Your projected dept & how will you pay it off?

[Igor4sugry]

I have made some calculations about how much my medical education will actually cost. The school sent me a financial aid package with an overall cost of $71,000.00. Based on this number and on the current interest rates of 6.8% - Stafford, 5% - Perking, and 8.5% - private; I calculated how much I will have to repay after 4 years (also added my undergrad loans).
It turns out that I will own $364,000.00

This number made me scared. Because it seems like the only way to pay it off and have a descent life, would require me to be a surgeon/anesthesiologist/radiologist. Otherwise I will be paying it off till I'm 50 as an internist/family practice.

Also, the current mortgage crisis did not make life for us easier as the second largest bank, Bank of America has pulled out of private lending (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aITn_.6dC1o4&refer=home)

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

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[lilnoelle]

I have made some calculations about how much my medical education will actually cost. The school sent me a financial aid package with an overall cost of $71,000.00. Based on this number and on the current interest rates of 6.8% - Stafford, 5% - Perking, and 8.5% - private; I calculated how much I will have to repay after 4 years (also added my undergrad loans).
It turns out that I will own $364,000.00

This number made me scared. Because it seems like the only way to pay it off and have a descent life, would require me to be a surgeon/anesthesiologist/radiologist. Otherwise I will be paying it off till I'm 50 as an internist/family practice.

Also, the current mortgage crisis did not make life for us easier as the second largest bank, Bank of America has pulled out of private lending (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aITn_.6dC1o4&refer=home)

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

1. My debt is about the same as yours.

2. I don't know.

3. Its too high, especially for individuals who aren't attending their state schools or attending schools with substantial scholarship money available.

Honestly, I'm not all that concerned about it. I freaked out about it a year ago, but have since then sort of come to peace about it. I will probably only go into primary care if I can get a loan repayment via my state... if I wasn't in a state that had a generous loan repayment program, I probably wouldn't be able to go into primary care at all. As it is, if I go into primary care and am accepted into this loan repayment program, all but about $80K of my loans will be forgiven.

I don't plan on "moving up" as soon as I get out of med school/residency. I plan on keeping about the same standard of living as we currently have (neither beggar nor extravagant) and pay off my loans as soon as possible. With our current interest rates, it will not be smart to sit on our loans as previous graduates have been able to do. I also don't like having the loans sitting on my mind.... so my intention is to be debt free as fast as possible. Then once I'm debt free, I'll worry about getting a nicer home, car, etc.

 

[lyn2006]

I don't plan on "moving up" as soon as I get out of med school/residency. I plan on keeping about the same standard of living as we currently have (neither beggar nor extravagant) and pay off my loans as soon as possible. With our current interest rates, it will not be smart to sit on our loans as previous graduates have been able to do. I also don't like having the loans sitting on my mind.... so my intention is to be debt free as fast as possible. Then once I'm debt free, I'll worry about getting a nicer home, car, etc.

I think you hit the nail on the head. My husband and I will graduate med school with almost half a million dollars in student loan debt (all med school loans). We won't buy a big house or nice cars or take expensive vacations for a long time - rather, we'll live like we do now. As long as you don't expect to start living the high life when you graduate med school, you should be fine.

 

[mjl1717]

I have made some calculations about how much my medical education will actually cost. The school sent me a financial aid package with an overall cost of $71,000.00. Based on this number and on the current interest rates of 6.8% - Stafford, 5% - Perking, and 8.5% - private; I calculated how much I will have to repay after 4 years (also added my undergrad loans).
It turns out that I will own $364,000.00

This number made me scared. Because it seems like the only way to pay it off and have a descent life, would require me to be a surgeon/anesthesiologist/radiologist. Otherwise I will be paying it off till I'm 50 as an internist/family practice.

Also, the current mortgage crisis did not make life for us easier as the second largest bank, Bank of America has pulled out of private lending (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aITn_.6dC1o4&refer=home)

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

1)Mine is about 100,000k-Salliemae

2) I have deferred this, they go crazy when I do.. I will gradully pay them back.. But I almost look at this as the loan that goes on forever!..

3)The cost is way to steep!

