Side job in residency????

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sd2489

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I start residency in a few weeks but I'm anxious about my $300K student loan. I know it's a long-shot but...are there any ways to earn some extra money on the side (other than doing 100s surveys for a non-significant amounts, which I wouldn't have time for anyway...)??

I want to pay down my loan as much as I can during residency. I plan on going into primary care private practice after residency so PSLF is not really an option.

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Moonlighting is an option but that's not until you get your full license and if your program allows it. Uber comes to mind but again driving under the influence of long intern hours might not be such a good idea.

There are groups that will pay your student loan, so you might want to consider unless you are dead set on private practice.

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Any and all free time in residency should be spent sleeping or studying.

The minute gain in income is not worth adding stress to likely the most stressful thing we will do in our lives.

There's IBR and PAYE although that will obviously lower your take home income.

On 300,000 at 5%, and paying off in 10 years, you pay 80,000 in interest, which is not that much. ($680/month).

Adding even a small amount to your monthly payments and pay off in 8 years and you pay 65,000 in interest.

Your income will jump 6-8 fold as soon as you become an attneding so use this time to study and relax as best you can.
 
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Cut your spending as much as possible. Live like a student who has 20K per year, and throw the rest at your debt.

Or you can live life a little more and be reassured that private practice pays pretty well.
 
Any job you can get in residency will likely be worthless. Maybe you can find some random surveys to make a couple extra bucks but an actual job; no. Really unless you find something really great you likely will be making $10-15/hr. That is worthless. As you become more senior you can moonlight then at that point go wild if you want. As said above you will make much more by cutting expenses. Get a low priced apartment, make your own turkey sandwich ect. Will pay off more than getting a side job.
 
Depends on your location (opportunities to moonlight) and your program (if/when they allow moonlighting). My program allows it at the beginning of PGY2 if the PD approves it for you. It's a more rural program and there are a lot of urgent cares and rural EDs nearby that nearly all of the residents moonlight in. Can make $200/hr at one of the EDs. I spoke to one of the PGY3s the other day who nearly tripled his salary ($50k -> $145k) while moonlighting.


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I read Tarot cards as an intern on my nights on call. $5 a pop, would probably charge $10 now with inflation. Didn't help with debt, but there's your pizza money.
 
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Ask around your residency, you are hardly alone here. A few specialties (Anesthesiology, ED, FM) are notable for having a lot of moonlighting opportunities, but many institutions don't let interns participate. Some allow external moonlighting, just ask more senior residents what they did.

Driving Uber or something random like that to truly supplement your income is not worth your time - moonlighting should pay $50-90 an hour at most institutions at a minimum, so $10-15 an hour for Uber isn't a good option plus the wear and tear on your car and free time which could be spent doing something else.
 
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