Graduating residents and student loans

Started by k12balla
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k12balla

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For those of you who have been down this road before, what advice do you have for graduating anesthesiology residents going into repayment on their student loans? Has anyone had experience consolidating and refinancing with some of the newer groups out there? Or do most people continue with their IBR or PAYE program? Your insight would be much appreciated.
 
As Jet is fond of saying, debt is an anchor.
Betting on government forgiveness of debt on 1 or 2% earners 10-20 years from now is crazy. That's a really questionable financial decision.
Live comfortably, make smart decisions on what to spend money on, and retire your debt ASAP. 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, it doesn't matter. Everyone's needs, income, and expenses are unique. However, anyone making $300+ can live comfortably and repay their loans quickly.
 
Paying off debt is a strategic move. In most cases its favorable, but if an interest rate is locked at less than TRUE inflation (not the skewed government data), one is effectively paying less than dollar for dollar. My loans locked at 2% fixed. Even if my investments only return enough to break even, the liquidity makes it worth it, notwithstanding the certainty that inflation will be higher in a decade, eroding the value of said debt at an even faster rate. I recommend that people educate themselves on finance, money, and investing. Know that when your income goes up, people will come out of the woodwork to tell you where to put it. At the end of the day, anyone that has a "sure thing" doesn't know d$&k.
 
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Thanks for the responses. I definitely want to be rid of this "anchor" and will try my best to continue living like a resident for my first couple of years out, and aim to hopefully pay off my debt in 5 years. I would consider investing my savings elsewhere, but unfortunately for newer grads much of our loans have interest rates in excess of 7 percent, and the options to refinance are very limited.

There have been of a couple of bills in congress aimed at decreasing the discrepancy between national interest rates and federal loans, but this has and will continue to be shot down by lawmakers, cognizant of how much money the govt. Makes yearly from student loans...

Has anyone used the drbank or one of these peer to peer lending groups to refinance?
 
Don't count on congress doing anything to lessen your burden. You will make too much and therefore, will be carved out of the law if one were to materialize. Some of us remember the Clinton years. Student loans were a big topic then and Clinton secured a large portion of the student vote promising graduates a break on their loans. Well I never saw one. Made too much.
But as I see it, there two ways to attack the loans. One as mentioned by IlDestriero by way of Jet,is to pay them off asap. There's nothing wrong with this plan and once paid off yo can take that extra income and continue to invest it. Debt is an anchor but student loan debt is not nearly as detrimental as credit card debt or other forms of debt. You won't be penalized nearly as severely for student loans. The second approach which is my preferred is to consolidate the loans. If that interest rate is lower than the rate of return you can achieve with a moderately safe investment then pay the minimum on the loans and invest the additional monies at a greater interest rate. For example the market currently has good returns. Let's say its returning a conservative 8-12% for the year. Your loans are at 2-4%. You can do the math but you see the minimum advantage is 4% here. Why pay off your loans early without making anything on that money?

Now, another thing to consider is tax write offs. Student loans are not afforded this benefit. So, one thing I did was to pay off my loans with a HELOC (home equity line of credit) because I consolidated long before the market crash and my APR was higher than my HELOC. The HELOC is tax deductible and therefore, I paid mine off three years ago. Otherwise, I would have been paying them for the full 30 yrs.
 
I consolidated at an interest rate of 2.625%. I will pay this off forever. I like having the cash available.
 
W

what was your rate prior to consolidation?

I'd pay that off since my mortgage rate is much less.

Some of the loans were at 6 something and some as high as 8 and change. When I consolidated, 7.5% was the rate they offered as the average for the loans. All federal, nothing private.
 
thoughts on the Army Reserve loan repayment program (HPLRP) + STRAP (joining as a 1st year resident)?
 
Two years ago my bank offered to refinance my home at 2.75 percent. 15 year mortgage. My home was paid off so this would have resulted in cash to me.

I asked myself what Dave Ramsey would have told me to do. I declined the bank's offer. Even though I may have invested the money and earned a better return I prefer living debt free.

Debt is a burden and weight around your body. While others crunch the numbers and decide to keep the debt for 30 years I think Dave Ramsey is correct when he says live debt free.
 
DAVE RAMSEY's ADVICE

According to Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender" (NRSV). I was confronted with this scripture and had to make a conscious decision of who was right – my broke finance professor, who taught that debt is a tool, or God, who showed the obvious disdain for debt. Beverly Sills had it right when she said, "There is no shortcut to any place worth going."
 
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Two years ago my bank offered to refinance my home at 2.75 percent. 15 year mortgage. My home was paid off so this would have resulted in cash to me.

That would have been a difficult one for me to pass up. But I do understand the feeling of being debt free. It's a good feeling. However, I have moved on from that feeling and I pay the numbers more these days.
 