 

[mjl1717]

I have made some calculations about how much my medical education will actually cost. The school sent me a financial aid package with an overall cost of $71,000.00. Based on this number and on the current interest rates of 6.8% - Stafford, 5% - Perking, and 8.5% - private; I calculated how much I will have to repay after 4 years (also added my undergrad loans).
It turns out that I will own $364,000.00

This number made me scared. Because it seems like the only way to pay it off and have a descent life, would require me to be a surgeon/anesthesiologist/radiologist. Otherwise I will be paying it off till I'm 50 as an internist/family practice.

Also, the current mortgage crisis did not make life for us easier as the second largest bank, Bank of America has pulled out of private lending (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aITn_.6dC1o4&refer=home)

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

1)Mine is about 100,000k-Salliemae

2) I have deferred this, they go crazy when I do.. I will gradually pay them back.. But I almost look at this as the loan that goes on forever!..

3)The cost is way to steep!

 

[FenderHM]

I think its ridiculous that medical education has become so expensive. here we are trying to learn an impossible field with the best intentions (theoretically) so we can have careers as physicians and these fat cat lenders are making bank off of just lending us money. and let us not forget the medical schools that charge out the wazoo to support their programs. maybe states should better fund all medical education programs, esp if they want more primary care physicians. med school in some other countries, like india, costs around $5000 for 4 years. then they drop an addition $2000 on kaplan courses, take the boards, and get US residencies. how is that a) fair to us? b) beneficial to the US healthcare system to have half the residencies in primary care taken by foreign non-LCME trained physicians?

Ill be at about $280, 000... just from Med school...

 

[Dancer1986]

1. I have no undergrad debt, and my state med school's COA is about $44K/year (+ health insurance), so I anticipate I will graduate with around $175-180K in debt.

2. As far as I have calucated, if I pay this over 10 years it will be about $2K/month, 15 years about $1.5K/month, and 30 years about $1K/month. I plan on entering Primary Care Pediatrics, so I am not sure which plan I will choose but I don't think it will be the 10 year plan. I want to have enough money to enjoy life for myself and my family, so although I will end up paying more overall I think I will probably choose the 15 year plan (hopefully not 30 since this would double my debt overall!)

3. Yes I definitely feel that medical education is way too expensive, and I hope things will change soon in the future. But it isn't something that will keep me from pursuing my dreams.

 

[psipsina]

I think you hit the nail on the head. My husband and I will graduate med school with almost half a million dollars in student loan debt (all med school loans). We won't buy a big house or nice cars or take expensive vacations for a long time - rather, we'll live like we do now. As long as you don't expect to start living the high life when you graduate med school, you should be fine.

I agree with this. My medschool will cost about 145K + 40K for undergrad (I lucked out with a state school for med and a scholarship for undergrad) and about 50K for DH's undergrad for a grand total of 235K. Our plan is to maintain our medschool lifestyle, where we are living within a 40K/year budget, thru my residency and throw basically all of DH's earnings, whatever they may be by that point, at our debt which will be a significant chunk of change over 4-7 years. But the key is going to be convincing ourselves that we can't live like there is a doctor in the family just because there will be a MD behind my name.

 

[yadayadadude]

Our plan is to maintain our medschool lifestyle, where we are living within a 40K/year budget, thru my residency and throw basically all of DH's earnings, whatever they may be by that point, at our debt which will be a significant chunk of change over 4-7 years. But the key is going to be convincing ourselves that we can't live like there is a doctor in the family just because there will be a MD behind my name.

See, this is pretty much everyone's plan while still in school. I really wonder though, how many people actually do it. Personally, I am freaking sick of living like a student. The thought of doing it for another X years makes me unhappy. I'd like to drive a car that doesn't emit a plume of opaque smoke, I'd like to go out to dinner with my husband once in awhile, I'd like to buy a new dress now and then. More important, I'd like to start saving for my son's education, and begin to think about buying a house someday.

I don't have a point really ... just observing that the we'll-live-like-students-until-the-debt-is-gone strategy is very popular among students and appears to be much less popular among graduates ...

