Your projected dept & how will you pay it off?

[yadayadadude]

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.

(I know I'm splitting hairs here, but for some reason I can't help myself.)

In my mind, this is NOT living like students. You are living like (frugal, responsible) adults. You are purchasing a home and saving for important future goals like retirement. Good for you; sounds like you're doing great. I'm hoping to join you soon.

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[wanabdoc]

I strongly suggest you look into military scholarships. They will pay all of your tuition plus a monthly stipend. Contact your local recruiter for more details.

 

[wanabdoc]

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

Figures like this astound me, hasn't anyone ever heard of deductions? I don't understand why anyone, let alone someone with large student loan interest is paying more than 5k a year in taxes on 45k.

 

[wanabdoc]

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?

It is called outsourcing.

 

[yadayadadude]

Figures like this astound me. Hasn't anyone ever heard of deductions? I don't understand why anyone, let alone someone with large student loan interest, is paying more than $5K a year in taxes on $45K.

Well, you can only deduct $2500 in student loan interest, for starters. As for other deductions, I'm not sure there's much the average resident can do. Personally, I won't own a home in residency (assuming I match to the program I expect), I won't be able to afford to give large sums to charity, and my program (again, if I match as expected) doesn't offer a tax advantaged retirement savings vehicle. I suppose some residents purchase real estate and most residents are probably eligible for a traditional IRA, but taxes still take their bite. For one thing, there's payroll taxes of 7.5%, so that's $3500 right there.

If I'm missing something, please share. I'm always interested in learning how to cut my tax bill.

 

[rgerwin]

Well, if you find you get a big refund every year, start taking more allowances. Why give the government an interest-free loan?

 

[randomedstudent]

Figures like this astound me, hasn't anyone ever heard of deductions? I don't understand why anyone, let alone someone with large student loan interest is paying more than 5k a year in taxes on 45k.

First of all the $2200-2500 month figure isn't very accurate which I already pointed out. Secondly, most residents are not paying on their student loans so have no interest to deduct (unless of course they are choosing to just pay the interest, but most I know are not doing this - we are).

 

[randomedstudent]

(I know I'm splitting hairs here, but for some reason I can't help myself.)

In my mind, this is NOT living like students. You are living like (frugal, responsible) adults. You are purchasing a home and saving for important future goals like retirement. Good for you; sounds like you're doing great. I'm hoping to join you soon.

I was responding specifically to the people who talked about wanting to start living larger after graduation - eg. buy a new car, big tv, expensive vacation, whatever. They said they were tired of "living like students" and claimed that they didn't believe very many, if any, residents were continuing to live as they did as students. We are - we have the same cars we had since college (well before med school), our tv is a 6 year old picture tube model, no fancy LCD for us, we only shop clearance racks, I clip coupons, etc. Many med students purchase homes and save for retirement so I don't think that precludes us from "living like students" - in fact we would have done these things sooner, but only one of us was taking out loans in med school so we basically both lived on a living expenses allotment for one person. Now we have 2 salaries, so we just live on one like we always did and save the other.

 

[Nerve]

... 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?)

boston: The repay programs vary in each state. In California, if (after you graduate from medical school and after residency) you serve in a specific underserved community, the state government will repay up to, I think, $45,000 per year as a seperate stipend from the contract you'll have with the hospital you work at. You'll have to agree to serve a certain amount of time in that area of need.
The state forgives the loan, private school or state school-doesn't matter.

 

[Nerve]

I strongly suggest you look into military scholarships. They will pay all of your tuition plus a monthly stipend. Contact your local recruiter for more details.

Woa, slow down turbo. Please PM me if anyone is seriously looking into military medicine. Please conduct private research before contacting your local recruiter. The military doesn't waste their doctors on recruiting and the information you'll get from a regular recruiter can be skewed.

 

[Dakayus]

1. $270k
2. Flipping some property.
3. It's stupidly high.

I'm going to do some real estate on the side (as my father has been doing) and hopefully be able to pay some of school of with it. This is kind of depressing lol.