- Joined
- Jul 23, 2010
- Messages
- 265
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This one is more to encourage the medical students out there.
I've been out a year, and today I sent what will be my last student loan payment. Here's how I did it.
- Got out with 220K in debt at 6.8%.
- I share expenses with my fiancee (we have no kids yet), and my monthly bills are around 2K.
- I make 215ish/h, depending on RVU, and I work between 160-170 hours per month. I don't have state income tax. This means that every month I have around 20K (after taxes and expenses) that I have been dutifully burying into my loans (it also means that I have saved very little money and have put very little towards retirement).
- I live comfortably but nowhere near extravagant. I drive a 6 year old compact car that's paid for. My computer is 7 years old. I have traveled a few times over the past year but not internationally. I bought most of my furniture at IKEA and my wardrobe is not from the fancy stores. I do 90% of my shopping at Amazon.
- That's basically it.
I'm sure a lot of you disagree with my strategy and my lack of putting money away for retirement (I am a faithful reader of The White Coat Investor and I can see the steam coming out of his ears), however to me being debt free was most important. I now plan to aggressively save for a house (and yes for retirement).
Hope this serves to encourage you all that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
I've been out a year, and today I sent what will be my last student loan payment. Here's how I did it.
- Got out with 220K in debt at 6.8%.
- I share expenses with my fiancee (we have no kids yet), and my monthly bills are around 2K.
- I make 215ish/h, depending on RVU, and I work between 160-170 hours per month. I don't have state income tax. This means that every month I have around 20K (after taxes and expenses) that I have been dutifully burying into my loans (it also means that I have saved very little money and have put very little towards retirement).
- I live comfortably but nowhere near extravagant. I drive a 6 year old compact car that's paid for. My computer is 7 years old. I have traveled a few times over the past year but not internationally. I bought most of my furniture at IKEA and my wardrobe is not from the fancy stores. I do 90% of my shopping at Amazon.
- That's basically it.
I'm sure a lot of you disagree with my strategy and my lack of putting money away for retirement (I am a faithful reader of The White Coat Investor and I can see the steam coming out of his ears), however to me being debt free was most important. I now plan to aggressively save for a house (and yes for retirement).
Hope this serves to encourage you all that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.