12 August 2008

Zeroing out

BalanceIt took seven years.

I was able to stay pretty much in the black all the way through my undergraduate and graduate education. I went briefly into a bit of debt to move across 3 times zones to my first post-doc, but I was out of debt before I started my second post-doc in Melbourne.

The end of my second post-doc was when I went seriously into the red, long term.

I had to a trans-Pacific move back to North America. When I came back, I was unemployed for a while and owed taxes. I was offered the job I currently hold a couple of months later, and then had a trans-continental move. That combination sunk me. I got a line of credit with my bank extended, and that was how I paid to get here to start my job.

I was slowly paying off the debt, but sunk back when I decided to hire a lawyer to help with my green card application (worth every penny), and had to dip into the credit line again.

Today, thanks to some summer teaching and a little bit of grant salary, I paid back the last big of money owed on my credit line. Today, I am not debt free (I still have a lot of payments left on the world's friendliest car), but this is a relief.

I mention all of this just in case you ever wondered when in their career professors start to pull into the black. Everything in this job is about the long haul.

No comments: