How do you explain the financial benefits of getting your degree to a child? I have four girls; the oldest has just entered the teenage years. Everyone’s first comment is that I will need to save up for the four weddings. My response is that all I really need to save up for is four ladders and a shotgun. Anyhow… all four of them seem to cling to the belief that my income is limitless. We have started teaching them bit by bit about the expenses that go into taking care of a family of six. It’s hard for them to understand that an extra $10 for something is sometimes hard to come by. As an elementary school teacher I am certainly not at the top of the income levels. A Master’s Degree, however, will raise that by about $5,000 per year, which amounts to a pre-tax increase of about $400/month. With the increase in gas prices and the increase in the cost of health insurance going up, that money disappears fairly quickly, but it is certainly a help.
And so, with limited money, how do you keep the balance between over indulgence and being housebound due to lack of funds? How do you get your children active? Choose frugally! Choose adventures! What does that mean? For us, it is much more economical to look into family annual passes to places like Stone Mountain Park, here in Atlanta, GA. (It’ s the largest carving from a single piece of granite in the US. Larger than Mount Rushmore.) There are hiking trails and activities that will provide unique experiences each time you go. They’ve just had a large Chili Cook-off and coming up we have the Scottish Highland Games, a Native American Festival, The Pumpkin Festival and their Winter Holiday Village. Not bad for the price of an annual membership! We pack picnic lunches. We take the portable grill and cook out. Fun on a budget. Another favorite of the family is to go to Helen, GA and go tubing down the Chattahoochee River. $5.00 a person buys you several hours of rafting fun as a family. We include a trip to The Cabbage Patch Nursery on the way (free of charge) and walk around the old German style village of Helen (again…free). We have a family membership to the High Museum of Art. New exhibits all the time. They have free art activities for children that have been entertaining for all four kids, even the two year old. Dollar movies. Dollar store. Dollar song downloads. Everything for a buck. We have found that it is not always how much you spend, but how you spend it. These are the things that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
We don’t do team sports because of the expense, both financially and time wise. With me finishing my degree online and my wife finishing her degree at a brick and mortar school, time is harder to come by than money sometimes. So we plan trips to parks. We encourage our kids to play outdoors. My oldest daughter got a skateboard for her birthday and now my nine year old wants one. We are going to try camping again now that the baby is older. (Alright, it’s not the baby’s fault.. I have anxiety attacks when I get in a tent, but I’m working on it…there are so many OTHER things that I can get anxiety over instead.)
The bottom line when it comes to getting the degree is that the extra money will allow for those occasional special things to happen a little more often. And in the process, lessons are learned about the value of spending time to together AS a family, not just spending money ON the family. Is my degree important to my wife and kids? You bet. Every last penny.