 

[UserNameNeeded]

See, this is pretty much everyone's plan while still in school. I really wonder though, how many people actually do it. Personally, I am freaking sick of living like a student. The thought of doing it for another X years makes me unhappy. I'd like to drive a car that doesn't emit a plume of opaque smoke, I'd like to go out to dinner with my husband once in awhile, I'd like to buy a new dress now and then. More important, I'd like to start saving for my son's education, and begin to think about buying a house someday.

I don't have a point really ... just observing that the we'll-live-like-students-until-the-debt-is-gone strategy is very popular among students and appears to be much less popular among graduates ...

It's not even about extravagance. By the time we're practicing physicians, all of us will be near middle age or older, when we're supposed to be having families and a 'normal' life paying for kids' education, our retirement, a house and a car or two. There's just no way I'm going to be able to do that with a high-interest medical student loan that's bigger than my own parents' mortgage! I'm going to have to pull a Madonna and have my baby after 50. I'll probably be dead by the time the baby graduates high school.

The further I get into this, the more I think 'what a waste...I should have done something else and kept a part of my youth.'

 

[elderjack21]

I have made some calculations about how much my medical education will actually cost. The school sent me a financial aid package with an overall cost of $71,000.00. Based on this number and on the current interest rates of 6.8% - Stafford, 5% - Perking, and 8.5% - private; I calculated how much I will have to repay after 4 years (also added my undergrad loans).
It turns out that I will own $364,000.00

This number made me scared. Because it seems like the only way to pay it off and have a descent life, would require me to be a surgeon/anesthesiologist/radiologist. Otherwise I will be paying it off till I'm 50 as an internist/family practice.

Also, the current mortgage crisis did not make life for us easier as the second largest bank, Bank of America has pulled out of private lending (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aITn_.6dC1o4&refer=home)

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

BoA pulling out of private student loans is not a good sign for any of us.

1. I have no debt right now, but start medical school in August with my family of 4 (me, spouse, 2 children). Counting all the variables, we conservatively estimated that we would be about 275-300k in debt by the time I could start paying back the loans after residency. I even made a handy spreadsheet that calculated all the debt (see the below thread, just ignore the HPSP stuff in the sheet since I was using this to compare HPSP to just doing it on my own, http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=504710)

2. After getting my financial aid package from my school...8k a year in scholarships...the rest in loans, looking at how old I would be when I finished school (33), and residency (37), and was able to start paying back my loans...decided to go back into the military. Defintely not an easy choice to make, and not something for everyone. I also looked at serving in underserved areas through some state programs, but felt it was too limiting since I didn't know what type of medicine I wanted to practice.

3. Too expensive. If you can get into your state school and save $$, that is the way to go, having $100k less in debt gives you much more flexibility I think...I didn't make it into mine and had to to a private school for Big $$, and in the end, I am sure the quality of education isn't so different. (although I really like the school I will be going to)

 

[Doctor Bagel]

See, this is pretty much everyone's plan while still in school. I really wonder though, how many people actually do it. Personally, I am freaking sick of living like a student. The thought of doing it for another X years makes me unhappy. I'd like to drive a car that doesn't emit a plume of opaque smoke, I'd like to go out to dinner with my husband once in awhile, I'd like to buy a new dress now and then. More important, I'd like to start saving for my son's education, and begin to think about buying a house someday.

I don't have a point really ... just observing that the we'll-live-like-students-until-the-debt-is-gone strategy is very popular among students and appears to be much less popular among graduates ...

Yeah, I'm there with you. I don't plan on living extravagantly, but I want a little more cush in my life than I have right now. So no, the plan isn't to live like a student for years after graduation. Instead, I'm stretching the debt out as long as possible.

 

[ComstockOSU]

Honestly, I'm not all that concerned about it. I freaked out about it a year ago, but have since then sort of come to peace about it. I will probably only go into primary care if I can get a loan repayment via my state... if I wasn't in a state that had a generous loan repayment program, I probably wouldn't be able to go into primary care at all. As it is, if I go into primary care and am accepted into this loan repayment program, all but about $80K of my loans will be forgiven.

Mind telling me what state will pay back all but $80k if I go primary care? I'm intrigued and a little jealous.

 

[lilnoelle]

Mind telling me what state will pay back all but $80k if I go primary care? I'm intrigued and a little jealous.

