Incomus Minimus Breakdownus Maximus

Sorry I have been absentee these last few weeks, but a LOT has been going on:

+ I officially said “No thanks, you can keep your $100K in tuition money” to my employer, thereby relinquishing myself from the three-year post-MBA time commitment I would’ve had to fulfill, and pretty much banishing myself from the grand virtual halls of personal finance bloggers.
+ My brother graduated from college and immediately re-enrolled in a Master’s program for Accounting. As part of his graduation gift, I sent him a little 10-page handwritten tutorial on personal finance principles and ideas
+ I finished up a class at a local community college and officially completed all of my pre-matriculation studies and requirements in Excel and Calculus. Stanford HAS to let me in now.
+ I recently decided to pursue a certificate in Public Management while I’m at school – with a focus on either Government or Socially Responsible Business. I’m super psyched about the program.
+ Took a budget roadtrip to Wisconsin – two nights, gas for a 15 passenger van, all meals, and a baseball game at Miller Park, all for the grand total of $150 per person. Amazing.

Other than being generally busy-ish, the only thing that’s keeping me from posting and thinking more about my finances? The soon-to-be income-free student reality is beginning to hit me. The mountain of debt I am about to absorb is overwhelming, and while I haven’t questioned the direction I’m heading or the decision I’ve made, the logistical “How am I going to do this?” keeps coming back to me. How will I manage my expenses, when I don’t have any assets or income? How will I organize my loan money so that I have the right amount at the right time, when I need it? I know a budget will be more important than ever – but how will I stick to it when I’m already SO far in the red? And the things I would normally want to write about seem more and more irrelevant – yes, would love to create a new goal to invest in a CD, but can’t even think about that right now. The Future of ETF’s? Who cares when I will barely be able to keep up the Roth.

I think deep down part of my nagging concern is even more esoteric than that… who can ever picture what the next stage of life is going to look like, and feel like? I was just as worried about this whole “real world” thing when I was graduating from college, and now hear I am running my life with complete measured control. I still remember the small rush of paying my own bills, taking care of my own oil changes and meal planning and everything else. And soon I will be embracing a whole new set of stages in one: the blur of two years of grad school and the new reality of student loans as one more line item on the Suzy comma Adult dossier.