Here are the numbers as I see them: If you have student loans at 2% and your "investments" correct by -25% you still have student debt. In other words, you're taking some more call.
 
Two years ago my bank offered to refinance my home at 2.75 percent. 15 year mortgage. My home was paid off so this would have resulted in cash to me.

I asked myself what Dave Ramsey would have told me to do. I declined the bank's offer. Even though I may have invested the money and earned a better return I prefer living debt free.

Debt is a burden and weight around your body. While others crunch the numbers and decide to keep the debt for 30 years I think Dave Ramsey is correct when he says live debt free.

I agree with you in trying to maintain debt free status per Dave Ramsey, and I wouldn't take out a low interest loan just to invest. But for those with enough equity in their homes to take out a HELOC, what would be the pros/cons, and tax implications of taking those funds and completely wiping out your student loans? Essentially you're "refinancing" your student loans which may be beneficial for some of the newer gen with rates at 7-8 percent.
 
I agree with you in trying to maintain debt free status per Dave Ramsey, and I wouldn't take out a low interest loan just to invest. But for those with enough equity in their homes to take out a HELOC, what would be the pros/cons, and tax implications of taking those funds and completely wiping out your student loans? Essentially you're "refinancing" your student loans which may be beneficial for some of the newer gen with rates at 7-8 percent.


Smart move. If you can secure a low interest rate low at say 4.5% then go for it. But, you need EQUITY to get a HELOC so for most new graduates this isn't a viable plan.
Instead, rent a home or apartment for 2 years and pay off some debt.
 
BLOG FROM THE WIFE OF A DOCTOR/RESIDENT



Student Loan Fun
I had the happy occasion yesterday to go looking for our student loan statements. Sadly, I found them.

Here is the sobering news. Our total student loan debt (just medical school) now has a balance of $300,800.05 - next month it will likely be more. No, we haven't borrowed a dime since medical school but this balance is multiplying like rabbits! Maybe faster than rabbits🙂

In March of 2011 I documented our total student loan balance as $290,707 and growing. In 18 months the balance increased by almost $10,000! We have even made monthly payments of $230 on this loan ($2,760 last year and $2,070 so far this year). All those payments haven't slowed the snowball. If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, our debt snowball seems to be working in reverse.

What is sobering is the total amount borrowed to attend medical school was only $240,725.31. The other 60,074.74 is all capitalized interest (and we have already paid interest that isn't included in that total). It's probably more like $65,000 over the last 6 1/2 years.

And then I read that you cannot deduct student loan interest payments from your income taxes if your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $150,000 married filing jointly (see IRS Publication). Guess what? For the tax year 2013 our income will exceed that! Or at least it better be so we have a fighting chance to pay back our student loans.

I know you can't deduct interest paid on most sources of debt: vehicles, credit cards, personal loans, etc. It would be a nice gesture if there were some kind of "break" for that portion of our future income that will be diverted to paying down this huge debt.

In the end the amount of "interest" we will pay will probably be around $80-100K depending on how fast we can get it paid.

Luckily, our interest rates are low: 3.375% on the majority of the balance, and 2.75% on about 1/4 of the balance. I know that for many of my friends, and readers, who started later you have much higher interests rates. I am so sorry, because I know your final numbers will look even more dreary.

If you have the ability to make payments on your student loans while in residency, consider doing it. At least you will be able to deduct the interest you pay on your taxes at a much lower rate and possibly increase your tax refund by reducing your taxable income. I know it's already pretty low, but lower is better.

If you can't, then you will deal with it later - like I am. It would have been impossible to start paying back our loans any earlier than we did. (Maybe not impossible, nothing is impossible). The only reason we started paying is because we had to. There was no way around it, and maybe we should have started residency planning on doing it instead of planning on deferring for as long as they would allow.

It will be happy day when I log on to post: WE DID IT- SALLIE MAE HAS BEEN PAID!

http://fromadoctorswife.blogspot.com/2012/09/student-loan-fun.html
 
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So the scenario would be pay minimum on student loans only to pay like mad on the mortgage. Then take a huge HELOC out on the house, and use those funds to pay off the student loan debt. You gain two ways with this scenario: lower interest rate on your loans and you get to take an interest deduction. Say you die while paying like mad on the house? Your family gets a beautiful, nearly paid off house to remember you by and Uncle Sam eats your student loan debt. Sounds like the best plan I have ever heard.
 
