Sunday, December 4, 2011

moving to Alaska


I am going to be a BYU graduate very soon. Soon as in my last class ever for my nursing degree is on Thursday. Talk about crazy!

While I am very happy about this, I am also filled with this weird sense of dread... What does graduation mean? It means that I have to grow up and get a job. No more fun classes, rushing to get homework done, BYU stuff, seeing Brian on campus, etc etc. Once I walk out of the classroom on Thursday, that's IT. I think I am going to feel very weird.

So weird, in fact, that I am already planning on attending some of Brian's future classes with him. NERD ALERT! Can you believe that I don't want to quit going to college?

But I am excited to get paid. Real excited.

looks like fun!
It will be so nice to not have to live off of our savings anymore :) Now we can start saving for cool stuff like children and ... dental school. I read somewhere yesterday that the average dentist gets out of school with $100,000 of debt. Yikes. That is better than the $400,000 that I heard somewhere else, but it is still a kick in the stomach.

Brian came up with a genius plan to get out of debt after graduation. MOVE TO ALASKA! Not only does the government pay you a bit extra to live out there, but salaries are a bunch higher. I decided to do a little investigation and found this nifty website. The subsidy isn't as great as I expected and apparently the cost of living is rather atrocious. But hey, it could still work! Anything to get out of $100,000 of debt, right? Nurses there make over twice what they make in Utah it seems....

Now, to be clear. We have not decided to move to Alaska and that wouldn't happen until Brian graduates from dental school - which is in at least 5 years. But, we're keeping it as an option!

this doesn't look so bad!
this does, however. BRRRRRRR!
I could get a pet moose!
Or at least a wolf puppy :)

3 comments:

  1. My husband is from Alaska and he and I WOULD never want to live there...even for a summer! But...you know...some people (like his parents) LOOOVE it. Depending on where you go, it is pretty gorgeous! You are brave to try though, that is soooo far away!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You could consider the military route for dental school. They pay for all your years of schooling, books, and give a $1500/month stipend for food, rent, etc. They also provide the internship and further training if you want it. You just give back one year for every year you're in school by working as a dentist on a military base, and then you are free to leave and go work wherever you want (it's usually 6 to 7 years). They don't deploy dentists, and you can usually choose where you want to live. (John and I want to go to the base in Germany! But they don't send you overseas unless you ask to go.) They have amazing benefits for the whole family and provide a starting salary equal to private practice, but you don't have any overhead like paying your employees or buying your own equipment, renting an office, etc. If you decide to give the full 20 years and retire, you have full benefits for you and family and half-salary every year for the rest of your life. It's not the route for everyone, but a great one to consider. If you have more questions, talk to us! This is what John is planning on doing when he goes to dental school.

    ReplyDelete
  3. **I want to clarify, you don't have to live on the base, you just work on the base in their dental office.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting!

You also might like...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...