How to Pay for Yoga Teacher Training?

Article by Lucas Rockwood

You’ve decided that you want to turn your passion for yoga into a profession—great! But now how are you going to pay for it? Investing in your own education is an investment in yourself and your future, so it’s almost always a great choices,
but how do you solve the short term problem of paying the tuition bill?

After training over 5,000 teachers, we have some great ideas students have used in the past, and even a simple solution of our own.

Option 1: Get a Bank Loan

For my first yoga teacher training, I walked into Bank of America in the West Village in New York City and got a $5000 loan at 2.9% interest. If I could do it again, I’d rather not pay interest and would figure out a way to avoid it, but I paid it back within 12 months and it worked out just fine.

Option 2: Get a Studio to Sponsor You

As a studio owner, I have sponsored three trainees to go to teacher training. What this means is I had three great students who I knew would make great teachers – but they needed training first. So I paid for their training, they signed a two year work contract with 0% repayment plan based on future earnings, and everyone was happy. All three of those teachers are still teaching, by-the-way, and one even has her own studio.

Option 3: Crowd Funding with a Twist

Yoga teacher training courses are typically $3500-5000, so this small sum can often be raised from friends, family and coworkers who want to support you. To make the offer more enticing, we recommend that you offer your funder 1 private yoga class for every $50 contribution. This way you’re not asking for a handout, you’re pre-selling your future services – it’s a win for everyone.

Top sites are Gofundme.com, Kickstarter.com, and Indiegogo.com

Option 4: Choose a Course with a Payment Plan

There are more and more courses now that offer payment plans. Some charge interest, but many, like the Yoga Teachers College, do not. This means you can train to teach, start teaching, and pay for much of your education with the skills you learned in the course. Since this solution is so simple, it’s the obvious choice we recommend for students.