DAVE RAMSEY GIVES ADVICE


I’m 33 and a resident doctor with $250,000 in student loan debt. This is the only debt I have, and I’ve managed to scrape together about $1,000 in savings.
Next year I’ll finish my residency and increase my income from $40,000 to about $400,000. The interest rate on my loan is just 3.5 percent, so I’d like to postpone paying it off and buy a house and begin saving for retirement instead. Is this a good idea?
– Derrick

Dear Derrick,
I wouldn’t do it that way. That student loan debt hanging over your head is unbelievable. I mean, it’s massive!
I’m thrilled that you’re going to be making that kind of money. You’ve spent most of your life going to school, training, living on nothing, and working yourself to death. But if you’re not careful, you might catch a nasty disease called “doc-itis.”
“Doc-itis” is an ailment that afflicts lots of new doctors. Some of the symptoms include two or three leased BMWs and a fully-furnished house with a pool on the golf course. It’s a financially-debilitating disease, and I don’t want you to get sick!
You’ve been used to living on $40,000 a year for a while now. Just keep on doing that for a little bit longer. With the kind of money you’ll be making, you can have that student loan debt knocked out in a couple of years. After that, just follow the Baby Steps. The only difference for you is that there will be a few more zeroes attached.
If you stay smart and play this right, Derrick, you’ll have no problem living well and retiring a very wealthy man!

– Dave Ramsey
 
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I'm in Blades camp. Lots of residents out there paying off 250-300k+ debt. While different financial situations exist amongst individuals, there is no arguing the relief you get once you pay off that load. The way I see it, at a minimum, for every dollar you pay back you are not paying that interest. On average you get 5-7% off of the market right? Subtract whatever you are paying in interest and THAT is your true rate of return. If you go that route... what happens when the market tanks? I mean... since 2009 we've been steadily heading out of the recession. What if there is another giant pull back and you're invested near the top? Then you are paying off loans AND you're also loosing to the market.

I understand the other side of the equation and it makes sense... just a little more volatile IMO.
 
It's all about balance. Of course you'd be better off to rent a trailer for $100 dollars a month and eat Ramen every meal. That's just not practical for most.

When I finished fellowship (1.75 yrs ago) I had 300K in student debt. Over that time, I've paid off 40K. I bought a house at the bottom of the housing market crunch (hopefully) at a very low interest rate. In my opinion, interest rates and housing prices will be rising for years to come. I also have a family and live in Florida, where your primary residence is damn near the only thing protected from the lawyers. Otherwise, I drive used middle class used cars, have no vacation plans, and have the same clothes I wore in fellowship.

Could I have paid a lot more towards debt if I would have rented? Would it have been financially smarter to do that? Of course. But I may have missed the window to live in our dream home which we bought literally at half price with a very low mortgage. And more importantly, I'm loving life!

My advice would be to slightly increase your lifestyle upon graduating. Just enough to keep you from going crazy thinking that residency will never end. Use the rest of your money to max out retirement and pay back student loans.

Either do this.... or default. It's a win-win decision.
 
It's all about balance. Of course you'd be better off to rent a trailer for $100 dollars a month and eat Ramen every meal. That's just not practical for most.

When I finished fellowship (1.75 yrs ago) I had 300K in student debt. Over that time, I've paid off 40K. I bought a house at the bottom of the housing market crunch (hopefully) at a very low interest rate. In my opinion, interest rates and housing prices will be rising for years to come. I also have a family and live in Florida, where your primary residence is damn near the only thing protected from the lawyers. Otherwise, I drive used middle class used cars, have no vacation plans, and have the same clothes I wore in fellowship.

Could I have paid a lot more towards debt if I would have rented? Would it have been financially smarter to do that? Of course. But I may have missed the window to live in our dream home which we bought literally at half price with a very low mortgage. And more importantly, I'm loving life!

My advice would be to slightly increase your lifestyle upon graduating. Just enough to keep you from going crazy thinking that residency will never end. Use the rest of your money to max out retirement and pay back student loans.

Either do this.... or default. It's a win-win decision.


I understand the desire to live decently. I recommend a plan of Mortgage payments, F U account, Loan Pay back, Living expenses, etc. If one is willing to live like a Family Practice doctor for 5 years then paying back the student loans and living decently is still in the cards.

I just don't get the logic of wanting student loans over your head for the next 20-30 years. Debt Free living is the path to wealth.
 
It's all about balance. Of course you'd be better off to rent a trailer for $100 dollars a month and eat Ramen every meal. That's just not practical for most.

When I finished fellowship (1.75 yrs ago) I had 300K in student debt. Over that time, I've paid off 40K. I bought a house at the bottom of the housing market crunch (hopefully) at a very low interest rate. In my opinion, interest rates and housing prices will be rising for years to come. I also have a family and live in Florida, where your primary residence is damn near the only thing protected from the lawyers. Otherwise, I drive used middle class used cars, have no vacation plans, and have the same clothes I wore in fellowship.

Could I have paid a lot more towards debt if I would have rented? Would it have been financially smarter to do that? Of course. But I may have missed the window to live in our dream home which we bought literally at half price with a very low mortgage. And more importantly, I'm loving life!