Kansas, but you would have to be a student at KUMC to get it. They pay for all of tuition (I'm an out of state student, so thats $36K a year for me) and then give a generous monthly stipend of $2K to live on.

Its a high interest loan, but is repayed for you by the state if you work in underserved Kansas in primary care (defined as EM, general Peds,IM,FM)

Its a great deal if you KNOW you want to do primary care and don't mind living in the sticks.

 

[lilnoelle]

I agree with this. My medschool will cost about 145K + 40K for undergrad (I lucked out with a state school for med and a scholarship for undergrad) and about 50K for DH's undergrad for a grand total of 235K. Our plan is to maintain our medschool lifestyle, where we are living within a 40K/year budget, thru my residency and throw basically all of DH's earnings, whatever they may be by that point, at our debt which will be a significant chunk of change over 4-7 years. But the key is going to be convincing ourselves that we can't live like there is a doctor in the family just because there will be a MD behind my name.

Where ya been? Its good seeing you around again!

 

[UserNameNeeded]

They pay for all of tuition (I'm an out of state student, so thats $36K a year for me) and then give a generous monthly stipend of $2K to live on.

$2,000 a month to live on?! Why are they even bothering to offer a ludicrous program like that?

Basically, that tells you the state of Kansas thinks you-- a living, breathing, well-educated person who can contribute immensely to society-- is worth less than the amount of a loan.

 

[UserNameNeeded]

So the question is, is taking out a 30 year mortgage on our education still feasible? I thought to have 30 year repayment plans we had to consolidate and most lenders aren't offering consolidations anymore. Don't we have to pay back the federal loans within 10 years?

 

[alwaysaangel]

[1] What kind of dept do you guys have?

[2] How do you plan to manage this dept?

[3] In general, how do you feel about the cost of medical education?

1. I will have about 250k after interest etc. when I get out of med school (I managed to get through undergrad without loans)

2. I intend to pay back my loans as quickly as possible. Right now I'm single and whether I still am in residency is beside the point. I can live off 20-25k as a resident and put 15-20k/year for my loans. If I'm not single and we have a second income then I can pay even more off per year. (As long as I don't get pregnant between now and then this will work).

Then when I start working I want to pay it off as quickly as possible. If I go my current route I'll be doing EM so like 150-200k after taxes. So I could pay off all my loans within 2 or so years after residency and still live pretty well.

This is my current plan because I really dislike debt. My parents always taught me to pay everythign off as quickly as possible - why waste money to interest.

3. I think becoming a doctor is really hard, and that its expensive. Its manageable but I think they charge what they do only because we will pay it - not because it costs this much.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

So the question is, is taking out a 30 year mortgage on our education still feasible? I thought to have 30 year repayment plans we had to consolidate and most lenders aren't offering consolidations anymore. Don't we have to pay back the federal loans within 10 years?

I think it used to be that way, but it's changed. Now you do not have to consolidate to extend payments provided that your debt levels are large enough (and ours will be).

 

[Lshapley]

I can live off 20-25k as a resident and put 15-20k/year for my loans.

Um, looks like you are forgetting that you will have to pay taxes as a resident. After taxes, you can expect to take home about $2200-$2500 per month. That translates into about 25-30k a year, which means that you will not be giving 15-20 to your student loans. More likely you will be giving 5k...10k if you only eat kraft mac & cheese.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Um, looks like you are forgetting that you will have to pay taxes as a resident. After taxes, you can expect to take home about $2200-$2500 per month. That translates into about 25-30k a year, which means that you will not be giving 15-20 to your student loans. More likely you will be giving 5k...10k if you only eat kraft mac & cheese.

Not what I've heard. I heard most residencies pay 40-50k/year before taxes. So my numbers of 35-45k net income is completely realistic.

But even if I take home 30k/year I can easily live off of 20k and put in 10k, and thats while eating perfectly well. My family of 4 survived off of 20k/year when I was younger. If you budget, don't eat out or buy frivolous things, etc. you can eat perfectly well, have a nice apartment and still save money.

 

[nykka3]

Not what I've heard. I heard most residencies pay 40-50k/year before taxes. So my numbers of 35-45k net income is completely realistic.

