Would you borrow from your home loan equity so you could afford to do a degree?

Unfortunately I am kinda one of those people who are impatient and want everything :rolleyes: And some of you know that it is my ultimate dream to have a total career change and become a midwife. In fact my desire to bcome a midwife is equally as strong as my desire to have another baby - and that's pretty strong. But the simple truth is there is no way we could survive on DH's income alone for 3 years and we couldn't even survive if I juggled Uni and a casual job (I work fulltime atm) So the only solution I can see is if when the time comes to start my degree (hopefully 2011 after another bub) we were to borrow an extra $60K from our home loan (luckily we had a biggish deposit and should have the capacity to do this) and then we could afford for me to do full-time uni and afford to live. I know it's not ideal to borrow even more money off those bastardo banks but I see it as an investment in my education and happiness. Plus once I am a registered midwife and work for QLD health I would be eligible to salary sacrifice the mortgage and therefore be able to pay the extra tax savings back into the mortgage to sort of make up for the extra we borrowed IYKWIM.

What do you think???

The interest would be the killer! It would make for a VERY expensive degree. Could you look into scholarships or programs like that where they pay you to study? Nurses are in short supply and there may be options like this available?

Hi Controlfreak.

I've kind of looked into it and there are scholarships out there (which I'll apply for) but they are only ever a max of about $5K - which I know is better than nothing. Unfortunately there is no such thing as being paid to learn to be a nurse/midwife these days :( The only benefit out there is the fact that some of the health degrees (like the teaching degree) are listed as being in the national priority banding so the cost of the actual degree is slightly less than other degrees.

Tough one. I would be more inclined to put extra into the home loan so it can be redrawn later when you need it. What concerns me with actually extending the mortgage is your ability to pay the higher repayment whilst on a reduced income. I doubt you bank will come to the party if they know you will be dropping an income.

Personally I wouldnt I would save as much as you can now. Studying nursing and our mid is stressful enought with placements, requirments etc without stressing re money also.

I did my nursing straight from highschool and when I did my mid i was living with DH who at that stage was a boyfriend, I had uni 2 days a week clinical 2 days a week and worked 3 days a week between 2 hospitals as 1 was permanent i cut down to 2 days a foirtnight and other was casual. I also worked 7 days a week in holidays to get extra money saved, at end of it had massive credit card that i took a loan out for to pay but as end of course i was working basiccly full time was paid off quickly. DH paid lots when i was studying.

Starting wages are not great by time I did mid and had been nursing for 4 years so was on a higher wage.

Good luck with it its well worth doing and a very good carreer just dont set yourself up for massive financial stress

Hmmm, Astrid you do have a very good point. I didn't think about the fact that the bank would want to know what the money was for and yes with a subsequent reduced income they probably would say a big fat nooo :(

Okay, back to the drawing board . . .

Thanks for your input feeb. It makes sense. I just cant stop thinking about wanting to do the degree though. Especially because a uni close to me is offering BMid next year and it sounds awesome (only BMid course to teach cannualtion and suturing and also heaps of focus on hombirth and waterbirth etc) so I really really really want to do it. Doesn't help that I do not enjoy my current profession.