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Almost New Grad PA awaiting 130k debt.. feeling adventourous. what are my options?


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Hey everyone, I will be 24 years old when I graduate PA school and be ~130k in debt at rates 5-6% govt loans

Ive approached my debt situation with conservative logic my whole pa student career.. thinking that I'd live at home and pay off the debt 30k/year at a time and live pretty comfortably and modest... but now as the days get closer I am starting to realize how mundane that sounds. hell,  especially when my parents are now talking of moving out of the house to downscale (financial hardship). 

one of the big points of choosing pa over md for me was to establish my financial independence early... 

 

I have heard talk of hospitals or some sorts of underserved areas offering to re-imburse student debt with a decent salary but was always confused how that sort of thing worked and wether it was worth it financially

 

I could be interested in moving to a cool city/state like Colorado/cali or even Hawaii..

are there such situations where Im able to move, experience a cool new perspective on life, and get someone to pay off my loans while paying me a pretty good salary? >/=90k

 

My interests are ICU/EM

 

Thanks!

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Research national health service corps and Indian health services if you are willing to go rural/inner city/urban. Small towns or inner city and a lot of the places aren’t desireable or “cool” which is why they are “underserved” and qualify for loan repayment, but the NHSC Paid off 80k of my 145k in loans and we lived comfortably paying off the other 65k.  In 3 years we were FREE!! We actually fell in love with rural Nevada too!  

There are also state programs which vary bey state.  

Be aware also that just because a site “qualifies” it’s still an application process and you aren’t guaranteed loan repayment.  NHSC ranks every site from most underserved to least and the money goes to those at the most underserved sites and they go down the list until they run out of money to give out.  

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Debt is slavery.  You have enslaved yourself to the tune of $130K.  

You can stretch the debt out over 10+ years, always having those shackles, by making minimum payments yet having a decent life.  You say you wanted early financial independence....this isn't it.

You can exchange some of that debt for another type of slavery by a NHSC (or other) program that trades your financial debt for another type of slavery....a job that you can't leave for "x" number of years.   You said you wanted early financial independence.....this isn't it.

Or you can hit your debt in the face.  Keep living like a student.  You are very very young, work a LOT.  Work full time somewhere, and pick up a PRN job on weekends.  You really can make $150-$200K a year in most places by working a lot.  

$200K - $70K in taxes = $130K.  If you live on $30K (probably close to your standard of living as a student) you may be able to be debt free in 1.5-2 years.  26 years old with great career and debt free.

Work/live like that for another 2 years, putting $50K/year into retirement and $50K/year into savings for a down payment of your dream house.  

28 years old you can have $100K in retirement, $100K in savings, and no debt.  You reduce your retirement savings to 15%, move into your dream house, buy the nice car (with cash), and vacation twice a year.

 

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1 hour ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Debt is slavery.  You have enslaved yourself to the tune of $130K.  

You can stretch the debt out over 10+ years, always having those shackles, by making minimum payments yet having a decent life.  You say you wanted early financial independence....this isn't it.

You can exchange some of that debt for another type of slavery by a NHSC (or other) program that trades your financial debt for another type of slavery....a job that you can't leave for "x" number of years.   You said you wanted early financial independence.....this isn't it.

Or you can hit your debt in the face.  Keep living like a student.  You are very very young, work a LOT.  Work full time somewhere, and pick up a PRN job on weekends.  You really can make $150-$200K a year in most places by working a lot.  

$200K - $70K in taxes = $130K.  If you live on $30K (probably close to your standard of living as a student) you may be able to be debt free in 1.5-2 years.  26 years old with great career and debt free.

Work/live like that for another 2 years, putting $50K/year into retirement and $50K/year into savings for a down payment of your dream house.  

28 years old you can have $100K in retirement, $100K in savings, and no debt.  You reduce your retirement savings to 15%, move into your dream house, buy the nice car (with cash), and vacation twice a year.

 

Are you Dave Ramsey?

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2 hours ago, dchampigny said:

Are you Dave Ramsey?

This was funnier than it probably deserved to be.  points to gryffindor

I do agree with much of what is said above re: debt,  but there is all kinds of middle ground here.  

Debt is a tool, just as a power tool or a firearm is.  With proper education and common sense, these can help you out when they are needed.  But when they are not truly (TRULY!) needed, they need to be put away.  If these items are used improperly or in haste, the results can be disastrous.  

I personally love ol' Dave Ramsey PA-C, who has chimed in above, and he is doing vitally important work, but I don't agree with absolutely everything he says.  

Get the books, and you'll take something away from each that will stick with you.  For instance, Kiyosaki was clearly made by blind luck, and fabricated great whacks of his personal history (including his military service).  But he is completely against the idea that your home (with mortgage) is an asset, and I'll never forget this.  

Back on subject.  High paying / loan repayment new grad jobs might be found in undesirable places - all you have to do is look.  Interview with a few and find out how bad they suck.