But even if I take home 30k/year I can easily live off of 20k and put in 10k, and thats while eating perfectly well. My family of 4 survived off of 20k/year when I was younger. If you budget, don't eat out or buy frivolous things, etc. you can eat perfectly well, have a nice apartment and still save money.

Actually despite making approx. 45K annually, your take home pay will most likely be b/ $2200-2500 as previoiusly states. Try this payroll calculator
http://www.paycheckcity.com/netpaycalc/netpaycalculator.asp

 

[Lshapley]

Actually despite making approx. 45K annually, your take home pay will most likely be b/ $2200-2500 as previoiusly states. Try this payroll calculator
http://www.paycheckcity.com/netpaycalc/netpaycalculator.asp

Yeah, I pulled my numbers directly from the residency forum on SDN. Also, keep in mind, that money you are able to through at your loans, even if 10k, might be just enough to cover interest.

I don't mean to be a downer. My intentions are honestly more focused on raising the collective awareness about these issues. If we don't start talking about these issues, then big business and the government will take advantage of the general altruistic tendencies of the profession. We will be working hard enough and for long enough...we shouldn't have to live in poverty for over a 15 years too!

 

[yadayadadude]

But even if I take home $30K/year, I can easily live off of $20K and put in $10K, and that's while eating perfectly well. My family of four survived off of $20K/year when I was younger. If you budget, don't eat out or buy frivolous things, etc., you can eat perfectly well, have a nice apartment and still save money.

Statements like this always astound me. I see from your profile that you live in California. You can live on $1600/m? Really? You must be working some serious magic with that budget of yours.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Statements like this always astound me. I see from your profile that you live in California. You can live on $1600/m? Really? You must be working some serious magic with that budget of yours.

945 Rent (includes my pet rent)
200 Groceries
100 eating out/entertainment
100 miscellaneous
100 gas/auto
100 bills/cell
=1545/month

So yeah I can live off of $1600 a month. I've been doing it since August. Hell in college I lived off of 1000 a month - but that was sharing a one bedroom and really NO FUN or eating out ever (I also didn't have a car). No magic. Just no frivolous expenses. Does it suck to live like a pauper? Sure. Will I be happy if I am in less debt than my colleagues - yes.

You live with a roommate and that drops your rent considerable. You cook all your food and only eat out as a treat a few times a month. You don't shop for clothes/shoes etc except when absolutely necessary.

Have a realistic, low cell phone plan, live near where you're going to limit gas costs, don't get cable because it costs too much and really who needs it. Keep 100 on the budget for incidentals and a credit card for emergencies.

Its completely doable. What amazes me - is when people are so far gone that they think its amazing.

 

[yadayadadude]

What amazes me - is when people are so far gone that they think its amazing.

Good grief.

For the record, neither my husband nor I has a cell phone, not even a low cost plan. We don't have cable (because we don't have a television), and we don't eat out even a few times a month -- more like once a quarter. We shared a single paid-for car until it was literally unsafe. He bikes to work and I take the (free) bus most days. My husband cuts his own hair. I clip coupons, shop at three grocery stores to find the best prices, and cook from scratch. Still, our monthly budget is more than double yours. I also think there are significant holes in your budget: you're missing insurance of any kind (car, health, life, renter's) and there are no sinking funds to cover inevitable expenses like holiday travel, gifts, co-pays, annual car registration, car repairs, etc.

I have no idea why I'm even arguing with you about this. If your budget works for you, cool. I guess I'm just crabby tonight and maybe more bitter about our finances than I realized.

ETA: As recently as a few months ago, I agreed with you that it's worth it to live simply in order to limit debt. Maybe it's the aforementioned bitterness/crabbiness, but lately I'm not sure that it's worth it to be so super frugal. I only owe $45K (and have no plans to borrow any more -- so that's my total medical school debt), but can't help thinking ... maybe I could take out a couple K next quarter ... go to Hawaii ... ugh. I am so done with living like this.

 

[UserNameNeeded]

How in the world can anyone budget only $200 a month for groceries (especially if you're not eating out everyday). That is insane. Do you have Ramen 3 times a day, 7 times a week? You know somebody died doing that.

I'm only feeding myself and I live in a low cost of living part of the country but I spend at least $300 a month on groceries, on top of eating out semi-regularly. I don't shop at Whole Foods or anywhere pricey, either.

