Outside his school duties, Hyrum and a brother invested in a farm operation, with land south of Rexburg. But the post-World War I recession hit rural areas particularly hard and they ended up deeply in debt. Even so, Hyrum took a leave of absence from the school in 1922 and went back to BYU to complete his M.A. degree. He returned to Ricks for a year of teaching and then moved to Berkeley, California to work on a Ph.D. degree. But despite good academic progress, the family returned to Rexburg after just one year. Hyrum felt a strong need to show that he was actively paying off his debts.