taotaox1 Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 You should be making between 6 and 8k a month coming out of pa school. You should be able to live just fine..... I plan to dump 30k a year into my loans to skip most of the interest. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planteater Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 taotaox1- my plan too. We've lived on $35,000-$40,000 for a long time (with 2 kids), so if we continue that lifestyle for a few years after I am done with school, my estimated $50,000-$60,000 debt should disappear pretty quickly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taotaox1 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Heck, you could take a nice 10-20k (25-50% increase!) and still kill those loans off quick :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaggieMay Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 I don't think it is that so easy for many.... I have friends who are over a $100,000 debt. When you think about taxes, trying to save for at least 20% down on a home if that is what you want or the cost of rent/credit cards/car/insurance/ etc. etc. this is not an easy payback. At federal/state/county taxes of up to 33% of your salary - your take home paycheck isn't everything you think it is. Throw in if you want children, daycare and all of that... and your own toys. Most of my friends are holding down 2 jobs just to try to pay these loans off in 10 years.... real life is a lot harder than what we may think we can pay. I know many of PA's in my area who have already foreclosed on their homes..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taotaox1 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Not trying to be mean, but it sounds like a case of not knowing how to live within one's means. You might have to wait to buy a home, Not go skiing twice a year, and/or you might have to keep driving that old car, but its not like you are entering abject poverty. Plenty of people live with children on 40k a year (PRE) taxes (median HOUSEHOLD income is about 44k in the US) and seem to get along just fine, even if you pay off your loans in 5 years you will have significantly more net income than those people. And then, once you pay them off, you will get a huge boost in income. Not to mention you will have much great job security, (likely) better benefits, and the ability to make 6 figures after getting some experience. I hate it say it, but it is very hard to commiserate or feel sorry for someone that is about to enter one of the most sought after professions in the country, with a starting salary edging into 6 figures, because they will have to give up 1/8 (or even less) of their income to pay off school loans. You need to get out a bit and get a better perspective on what MOST people are making/struggling with. Consider yourself blessed, most people would kill to have your "problem". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimbikerun4fun Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Or consider this STRANGE way of financing school: I've been working 3 jobs/70 hours/week so I can CASH FLOW PA school IF I can get accepted next year. Also have enough saved to maintain paying family's health insurance ($700/month) and kids extracurricular activities (hockey-baseball-soccer-gymnastics-dance-piano) at $300/month... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planteater Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 taotax1- LOL yes we might give ourselves a bit of a "raise"! I think sometimes people do not want to acknowledge that their lives are about choices. You can choose to live a disciplined life or you can choose to be a slave to your impulses/appetites. I find so much joy now in things like playing games with my kids, hiking, cooking together, and just enjoying the family and friends around me that I do not think twice about all the entertainment and material goods I might be missing. We live very simply and plan to continue that even when can afford a different lifestyle. Maybe it is because I have seen actual poverty (not US poverty- we don't have much true poverty here), but I feel blessed to have a clean, comfortable home, healthy children, and plenty of healthy food and water. So, I guess all this rambling is really to make this point: It is your choice whether you will live simply and knock out loans quickly (or be even more awesome like swimbikerun4fun and save ahead of time) or whether you will max out your earnings and live paycheck to paycheck even when you don't have to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swooshie1 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I will walk out of PA school with little to no debt. My SO and I will cover the cost of my program with our savings. I thought I'd share how this is possible, in our case. We have chosen to live for the past 8 years somewhat frugally but without, truly, much sacrifice, and we certainly don't starve. Note that we don't have kids, by choice, and the monthly house payment is ~$1100. We live in California. Our combined income presently is @ $85K. 1). We both drive cars that have >200K miles, each. They are still safe to drive, so we consider them "decent." Combined savings on car payments for five years ~ 30K (est'd car payment of $250/mo). 