In my first career I was a high school teacher. Then I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian. I had to go back to college as a post-bacc pre-vet to complete my science prereqs. Several years and thousands of dollars more than I anticipated, I have been accepted to vet school (yeah
). Now I am seriously looking at tuition costs, starting salaries, and my age (31). At some point I would like to start my own practice and maybe a family but from a financial perspective, if I want to have my debts paid before I retire, maybe it would be better to cut my losses now and go back to being a teacher.
I'm curious to hear how current graduates are doing financially 10, 20, 30 years after graduation? And not just salaries, but after paying debts/bills/ business expenses, how much room do you have to breathe?
I think a lot of this is going to depend on what the personal circumstances are going in. So a doom and gloom outlook of another graduate who has $300k+ loans at 35 years of age who is geographically restricted to areas due to family ties that only pay 60-70k of stable income may not apply to you. A brighter outlook of someone who came out at 26 years old with $70k loans earning 80k in a fairly low cost of living area with significant spousal contribution may also not apply to you.
If you know the cost of attendance of the school you are planning on going to, a good way to look at your individual situation is to use the vin foundation student loan simulator, which will tell you roughly how much disposable income you'll have to live on after loans have been paid. You can simulate that with a wide range of salaries to see what you'll have to make.
I would personally not consider anecdotes from those who graduated much more than 10 years ago, because things were very different before that... The tuition situation as well as the veterinary market are both very different now compared to then, particularly after the market crash. And there are huge geographic differences as well both in salary as well as the cost of living.
I have always been financially responsible, and was terrified of my financial situation going in to vet school, partly due to the loan situation but also because of the over saturation of the veterinary market. I was worried I would not be able to get a job, or if I did, end up in a crappy job I hated that paid very little in return (this did indeed happen... Thank goodness it was shortlived). One year out, I'm actually doing pretty good and am pretty darn happy with my decision to become a veterinarian and I'm financially stable for now.
I graduated with $140k in student loans after paying off all interest prior to graduation. My first job sucked and I was making <$70,000. I'm currently on a production based pay system as a small animal GP and it looks like I will be making $90-110k this year. My SO brings in $45k per year and has enough in savings for a downpayment for a decent house. This safety cushion of his allowed me to quit my job and sit around until a truly good offer came around without worrying about financial hardship. It also allows me to put a good portion of my income into paying student loans rather than putting it in savings (after all bills are paid for the month, I clear out my checkings account down to $2000 and put anything extra into my loans). So I am able to pay anywhere between $3000-5000 per month on my loans. I also have a trust fund of sorts that I can use to pay an extra $7000 per year on my loans.
I live in a mid cost of living area where our monthly rent plus utilities are only about $1000/mo for the both of us. We don't have cable, don't drink, don't have a gym membership, or have any costly hobbies. We both do have new but non luxury cars that should be paid off in 2-4 years. We pack our own lunches daily. We are able to go out to a nice restaurant once a week or so as our only real "fun" expense. But if I need something (new phone, medical expense, laptop, extra CE not covered by my employer), I can buy most things without putting much thought into it. And we can afford to splurge on groceries without worrying about its impact. We're not living it up, but we're very comfortable and money isn't something I worry about on a day to day basis. I should be able to pay off my loans in 3-4 years if nothing changes. At that point, we will have an extra 4000-6000 per month to put into our savings/retirement/house/family/maybe a couple more luxuries in life. I'm 30 now and my bf is 35, so we're pretty okay with putting our lives on hold for another 1-3 years. Things will get a little more complicated if we decide to buy a house before my loans are paid off, but it shouldn't be too bad.
I do worry about losing my job and or becoming disabled such that I can't work. Due to my increase in income, I'll be fortifying my disability insurance since both my SO and my livelihood depend on my ability to work.
