I cannot claim to have anything as witty as the tilde scare.. I studied for the last 5 years. In order to complete the qualification I was taking, I had to reduce my hours at work again and again. I dropped to half my hours, then dropped 6 more, then dropped another 4. That was a real dampener on my income. It was necessary but very hard and I am still nowhere near to recovering but I am heading in the right direction