Recruiters - the bane of most of our existence - might come in handy here.  They exist to find and hire candidates for hard-to-fill jobs.

Your main goal right now is to gain experience - not make the big money.  In 18 months or so, you can start considering Alaska oil rig jobs or something.  Liking the way you think, but think it through.  Having less than a year of experience is a major league bugaboo.  Trust me on this. 

Try not to worry about it.  Good luck.

 

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6 hours ago, Boatswain2PA said:

Debt is slavery.  You have enslaved yourself to the tune of $130K.  

You can stretch the debt out over 10+ years, always having those shackles, by making minimum payments yet having a decent life.  You say you wanted early financial independence....this isn't it.

You can exchange some of that debt for another type of slavery by a NHSC (or other) program that trades your financial debt for another type of slavery....a job that you can't leave for "x" number of years.   You said you wanted early financial independence.....this isn't it.

Or you can hit your debt in the face.  Keep living like a student.  You are very very young, work a LOT.  Work full time somewhere, and pick up a PRN job on weekends.  You really can make $150-$200K a year in most places by working a lot.  

$200K - $70K in taxes = $130K.  If you live on $30K (probably close to your standard of living as a student) you may be able to be debt free in 1.5-2 years.  26 years old with great career and debt free.

Work/live like that for another 2 years, putting $50K/year into retirement and $50K/year into savings for a down payment of your dream house.  

28 years old you can have $100K in retirement, $100K in savings, and no debt.  You reduce your retirement savings to 15%, move into your dream house, buy the nice car (with cash), and vacation twice a year.

 

Thank you. i just copied this post and put it on my desktop

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I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey (not the PA-C one) says.  He often says he can find mutual funds with long term track records of >10% returns....I haven't found any.  He also pushes managed funds, which I believe seldom come out ahead of index funds, especially when factoring in their higher costs.   

I also disagree with him about "never" taking out student loans.  While student loans are an enormous burden for too many students who should NEVER have taken them out (we all know that LMSW who makes $30K a year while trying to pay off their $150K student loans for their masters in social work), it is a different story altogether to take out a modest amount of student loans in order to attain a well-compensated degree (MD/DO/PA).  While it is possible, like he points out, to get through medical school without student loan debt, you usually have to accrue some other type of significant debt to do so (4 years military service, peace corps, obligation to specific hospital, etc).  It's all slavery (in a sense).

The most important thing Dave Ramsey (and probably many others) advocates for is being intentional with your money.  If you are not intentional with your money, then it finds a way to get spent, and you are left wondering where it all went.   How many of us actually write down financial goals?  Do you know EXACTLY how much debt your family has?  Take a second and think about how much money you would have every month if you had NO debt payments (no mortgage, no student loan, no car payment, no CC payment, no boat payment).  

Do you even know what your net worth is?  Do you know how to calculate it?  (total assets (all your money + what you could sell everything for) - total debt = total net worth).

If you do, then great.  If not, that should be the first step in your financial education.
 

On 9/23/2017 at 0:07 PM, dchampigny said:

Are you Dave Ramsey?

Nope. he's got more hair than I do.

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On 9/23/2017 at 10:13 AM, Boatswain2PA said:

Debt is slavery.  You have enslaved yourself to the tune of $130K.  

You can stretch the debt out over 10+ years, always having those shackles, by making minimum payments yet having a decent life.  You say you wanted early financial independence....this isn't it.

You can exchange some of that debt for another type of slavery by a NHSC (or other) program that trades your financial debt for another type of slavery....a job that you can't leave for "x" number of years.   You said you wanted early financial independence.....this isn't it.

Or you can hit your debt in the face.  Keep living like a student.  You are very very young, work a LOT.  Work full time somewhere, and pick up a PRN job on weekends.  You really can make $150-$200K a year in most places by working a lot.  

$200K - $70K in taxes = $130K.  If you live on $30K (probably close to your standard of living as a student) you may be able to be debt free in 1.5-2 years.  26 years old with great career and debt free.

Work/live like that for another 2 years, putting $50K/year into retirement and $50K/year into savings for a down payment of your dream house.  

28 years old you can have $100K in retirement, $100K in savings, and no debt.  You reduce your retirement savings to 15%, move into your dream house, buy the nice car (with cash), and vacation twice a year.

 

17 years ago I was in this exact situation.  I took a job in EM because I could pick up shifts and I declined the loan repayment job even though both jobs paid the same on paper.  Once in the ED, I worked 6, 12 hours nights a week.  I busted my a$$ and paid off my debt and my wife's debt in 22 easy installments.  Kept working this way for another year and paid off my house.  Now, as I hit 40, I am financially secure, I no debt, and I still work a lot but doing something I want to be doing (kids can occupy a lot of time!  But I love that!).  If I had to do it all over again, I'd do a few things different, but mostly I'd change my perception.  It's hard to work that much, but when you can see the benefits it makes it easier.  Go work hard and crush that debt.  You'll never feel as good as the day to send the last payment.

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