 

[DrJD]

How in the world can anyone budget only $200 a month for groceries (especially if you're not eating out everyday). That is insane. Do you have Ramen 3 times a day, 7 times a week? You know somebody died doing that.

I'm only feeding myself and I live in a low cost of living part of the country but I spend at least $300 a month on groceries, on top of eating out semi-regularly. I don't shop at Whole Foods or anywhere pricey, either.

My wife and I eat for between 200 and 240 a month in California. It is the magic of costco and eating your left overs instead of throwing them away... So if the two of us can do it on that it seems like one person could do it on 200.

I too will have large student debt, totally sucks...

 

[Dancer1986]

I am planning on spending $200 a month on groceries next year during medical school. I think that is reasonable since I am a small girl, and I will be living by myself. Right now I only spend about $100-$150(max) a month on groceries, but I do eat lunch at school sometimes using my campus cash card. So I think $200 should be more than enough for me.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Good grief.

For the record, neither my husband nor I has a cell phone, not even a low cost plan. We don't have cable (because we don't have a television), and we don't eat out even a few times a month -- more like once a quarter. We shared a single paid-for car until it was literally unsafe. He bikes to work and I take the (free) bus most days. My husband cuts his own hair. I clip coupons, shop at three grocery stores to find the best prices, and cook from scratch. Still, our monthly budget is more than double yours. I also think there are significant holes in your budget: you're missing insurance of any kind (car, health, life, renter's) and there are no sinking funds to cover inevitable expenses like holiday travel, gifts, co-pays, annual car registration, car repairs, etc.

I have no idea why I'm even arguing with you about this. If your budget works for you, cool. I guess I'm just crabby tonight and maybe more bitter about our finances than I realized.

ETA: As recently as a few months ago, I agreed with you that it's worth it to live simply in order to limit debt. Maybe it's the aforementioned bitterness/crabbiness, but lately I'm not sure that it's worth it to be so super frugal. I only owe $45K (and have no plans to borrow any more -- so that's my total medical school debt), but can't help thinking ... maybe I could take out a couple K next quarter ... go to Hawaii ... ugh. I am so done with living like this.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to induce crabbiness but I too get crabby with my classmates who think you can't possibly live on less than 2500/month. Thats obviously not you but thats where my response came from.

My parents still cover my car insurance because its cheaper for me to stay on theirs - thats 50/month I'm lucky to not have to pay.

I have an annual buffer in addition to my monthly income for incidentals (however I earn this buffer by working so its not loans) you mention while copays, meds and general gifts come out of my miscellaneous 100.

 

[alwaysaangel]

How in the world can anyone budget only $200 a month for groceries (especially if you're not eating out everyday). That is insane. Do you have Ramen 3 times a day, 7 times a week? You know somebody died doing that.

I'm only feeding myself and I live in a low cost of living part of the country but I spend at least $300 a month on groceries, on top of eating out semi-regularly. I don't shop at Whole Foods or anywhere pricey, either.

I'm a fairly small female, I cook once to twice a week and eat leftovers, cereal or sandwiches the rest. If you cook large amounts, and eat simply its VERY easy to live on $50 of groceries per week.

I never eat raman, mac and cheese and **** like that - when it comes down to it its cheaper to cook a bunch of food that will feed you 8-10 times.

 

[yadayadadude]

How in the world can anyone budget only $200 a month for groceries (especially if you're not eating out everyday)? That is insane.

This is the part of her budget I found to be the most reasonable. My husband and I eat on $80-90/w in a very high cost of living area (SF Bay Area).

 

[UserNameNeeded]

Oh, I see where the descrepency is-- I cook very little. Other than slicing, dicing lots of fruits and veggies (which are expensive) and sometimes cooking eggs, pasta and sauce, everything else I pretty much buy frozen. Cooking anything else takes, waaay too much time, especially since there's so little free time during the school year.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Oh, I see where the descrepency is-- I cook very little. Other than slicing, dicing lots of fruits and veggies (which are expensive) and sometimes cooking eggs, pasta and sauce, everything else I pretty much buy frozen. Cooking anything else takes, waaay too much time, especially since there's so little free time during the school year.

