Here's the staff-room version: "I'm on a probationary contract, so I have to wait." Or: "I sub, so my income doesn't count." Both are wrong more often than they're right. A signed teaching contract is real income the day it starts—probationary or continuing. Sub days, EA hours, coaching stipends and summer school count too, once there's a two-year pattern behind them.
Educator pay has a rhythm lenders don't see in an office worker's stub: ten months of work spread over twelve, a contract that renews each June, a grid that steps up every September, a second job in July. None of that is a problem. It's just documentation—and choosing the lender whose rules read your file the way it deserves. That's the whole job, and we do it every week for people who spend their days in front of a whiteboard.
Two things we don't do, so you hear it from us first: we don't qualify anyone on income that hasn't happened yet (no "you'll be on a continuing contract by then"), and variable income—sub days, casual EA hours, stipends—needs a two-year history like any other. Inside those lines, the pay you've already earned is enough.
