Accepting advice to pay 240k student loan debt PLEASE

[confettiflyer]

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You can't buy a 1,800 sq/ft home in TX. That's illegal here. Minimum 3,000 sq/ft.

$450K will get you 4,000-5,000sq/ft house with all the upgrades.

i dunno what i'd do with 5000 square feet 😕

my first instinct would be to subdivide it and rent it out, hahaha

 

[Momus]

5000 sq feet would be very comfortable space to live in ;o own gyms, 3 car garage, 3-4 huge bedrooms, kitchen and bathrooms...

Then again, I live in < 125 sq feet bed room, what do I know? >_>

 

[Momus]

50% discount doesn't happen in OC... OC about ~15-25% discount...

I've been looking in SD the drop is about 15-20% in ~550k range house still too much money for a "wooden box that sits out in the rain and slowly rots"

Riverside has so many bargains 40-50% discount everywhere >_>

 

[maria1oh]

I am finishing my P1 year very soon and I will be in 50k in federal loans (4 years of undergraduate included). I am estimating I will be taking out another 35k per year for P2, P3, and P4. I have read that they cap the federal loans at 140k or so but I think for health professionals they raise the rap to around 200k, no?

I guess I will be moving back in with my parents after graduation 🙁

I really hope I can get a summer job that can pay at least $700-$1,000 per month. I am praying and applying now.
Thanks for starting this thread I found it interesting.

 

[LCSPharm]

Hello everyone, I am a 5th year pharmacy student in a 6 year program at Albany College of Pharmacy and health Sciences. After I complete my rotations in a year I will be graduating with 240k of debt (I have had no co-signer for years). About 150 will be from sallie mae and the rest from the fed. I am looking for any advice from current pharmacists who have been in similar situations. I will move anywhere, do anything, and work for anyone to pay off this debt. Any hope/advice would be brilliant! Thanks, Mike.

I have a friend who works for Costco. As a 3rd year Pharm student, he gets paid $18/hr. Also, they offered him $10,000 for every year he promises to work for them, up to 3 years. That's $30,000 to help you get started on your loans. Plus Costco doesn't take Medicaid. Huge headaches relieved!

I feel you, I'm going to leave school with 250K in loans, which will take forever to pay off.

LCSPharm
PharmD Candidate 2011

 

[StaviZFingerZ]

That's $30,000 to help you get started on your loans.
LCSPharm
PharmD Candidate 2011

nah...after tax, it will be much less than $30K....

 

[indebtpharmd]

One, I agree - I was generally stating that several loans can be rolled and made eligible, such as perkins.

Two, you assertion someone is going to pay back 240k over a 10 yr period is shortsighted. Most people will consolidate / extend repayment to 25 or 30 years. You will pay way more this way, but your payments will be lower, and when you are able to pay more on the loan (over pay) you can.

To be certain, anyone taking out student loans in the era of 6.8 and 8.5% rates are going to get hosed. That includes all professions (med, dent, opt schools aren't cheap either).

Is anyone else tired of the constant drone of "I can't find a job". You can, they are out there. Plenty of them.

Lastly, no - your school will not guarantee a job for you. If you were an art major, this may be an issue for you. As a professional, you're expected to be able to accomplish tasks on your own. Locating a job falls squarely in that skill set.

Not sure who this is directed to. Im not worried about getting a job and I know the sky isnt falling. Just would like advice/stories of any pharmd's who had **** interest rates like myself and how they managed them. Also, I do want to have them paid off by 10 years. My plan is to live off of the soon to be wive's income and pay my loans doan asap.

 

[indebtpharmd]

I think this website can help you look at specific numbers. It has quite a bit of information but my favorite part is the calculators tab at the left hand side. The first two calculators are the best place to start because they are simple and straightforward.

http://www.finaid.org

I was looking at several different loan options that looked promising at first, but after looking at the specific numbers I realized it wasn't as good as it seemed. I agree with a previous post that the option for working in a public service job with 120 payments does not really benefit you very much. The payments are too high and after 120 payments (which means 10 years) you have hardly any debt left. Also the interest that builds up over 10 years is most likely more than the amount that would be forgiven in the long run. I will have almost that same amount of loans when I graduate and my conclusion was that the best thing to do is to find the highest paying job possible and focus completely on paying loans as fast as possible. It worked out that every extra year that I take to pay off loans is an extra $10,000 in interest that is added to my amount.

-Don't be discouraged that your private loans won't be considered in the income base repayment plan. If you want to pay off your loans as fast as possible the IBR plan is not the way you want to go anyways. They lower your payments but it takes you much longer to pay it off and you have more interest that has accumulated.

-At least for your stafford loans (subsidized and unsubsidized), Perkins loans, and Plus loans you can calculate what your consolodated interest rate would be yourself using the Loan Consolidation Calculator rather than paying someone to figure it out for you.

- Something to check out: Under the Electronic Debit Account (EDA) payment option, your bank automatically deducts your monthly loan payment from your checking or savings account and sends the payment to the Department. In addition to helping to ensure that your payments are made on time, you receive a 0.25 percent interest rate reduction while you repay under the EDA option.

-Also, make sure you check your most recent loan amounts. You may have more than $240 if you haven't considered loans that have accumulated interest while you have been in school. All the loans you have will have gathered interest unless you had the perkins or stafford subsidized loan.

Hope this helps!

I found this post both helpful and encouraging. I have done the math correctly, almost all of my loans have been accruing interest from day 1. This is why I am in so much debt. My sallie mae loans were 11.25% at one point, now that are down to 9.25% (Couldnt find a co-signer). Im not sure how the % decreased, it just happened one year. My plan is to sell out for the highest paying job I can find, and then look for somthing else after they are paid off.

 

[indebtpharmd]

I love how people assume I took out extra money to throw at hookers while in college. You need to put yourself into other people's shoes before you question how they got into crazy debt. I was only allowed to borrow minimum from the fed which is why I had to go with salliemae, no choices involved. Also my parents own a huge home with lots of property. In NY this means your family is house broke. And the lack of a co-signer, well you can figure that one out...

And after it all, I would do it again even if I had to take out 300k. Please try to refrain from pointing/laughing at the dude with monster debt so people who actually have advice or paid off such loans dont have to weed through your useless posts. Thanks.

Farmtastic, no I will not be supporting anyone. I hate the idea of kids and will delay having even one as much as possible.

Carboxide, this is likely, promise it was already lined up and I didn’t go find a wife as soon as I saw your post.

About the house situation… Its not like they are permanent and there’s no way I would move into something worth more than 150k after college.

 

[HaloKing]

Maybe someone can explain this to me since I never really did understand what happened...

My 1st 3 years of college, my father claimed me on his taxes as a dependent.. (he probably got like $1000 deduction, while i got loans)

My 4th year (P2 year) he no longer claimed me, i bought my own health insurance, and i got a lil better loan...

He did pay about $30,000 over the 1st 4 years for my education..

For myself i never had to get private loans, so there is not too much difference between; $1000 tax refund and getting a direct loan at 6.8%vs. no tax refund and qualifing for a $5000 perkins loan at a 5% interest rate

For once in his life, claiming me was a good move on my father's part.. haha..

Is a freshman in college better off if their parents do not claim them on their taxes? And thus the student can qualify for a better loan rate...

Is it still legal if they finacially support him??

 

[genesis09]

Independent in terms of IRS's definition is completely different than FAFSA's definition. It is very hard to be independent if you are younger than age 24 and don't have a bachelors.