“Live like a CEO when you’re a student…..” Part II

When you were little, did you ever ask your parents, “How much money do you make?” only to have them tell you that isn’t a polite question? And thus began our awkward relationship with money. We try to make it, save it, spend it, and donate it, but we rarely are allowed to talk about it in any specific terms. This is especially odd in the business school environment. They are all taking lots of finance classes and most of the students are here to learn how to make more money than they made before (or at least get the fancy degree to aid in this “get more money” scheme). How much did they make before? Who the heck knows! We’re not allowed to talk about it!

This is the main reason why not having loans is awkward for me and Cam. For some reason, while it is definitely a faux pas to discuss money, it is completely okay to talk about borrowed money. People might not discuss their loan amounts, but they freely discuss what a struggle it’s going to be to pay back their loans or ask questions of a large group about the ins and outs of the loan process. It’s assumed that everyone has loans; I think it’s actually a way that most of the new students and partners bond when they first arrive here: “Man, the economy better pick up so that we can pay these crazy loans back!” or “We’re just poor students living on loans!”

But, what about the few of us who aren’t part of that group? If someone asks me if the loans just come into our bank account every month, what should I say? I don’t know? Honestly, I don’t know, so that wouldn’t be a lie…or do I just come out and say that we don’t have loans, so I’m not the best person to ask? The problem is, once word is out that we have no loans, we become the dreaded “other.” We aren’t like everyone else; we don’t have to worry about money. The “Oooh, you don’t have loans? You’re so lucky….” comments start, and the guessing begins. Our families are probably loaded! I secretly won the lottery 2 years ago! We’re actually 45 years old and have been saving for 20 years!

The boring truth? Cam saved a LOT while he worked, we didn’t have a car in Boston, and we lived below our means for 5 years. Cam also received a bit of inheritance when his grandmother died, and that went straight to the business school fund. Booooring. And what this really means is that we have to watch our money and spending at least as much as everyone else does. Besides what I make at my job, we don’t have money coming in every quarter; when our savings runs out, it’s gone.

Am I whining? Poor us!! We’re the misfits who don’t have to pay back thousands of dollars after school is over! Boo-hoo!!! No, seriously, we are very grateful that we won’t be in debt after this, and I know how fortunate we are. None of it would bother me if I felt like we were allowed to say it and not sound like we’re bragging. We get it – most people were not able to save as much as we were, and without loans, they wouldn’t be here. We were lucky and were able to save, but I’m still not sure if I am ready to admit that to the general Booth population. Maybe next time someone asks me about loans, I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear. “Phones? Yeah, we still have lame phones – no IPhones for us!!”:)

"Live like a CEO when you're a student...."

On the bus this morning, I was trying to plan how we were going to pay off our current credit card bill. We went to New Orleans for an abbreviated Spring Break (I’ve gotta work, people!), Cam’s tuition bill needs to be paid, he just bought a lot of his books (FOUR classes this term equals a LOT of money towards books and course packs), I just authorized payment on a trip to Europe for the end of the summer, and maybe I bought a few things online this month. Maybe. At any rate, this credit card bill is definitely on the high side for us.

Sounds like we’re really livin’ the life, huh? Vacations and online shopping (with dinners out and plane tickets home thrown in) and we’re just two people on one (not huge) salary living the way we did when we had two salaries, right? Not quite. For one thing, Chicago is a lot cheaper than Boston, and we moved to one of the cheapest viable neighborhoods in the city to save money. No luxury high rises for us! We park on the street, which is free (aside from the occasional ticket…). We cook roughly 18 out of 21 meals a week. We outlet or sale shop almost exclusively, and I’ve become mildly obsessed with coupons (those CVS coupons are so great! And I love coupons.com!). If we go out to eat, I try to use Groupons or Chicago Half Off instead of paying full price. Perhaps I’ve even become cheap….

Yes, we still go on vacation, and I’m certainly not one to say no to the occasional glass of wine and dinner out. But we look around and wonder how some of our fellow students are living the way it appears they are living. Fancy apartment buildings, multiple (often fancy) cars, dinner out 5 nights a week, 12 day treks to Europe and the Caribbean, expensive parties and Booth events, weekend trips to NYC….and a lot of these students don’t have a working partner like Cam does! What the heck? Something like 95% of people who come here take out loans…so what am I missing? People can oft be heard repeating this quote that all admissions officers like to remind the students: “Live like a CEO when you’re a student, and you’ll be living like a student when you’re a CEO.” You definitely hear people saying this….but you rarely see people taking it to heart.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait, didn’t she say a few paragraphs ago that she just returned from a trip to New Orleans and is planning a European trip for the summer? Sounds like she’s doing the same thing as all of these high rollers she’s confused about!” Okay, full disclosure (and Cam will not be happy that I’m revealing this): we don’t have loans. We had saved up for Cam to attend school for 2 years, and we figured that if I got a job, we’d be tight but okay while he went to school. And then, he was awarded a substantial fellowship (we're very fortunate!), so it turns out we had saved about twice as much as we needed. Later this week, I’ll write about why this has been pretty awkward at times during our first two terms in Chicago.

So what am I criticizing people for? Look, we’re still trying not to spend beyond our means. We want to buy a house when Cam graduates, and every dollar we can save now means that I’ll get a nicer house later :). I also kind of worry about some of these people; even with fabulous jobs, paying off these huge loans won’t be easy! Why spend more than you absolutely need? I understand that “this is the time” to travel and have fun, but there is a way to do it responsibly. I guess I just want us all to be livin’ like CEO’s post-graduation. Or at least like above average middle managers ;).