Yeah but buying things frozen is soo expensive, as you can see the huge discrepancy in how much you spend vs. I spend.

It comes down to more time or money? If you learn to cook quickly and can multitask it really isn't very time consuming at all.

 

[noentiendo]

testing

 

[The JockDoc]

Cooking anything else takes, waaay too much time, especially since there's so little free time during the school year.

So very untrue. There's plenty of time to cook for yourself.

 

[elderjack21]

If I ate frozen foods all the time (which are always on sale), I would be able to live much cheaper than I do now. Instead, buying fresh fruits and veggies all the time is costing us a ton (not to mention dairy, grains, and and some meat once in a while). Isn't it ironic that the healthy stuff generally costs more money?

 

[loved]

Isn't it ironic that the healthy stuff generally costs more money?

Definitely, and it is super annoying.

 

[It'sElectric]

My wife and I eat for between 200 and 240 a month in California.

Ok, I have to call shenanigans on this one. So you're saying that you and your wife eat a combined $7-8 worth of food per day??? That's it?? Are you freegans?? We, too, have a membership at costco, eat basically all of our left-overs, and never come close to only spending $200/month on food for the 2 of us.

I have a difficult time believing that anyone can live off of $3-4 worth of food per day and still not want to kill themselves or at least starve doing it. If you're a freegan, well then that's a whole other story and at least makes sense.

 

[southerndoc]

Ok, I have to call shenanigans on this one. So you're saying that you and your wife eat a combined $7-8 worth of food per day??? That's it?? Are you freegans?? We, too, have a membership at costco, eat basically all of our left-overs, and never come close to only spending $200/month on food for the 2 of us.

I have a difficult time believing that anyone can live off of $3-4 worth of food per day and still not want to kill themselves or at least starve doing it. If you're a freegan, well then that's a whole other story and at least makes sense.

You can do it if you eat Ramen noodles three times/day.

 

[It'sElectric]

You can do it if you eat Ramen noodles three times/day.

Haha...exactly. I guess it just requires a stronger person, because I'm pretty sure I'd throw myself in front of a very large, fast moving bus after about week 3 of that garbage. Life's too short.

Hell, a gallon of milk is about $3.75+ these days.

 

[DrJD]

I'm serious! We budget 300 a month, but end up spending between 60 and 70 a week on food... So I guess that is 240 to 280, but it is possible! We don't starve! Cereal for breakfast... Sandwhich, granola bar, fruit, crackers, etc. for lunch, and then dinner typically something with chicken and veggies or ground turkey... and that works! I never feel like I want for food... Since adding costco we are more in the 240 to 220 range per month... Anyway, no shenanigans here!

Ok, I have to call shenanigans on this one. So you're saying that you and your wife eat a combined $7-8 worth of food per day??? That's it?? Are you freegans?? We, too, have a membership at costco, eat basically all of our left-overs, and never come close to only spending $200/month on food for the 2 of us.

I have a difficult time believing that anyone can live off of $3-4 worth of food per day and still not want to kill themselves or at least starve doing it. If you're a freegan, well then that's a whole other story and at least makes sense.

 

[bostonmedical]

Mind telling me what state will pay back all but $80k if I go primary care? I'm intrigued and a little jealous.

I probably should have done a search on this, but who does loan forgiveness only the medical schools or the hospitals/company for which you work?

I know some medical schools including my state will reduce tuition if you say you will choose a primary care specialty. However, what if I went to a private school and then move to an underserved area would the hospital pay my loans or is it always an agreement you make with and while in medical school?

Do only state schools do loan forgiveness? (dumb question?)

 

[rgerwin]

We probably go closer to $425 a month, but don't have a costco, and we like to eat more organic. But even then, I don't consider that horrible for 2 people these days. I agree, life is too short to fill your body with crap. I feel so much better after taking out most of the processed food from our diet, and I function better. A perk for med school, which sucks every drop of energy it can to begin with.

 

[DrJD]

Yea, we definitely have to work to get the cost as low as ours is... IE go to a couple different stores to get the lowest prices, get non-name brand, non-organic, no beef, etc... In an ideal world we'd probably spend 100 a week so about 400 to 450 a month, which is what you are saying...