2). We cut each others' hair. Yes, I trust him. major major trust.... LOL! But I usually wear it in a ponytail anyway. Estimated combined savings ~ 1200. 3). He does the maintenance on our cars, within reason (oil changes mostly). Estimated combined savings: 3200. 4). We dumped television 8 years ago. We don't miss it and our brains are thankful. Estimated savings: 4800. 5) Clothing: we just don't buy what we really really don't need. We mend what we can, within reason. Estimated savings ~ 4000? 6) Vacations. We take "staycations" or backpacking trips. Estimated savings, probably conservatively 12K by the time you would add up travel, hotels, food. It helps that we love where we live. 7) I typically go without makeup and I don't indulge in manicures, etc. estimated saving ? I really have no idea, but I'm guessing ~ 1500. 8). we rarely rarely use the clothes dryer. We hang our clothing on the line out in the yard in the summer, and inside near the woodburner in the winter. Saving ~ 1K. 9) Eating out/movies, happy hour. We pretty much don't do this and neither of us feels like we're missing anything. My social time with friends is usually spent running or cycling, or making dinner together. Estimated savings? I don't know, maybe 11K if we assume most people do this 2x per month and it's $60 per pop for a "nice" dinner/evening out. 10) I have one credit card and I use it almost exclusively for gas. I pay it off every month. If I added right, the amount of money that we *could* have spent on all of the above, over an 8 year period, is ~ 69K. That, instead, is sitting in our savings accounts. This is just food for thought for some pretty simple ways to live a little lighter on the pocket book when saving $ for school, or needing to repay loans, is the goal. Every "little" thing adds up in the long run.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planteater Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 swooshie1- love your post. We have a lot in common! I do use my dryer regularly though- with 2 kids I do a LOT of laundry and we have chickens in our backyard, so I don't really want my clean clothes out there. Way to go on saving up for school. I would like to do that, but we have used everything to live on a CNA salary and student loans so my husband can go to nursing school. Fortunately, his hospital will be paying off most of his loans after his first year as a RN! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acozadd Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 You should be making between 6 and 8k a month coming out of pa school. You should be able to live just fine..... I plan to dump 30k a year into my loans to skip most of the interest. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk Until you take away 2-3K of that in taxes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taotaox1 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 What is your other option? making 3.2k a month and paying 1k in taxes? Taxes are a fact of life. If you can't "survive" on an 80k salary, well... I guess you should have gone to Med school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acozadd Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 What is your other option? making 3.2k a month and paying 1k in taxes? Taxes are a fact of life. If you can't "survive" on an 80k salary, well... I guess you should have gone to Med school? I agree, I'm just saying that the 6-8K is pre-tax, so that original post was a bit misleading. If I took home 6-8K a month I'd be one happy camper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taotaox1 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Fair enough :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RHC81 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I project 60K to 100K+ for student loans, depending on which PA school I attend. That's undergrad and PA school, but it's not including living expenses. I'm planning to walk into my nearest Reserve recruiter as soon as I pass the PANCE to see what they will offer. I love the military, so this is a good option for me. I'm also looking at NHSC scholarships/loan repayment, although I realize these are very competitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxbowiexx Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 I graduate with nearly 50K in debt. Has been working for 6-7 months and has been able to cut my loan down to 24K. If i keep up with this rate, i'll finish paying my school loans toward the end of this year. I'm excited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisemakl Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Or consider this STRANGE way of financing school: I've been working 3 jobs/70 hours/week so I can CASH FLOW PA school IF I can get accepted next year. Also have enough saved to maintain paying family's health insurance ($700/month) and kids extracurricular activities (hockey-baseball-soccer-gymnastics-dance-piano) at $300/month... Props to you as a great parent and dedicated person! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodiggler Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 You do realize that your return on investment for being a PA will not exist right? I would advise anyone to just go to the cheapest program you can. Nobody in the real world is going to care if you went to Harvard. They are only going to care that you know your $tuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.