Question:
Choclt has often posted on this subject in the past and she is 300% correct. Before you go to school you need to do a few things:
1. Get your finances in order. Be as debt free as possible. The fewer bills you have the less stress you are going to have and the more you can concentrate on learning.
2. Create a budget and stick with it. You can adjust your budget as your pay increases, but always keep your budget realistic. Personally I reccomend setting your budget on a 1800-2000 mile week (once you start solo driving). That way if you earn more you are just better off, but if you earn less than that in a week you wont be hurting as bad either. Also be sure to save back some of that extra on those good weeks to help with the bad ones.
3. Have at least 3-4 months of bill money saved up before starting school. (Whatever you monthly expenses are for EVERYTHING for rent to food to toilet paper, etc).
I fully realize that for some Numbers 1 and 3 may be impossible due to taking up truck driving because you are unable to find other work in your area. Number 2 however is a must for everyone who is going to be smart about getting into driving.
One thing that you need to be aware of is that during school you will not be getting paid at all. So that means, on average, for 4-6 weeks you will not have an income from the driving industry. On top of that during training you will not be making very much money either. For another 6-8 weeks or so you can expect no more than $350-$400 per week GROSS pay. Total all this up and that means you are going to have 3-4 months of little or no income, and still have all the expenses of life.
I will always be a mutter trucker at heart.
Answer:
During school and orientation, I was amazed at how broke some of the guys were. They were borrowing against the company for food each week. During orientation, they were desperate for it to end so they could get their first $50 advance.
This is no way to do it. It would be easier flipping burgers and asking "Should I supersize that?" than to put yourself through that type of desperation.
When you decide, do it with full knowledge and enough of your own money to hold you over. It takes a while before you really see enough money to pay those bills.
AND LEARN TO BUY FOOD AT WAL-MART RATHER THAN A TRUCK STOP!!!!!!

Answer:
I didn't do any of that. I just quit working full time and went part time. I went to school got my cdl them some experience and have done ok with it all. Didn't loose my car, my home or even my credit cards doing it.
Now some of the companies and one in particular that I worked for came close to making me loose things. But getting my cdl didn't.
'Carpe Diem' does not mean 'fish of the day'.
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

Answer:
For the past 3 months have been a penny pinchin mofo. Fortunatly I'm Currently a bartender, so my income was enough that stopping the freewheeling not a care in the world spending that I was doing was easy to stop, and was able to get stuff I needed, and still save. This fact is true for most any job field as far as your first paychecks aren't all that you thought They were gonna be. Plus from what I gather from forums I've read in here and layover.com The Drivers that wanted to do this seem to be far more satisfied than the ones who did it out of necessity for cash. Plus Don't burn Bridges you may have to cross over again. ie: telling ur boss to F.O. that last day of work or not showing up even. And have a backup plan should everything doesn't go as planned. Such things as what if I get flunked out of training? Plus Don't go to a Comp. that emphisizes teams if you want to run solo. Don't go to a comp. that pushes for you to stay out longer than you want to. Plus wherever that payscale speadsheet based on miles driven to the different cpm that you can earn that gave gross weekly , monthly, and yearly. This also a good thing to look at as well to see if this is the right move.