Student debt hell...advice appreciated (military especially)

[Boatswain2PA]

Debt sucks.  You can exchange some of your financial debt for a service debt to the military, reserves, Indian services, PSLF, etc, for "X" number of years of your life.

Or you can find the highest paying job you can find and work insane hours, live frugally, and get your debt paid off as soon as possible..

I advocate for the latter scenario. Many families live on $40K a year.  It's not too difficult to make well over $150K a year as a PA.  That's $100K a year after taxes, minus $40K living expenses and you can throw $60K a year at your debt.

You can be out of debt in a few years, making large money, and then be FREE to move/work wherever you want.
 

Maverick - strong work.  Truly impressive.
 

[MedicinePower]

Thanks everyone. I agree it is a massive amount of debt. I am ashamed, to be honest. I have some serious decisions to make. 

 

If I'm being honest with myself I don't think the military is for me; certainly not active duty. There are a lot of factors involved but I think I would ultimately be more miserable with that commitment, and the financial incentives just aren't compelling enough.

 

NHSC offers $50k max for a 2 year commitment...which isnt bad, and I may still consider it. There are sites in my state.

 

The drawback with leaving my job is that I have incredible benefits (free health care, union, pension, retirement, guaranteed bi-annual raises), and it qualifies for the PSLF program. So in 10 years I could be debt-free, but there is no guarantee since this program has yet to pay out their first wave---in 2017. So making minimums in hopes that works out---and it may---could backfire if they nix it or cap the forgiveness amount.

 

Stick with the 10 year plan. How long have you been there for and did you previously sign up for the ten year debt forgiveness? If not you should definitely file for it now but ask about any way they'd let the application be retroactive. If they say no then go to your elected representatives as I know some folks who have had success backdating applications with that assistance.

[Maverick87]

Debt sucks.  You can exchange some of your financial debt for a service debt to the military, reserves, Indian services, PSLF, etc, for "X" number of years of your life.

 

Or you can find the highest paying job you can find and work insane hours, live frugally, and get your debt paid off as soon as possible..

 

I advocate for the latter scenario. Many families live on $40K a year.  It's not too difficult to make well over $150K a year as a PA.  That's $100K a year after taxes, minus $40K living expenses and you can throw $60K a year at your debt.

 

You can be out of debt in a few years, making large money, and then be FREE to move/work wherever you want.

 

Maverick - strong work.  Truly impressive.

 

 

Thanks. I opted for the first option to achieve this - military service.

[BruceBanner]

Yup. It's an awesome position to be in. I am completely debt-free and have a ton of money saved up. My investments have really taken off this year to the point that, at 29, I could theoretically retire from full-time work if I really wanted to. I think I would get bored though.

 

Good on you man. You were smarter than I was!! I have an uncle who retired from the Navy at about 40, worked in private aviation for 8 years or so, then completely retired from work at 48. He lives in a $100k RV with his wife and they spend their time at 2 different state parks, working a few hours per day for "rent" and otherwise doing whatever the hell they want. He won at life.

 

Debt sucks.  You can exchange some of your financial debt for a service debt to the military, reserves, Indian services, PSLF, etc, for "X" number of years of your life.

 

Or you can find the highest paying job you can find and work insane hours, live frugally, and get your debt paid off as soon as possible..

 

I advocate for the latter scenario. Many families live on $40K a year.  It's not too difficult to make well over $150K a year as a PA.  That's $100K a year after taxes, minus $40K living expenses and you can throw $60K a year at your debt.

 

You can be out of debt in a few years, making large money, and then be FREE to move/work wherever you want.

 

Maverick - strong work.  Truly impressive.

 

 

I have certainly entertained this but 1) working that many hours in medicine would destroy my mental health, 2) I favor long-term investing at this point over quick debt payoff, but ONLY because I have the PLSF option. 

 

 

Stick with the 10 year plan. How long have you been there for and did you previously sign up for the ten year debt forgiveness? If not you should definitely file for it now but ask about any way they'd let the application be retroactive. If they say no then go to your elected representatives as I know some folks who have had success backdating applications with that assistance.

 

I've been here 6 months, but the government will backdate it to your employment start date from everything I have read. The certification process is optional; you could work at a PSLF job for 9 years and get it certified at year 10, as long as there is verified evidence of your employment. I dont trust the government however, so I am certifying now and will renew every year going forward with hard copies.

[electric130]

OP, don't be discouraged starting from scratch at 35.  We really just started getting serious at about age 35 about saving and investing and thinking forward to being financially independent.  Before then I don't know what we were thinking.....I think I always thought I would enjoy my career and we were just trying to get through the "daycare" years with our two children. We are only 5 years older than you, but we plan to be able to both retire at 50 if we would like to.  This is with buying a nice home and raising two children and putting them through college.  One caveat is my husband will have a nice military pension to supplement our investments, but we are not solely relying on this and are really trying to very aggressively save for the next 10 years. 

Put a plan in place now to pay the amount you have to on your loans for 10 years, live well below your means and invest the rest.

[ventana]

just FYI

 

i am 15 years out

 

got a whole bunch paid off with in 5 years of grad

 

just paid off another

 

and have about 8k left....

 

Had just under 100 on graduation

[Maverick87]

Good on you man. You were smarter than I was!! I have an uncle who retired from the Navy at about 40, worked in private aviation for 8 years or so, then completely retired from work at 48. He lives in a $100k RV with his wife and they spend their time at 2 different state parks, working a few hours per day for "rent" and otherwise doing whatever the hell they want. He won at life.

 

 

I wouldn't say "smarter". I was in a different situation. If I didn't go to PA school right after undergrad, I probably wouldn't have done it. When I signed up, at 23, I was very naive and idealistic. I wanted to join the military. Getting the loans paid off was a bonus.

 

And props to your uncle. I'm out of the military now. Definitely don't think I could have done 20.

[Boatswain2PA]

..... Definitely don't think I could have done 20.

I couldn't do 20 in today's military.  Too much focus on political correct bull$hit, and too little focus on operations. But that's a topic for another thread...