which will ultimately cause me more stress anyway.

I guess I just needed to vent.


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hurtloam
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19 May 2019, 4:10 pm

I hear you. I'm thinking of going part time. I'm exhausted all of the time and I think that I can get by on a lower wage.

My student loan is different as I'm in the UK and it only comes out of my salary if I earn over a certain amount.

However, when I was applying for a mortgage I discovered that the student loan affected my application. I didn't think it would have any negative future affects.

Can you delay grad school until the loan benefit pays off in 6 odd years? I don't mean give up, but can it be delayed? $50 000 is a really big amount to be forgiven. Sounds good. Can you mitigate the ft job stress in other ways?

I couldn't work ft and study too. That's why I quit web development. I can't work ft and go home and keep learning. I crashed and burned. The ft office job at least allows me to rest when I go home.



MrsPeel
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20 May 2019, 6:33 am

(Just noting first up that my opinion may not be all that relevant as I'm not in the same situation re. student loans, so feel free to disregard if it doesn't seem applicable).

Thought I'd share that I've also been having some issues with mental health / burn-out after 3 years full time. The conclusion I was forced to accept was that it's better to be poor and healthy than rich and sick. I've reduced my hours and taken a drop in pay.

But this is only my experience, and only you can decide what's best for yourself.
Wishing you luck, whatever you decide.