So I graduated undergrad debt-free with a Health Sciences Pre-clinical B.S. and started my 3 yr DPT (physical therapy doctorate). Clinical doctorate is 13-17 graduate credit hours a semester, basically 8-6 days not including all the studying, volunteering, research, extracurriculars, etc. So unless you find a job that is ludicrously flexible and make sacrifices on school performance you can't have a job and your interest accrues the whole time you're in school... So I took out all unsubsidized federal loans to cover tuition + living expenses every semester.
I was excelling in the program but around semester #5 the stars aligned to have every bad thing possible happen in my life at the same time and the mental health challenges became too much to bear with such a rigorous program. I decided to withdraw and no longer pursue a career involving patient-care and just start over from scratch and prioritize my mental health in Dec. 2019..So then the pandemic hit, I searched for work for most of 2020 and finally got a job making ~27K/yr and am going to have to start paying on my $70K in federal loans as the forbearance for COVID ends. It feels very daunting and overwhelming and I have SO MANY QUESTIONS. What should I take into consideration when selecting a payment plan? Do I prioritize putting money into savings as well or just throw all of my money at the loans at the end of the month? I have about $12K saved up total to my name. Do I blow it all on the loan now or keep it saved and just make payments? It just seems like a drop in the bucket on the loans despite it being my entire life savings... How do these student loans affect my credit? Should I try to make sure I'm investing now as well for retirement or prioritize larger loan payments? Is there a financial planning expert resource I should be speaking to? I don't even know where to start, but I know the first step is figuring out how much to put towards the student loans...any help or advice is so greatly appreciated.
Submitted January 17, 2021 at 06:28PM by candyrhino https://ift.tt/3nQG1CN
