Greetings all. I'm relatively new to this sub, was recommended by a close friend - seems to be a savvy and helpful community! Crossing my fingers this post is received well and I can bounce some thoughts/questions off you guys and gals.
A little about my situation (and I assume many others):
- I will be graduating medical school in May with a featherweight student loan debt of 250k - compounding average interest of 5-6% (this is around average student loan debt for most graduating doctors these days)
- A vast majority of us have been coddled by student loans for the past 8 years (4 undergraduate + 4 medical school) and have little - none 'financial know-how' by the time we graduate medical school, yet we are expected to know how to 'adult', finance, and budget with our first real jobs (residency training)
- This past Friday, I was happy to match into psychiatry residency program - 4 years supervised practicing salaried around 57k-60k/ year (don't get me started on duty hours). This salary is universal for all doctors (residents) in training +/- state by state cost of living adjustments
- When all is said and done after 4 years, I will finally be able to make real doctor money - psychiatrists pull in about 250k annually give or take
- Most residents I've talked to just defer their loans until they finish residency (calculating the accrued interest was scary when I did it)
Currently, I'm planning to contribute to my 401k retirement (program matches 5-6%) and looking into the PSLF (public service loan forgiveness program - 10 years of qualifying payments working at a state hospital/non-profit hospital and remaining loan debt gets wiped with income tax on that amount). Is anyone familiar/have thoughts on this? It seems like a no-brainer, although some have expressed caution in making minimum 'qualifying payments' in the case that the program gets sacked. I'm open ears to any/all financial advice that y'all may have as I move forward and try to be an adult.
- TLDR: don't go to medical school
Submitted March 19, 2017 at 08:05AM by TheMastaBlasta http://ift.tt/2mh0lSQ
