<prompt> Human: Im currently a fully funded doctoral student at an Ivy League school. Its the college of education, and I have a 20k stipend that comes with full family health insurance. Ill be entering my 2nd year, and I believe I will finish in my fifth year.I have a wife and a 3 year old son. We pursued this because it seemed like a logical next step in my career. I was making 48kyear as a high school teacher but gave that up to get this degree. Our expenses right now total to 2700. Rent is 1250 for a small townhouse, two bedroom that second bedroom is like a large closet, but our son seems okay. Our total income is 2100, but my parents have been sending a few hundred dollars a month to help out.My wife is a part time preschool teacher where our son goes to preschool. It pays 10kyear and offers a tuition waiver. Were taking on student debt and due to some unexpected expenses car issues, unexpected need to travel for sick family member, a bit of previous debt, its gone up to 7000. When we planned on this, we promised to not have any more than 10k in student loan debt, but that number already seems shot. My wife has looked for a different job, but the only offer she got that seemed worth it was a 30k job that had erratic hours. We lose the tuition waiver at our sons preschool bringing the monthly preschool plus daycare cost to 1250month. If Im doing the numbers right, when the daycarepreschool costs hit, were getting about a 200 bump in income for my wife to take on the other job, but our son gets put in daycare all day instead of being with mom for half of the day. Im still very connected back where we are from. A friend of mine called last night and said he is looking for an English teacher and jokingly asked if I would come back. I told him I would consider it. Hearing that offer made me rethink our priorities. Further, two weeks ago, I was speaking to another friend of mine that I used to be in a band with, and he told me hes giving up teaching guitar lessons next month. I used to teach guitar lessons at the same music school and could pick up some of his students. Essentially, tomorrow, I could accept this teaching job, pick up about twenty guitar students, and move back home. Its about 80studentmonth. My income would be 4000month after taxes and health insurance. My wife could get a similar preschool teaching job but its not guaranteed. Once our son is in kindergarten, she could get a higher paying job much easier.Looking long term, I would say that a PhD offers better long term possibilities, but the state of the academic market is a concern. Im also worried that I entered this program as a logical next step rather than pursuing a dream. But right now, I see our finances having zero emergency savings, zero in retirement besides the retirement I have from teaching about 10k, zero flexibility, and zero for incidentals. Ive also been feeling the need to provide a more stable situation for our family in terms of finances. In purely personal finance terms, what would you all advise?  <response>: The way I understand pay in the world of education, districts will give you a raise just for having a Ph.D. In addition, you will be able to switch to higher ed. jobs without any problems, and will have an excellent credential for pretty much anything you want to do in the future. The fact that you will spend a few years poor and in debt is the sacrifice people make for a better future. FWIW, Ive known a lot of people who have dropped out for family reasons, and either never gone back or who had to wait until they were in their 40s. The realistic outlook is that if you drop out of what seems like a pretty good deal, you will likely never go back. The opportunity you have now is your lifetime best shot at the Ph.D. 