disastrous disturbing debt

[relish]

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Is this serious? I grossly underestimated the amount of money required to pay for a medical education. How could someone do it on regular loans without starving to death?

I figure when I am done with 4 years, I will owe ~210,000 (counting interest accrued during that period)

Through residency, I will only be able to pay off enough to balance the interest on my still current debt. Therefore, when I am through with residency, I will owe the same amount: ~210,000.

As a primary care physician, I will make ~120k/year. After taxes and mal. insurance: ~70k or less.

As time passes, my debt of 210k gets larger due to interest. With payments of say ~40k/year, my debt would be paid after 6.5 years.

Therefore, for a total of 11 years (residency and repayment), I will live on an average of 24k/year.

How can someone do this and support a family? Surely there are people out there who have done it. How hard is it? Am I overestimating the amount of debt and time it takes to repay it? Perhaps there is something I am missing. This is discouraging. I would appreciate any input.

 

[wanttocut]

$210,000 (with included interest)
amortized over 10 years (default) at 8.25% (worst case scenario) = $2575/mo. (roughly $2000/mo at 3.5%)

If you make 120k/yr, you would clear almost 7k/mo. Although the difference may be modest, it is certainly livable.

There are many other options for repayment. These include graduated repayment etc... Check out the medloans website as they list many of the options available. Good luck
😉

 

[wanttocut]

Hey relish,
check out http://www.bestrate.com/calculators/java_cl.asp; while this will not reflect capitization, it may give you an idea of monthly payments and how they (and levels of interest) change with different repayment periods.😎

 

[Brewster]

You can consolidate and repay over 30 years. You end up paying more total, but your monthly payments are substantially lower.

 

[smackdaddy]

things vary depending on where you are and what you do, but typically your malpractice is paid by the practice, not from your personal salary. also you may start at 120k, but if you want to make more you usually can if you just work harder.

you can certainly survive, but your lifestyle may not be as much as some people here hope for.

 

[Imhotep]

Relish:
Consider this: Let's say, for a moment, think of med school (the the monetary commitment alongwith) as a business investment. So, if you end up putting in about 200k, and end up getting 120-150k/yr as the gross return, well, that's not too shabby is it?
Secondly, you may consider putting in a couple of shifts into moonlighting per month. This may help to defray the monthly loan installment, if not completely cover it.'
Thirdly, and here's where things get interesting......depending on your projected specialty, esp IM/FP....you may receive a generous loan repayment offer from the hosp/institution where you decide to work. For example, one of my friends just signed a deal where the hosp pays approx 25k of his loan for upto 4 years. That's a 100k. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Finally, some hospitals will actually pay you a stipend WHILE you are a resident, as long as you agree to work for them for x years after completing residency. There's a hosp in Lake Havasau, AZ that offers such a deal.
So, I wouldn't necessarily worry too much at this time. Just study hard, do well in boards yak yak yak etc etc
I would, however encourage you to do some research on this....there are many options out there. Trick is to find the one that best suits your needs.
Take care.