We probably go closer to $425 a month, but don't have a costco, and we like to eat more organic. But even then, I don't consider that horrible for 2 people these days. I agree, life is too short to fill your body with crap. I feel so much better after taking out most of the processed food from our diet, and I function better. A perk for med school, which sucks every drop of energy it can to begin with.

 

[randomedstudent]

See, this is pretty much everyone's plan while still in school. I really wonder though, how many people actually do it. Personally, I am freaking sick of living like a student. The thought of doing it for another X years makes me unhappy. I'd like to drive a car that doesn't emit a plume of opaque smoke, I'd like to go out to dinner with my husband once in awhile, I'd like to buy a new dress now and then. More important, I'd like to start saving for my son's education, and begin to think about buying a house someday.

I don't have a point really ... just observing that the we'll-live-like-students-until-the-debt-is-gone strategy is very popular among students and appears to be much less popular among graduates ...

Well my husband and I are both graduates now in residency and we are continuing to "live like students". We live on one salary and use the other to pay student loans and save the extra. I don't have enough loans to qualify for deferment so we have to pay mine (but it's only a few hundred dollars/month). My husband's are deferred but we will begin paying on them in a few months (waiting until we get settled in our new house). We will still be putting almost $2k/month towards retirement and general savings. It is possible, we are lucky that we have a relatively low cost of living in our city, but we do make some sacrifices (we both drive cars more than 10 years old for example). It all comes down to priorities.

 

[randomedstudent]

Not what I've heard. I heard most residencies pay 40-50k/year before taxes. So my numbers of 35-45k net income is completely realistic.

But even if I take home 30k/year I can easily live off of 20k and put in 10k, and thats while eating perfectly well. My family of 4 survived off of 20k/year when I was younger. If you budget, don't eat out or buy frivolous things, etc. you can eat perfectly well, have a nice apartment and still save money.

Ok, here's the truth from a resident...the accurate amount is somewhere between what you are expecting and the $2200-2500 that the other poster quoted. As interns my husband and I take home, after taxes, ~$2800 each. So not near as doom and gloom as the other poster would have you believe, but also nowhere near $40k a year as you believe.

 

[randomedstudent]

How in the world can anyone budget only $200 a month for groceries (especially if you're not eating out everyday). That is insane. Do you have Ramen 3 times a day, 7 times a week? You know somebody died doing that.

I'm only feeding myself and I live in a low cost of living part of the country but I spend at least $300 a month on groceries, on top of eating out semi-regularly. I don't shop at Whole Foods or anywhere pricey, either.

My husband and I together only spend a little more than that (about $225-250/month) and we most definitely do not eat Ramen. Rather we eat whole, fresh fruits and veggies, beef, chicken, and seafood. We eat very little processed foods at all. I find it completely reasonable that a single person could survive on $200/month. Heck in college I only spent $100/month, but that did consist of some pretty unhealthy crap, including, yes, Ramen.

 

[MikeyLu2010]

I'll have about 220K when i graduate in 2 years...the future wife (freshly graduated optometrist) will be around 50K...My plan is to live cheap in residency because it is temporary always the possibility of moving to another city afterwards..and living like docs after residency...obviously repaying my gradPLUS loans (8.5%) as fast as possible (actually my parents said they would loan me the money to repay the GradPLUS which comes out to be 37K since i am not going to take out money for gradplus for my last 2 years of school) and then paying the Stafford as long as possible...

 

[Richie Truxillo]

As of graduation, I'll have 303k debt (that's with the interest over 4 years). My plan? Well to either find a good employer with a loan-repayment benefit or to goto a medically under served area that can assist me in repayment. I'm going to have to go into forbearance obviously.

Recently, I've also opened a series of Ebay stores that have started generating me income on autopilot as well as a handful of other affiliate marketing websites. The plan is to spend 15 minutes a week to maintain them during residency. I have it setup to where I can update them thru my cell phone now. 8) Great for when I am on the go, or working long hours and only have a minute here or there.

Otherwise going to watch the budget as I start residency. Luckily my wife works as well and will be making an income pretty much equal to mine (she's a teacher) so we should be able to eek by ok. The first year will be the hardest by far.