My advice would be to slightly increase your lifestyle upon graduating. Just enough to keep you from going crazy thinking that residency will never end. Use the rest of your money to max out retirement and pay back student loans.

Either do this.... or default. It's a win-win decision.

What are the pros and cons of defaulting?
 
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I understand the desire to live decently. I recommend a plan of Mortgage payments, F U account, Loan Pay back, Living expenses, etc. If one is willing to live like a Family Practice doctor for 5 years then paying back the student loans and living decently is still in the cards.

I just don't get the logic of wanting student loans over your head for the next 20-30 years. Debt Free living is the path to wealth.
I think I'm on about a 5-7 yr plan. Sooner if possible. My lifestyle falls somewhere between a FP doc and PA.

I agree that stretching it out to 30 yrs is not a good idea. If for no other reason than the possibility that ALL of us will be making FP salaries working at the VA.
 
It's all about balance. Of course you'd be better off to rent a trailer for $100 dollars a month and eat Ramen every meal. That's just not practical for most.

When I finished fellowship (1.75 yrs ago) I had 300K in student debt. Over that time, I've paid off 40K. I bought a house at the bottom of the housing market crunch (hopefully) at a very low interest rate. In my opinion, interest rates and housing prices will be rising for years to come. I also have a family and live in Florida, where your primary residence is damn near the only thing protected from the lawyers. Otherwise, I drive used middle class used cars, have no vacation plans, and have the same clothes I wore in fellowship.

Could I have paid a lot more towards debt if I would have rented? Would it have been financially smarter to do that? Of course. But I may have missed the window to live in our dream home which we bought literally at half price with a very low mortgage. And more importantly, I'm loving life!

My advice would be to slightly increase your lifestyle upon graduating. Just enough to keep you from going crazy thinking that residency will never end. Use the rest of your money to max out retirement and pay back student loans.

Either do this.... or default. It's a win-win decision.

Depending on your student loan interest rates, it is probably financially smarter to buy a house with low interest rates than to rent and pay down student loans. If you had focused on student loan repayment you'd waste money on rent, buy your house at a higher price, & have a higher interest rate mortgage.

It's all good and well to talk about how great paying off loans is, but if you start actually doing the math, it probably favors paying them for 30 years, especially for those of us will favorable rates.
 
Here are the numbers as I see them: If you have student loans at 2% and your "investments" correct by -25% you still have student debt. In other words, you're taking some more call.
More likely, you don't sell when the market is down, you continue to buy, and you are way ahead in a few years when your investments recover.

Of course you don't want to buy if the market is about to drop 25%, but you don't know if/when that will happen. In the long term, you will lose more by being afraid to invest than you will ever pay in student loan interest.
 
Depending on your student loan interest rates, it is probably financially smarter to buy a house with low interest rates than to rent and pay down student loans. If you had focused on student loan repayment you'd waste money on rent, buy your house at a higher price, & have a higher interest rate mortgage.

It's all good and well to talk about how great paying off loans is, but if you start actually doing the math, it probably favors paying them for 30 years, especially for those of us will favorable rates.
The only unknown variable in that particular math equation is what our salaries will be in 10 years when Obamacare/Hillarycare roots are firmly grounded and the Medicare/caid house of cards has collapsed. That is a BIG variable.
 
It's a lie. Pay off your debt. It's fine to buy a home but the home doesn't need to cost more than 1.5 times your annual income.

Also, one should establish roots in the hospital and city for at least 1-2 years before buying a home. What if your new job doesn't work out?

Overall, renting for 2 years and paying off $150K of student loan debt makes the most sense. Of course, you should max out your 401K and IRA.
 
It's easy to say that paying off loans is better, but if you do the math, there is almost no scenario in which paying down low interest loans would beat out investing in the long term. Even if you expect historically terrible returns from the stock market, you would still have a hard time doing worse than 3-4-5%. You don't even have to correct the investment returns for inflation since your student loans aren't subject to inflation. If we can't get a better than 3% return on investments over the next 30 years something will have gone seriously wrong. Mad Max probably won't try to collect your student loans each month. It's easy to make an emotional argument for paying down debt, but the math doesn't back it up.
 
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It's easy to say that paying off loans is better, but if you do the math, there is almost no scenario in which paying down low interest loans would beat out investing in the long term.
All those bankers must be dumb, for not investing their money in the stock market instead. 😉

I would strongly disagree. The market can go into depression for many years, even over a decade, where one just doesn't see 4-5% returns on average for many years. It's also enough to start "investing" at the end of a bull market to get seriously burned when the market tanks. Rule #1 is not to lose money.

The market has to do extremely well to beat paying back a 6-7% APR loan, long-term. And let's not forget that we are talking about 6-7% post-tax returns.
 
DAVE RAMSEY GIVES ADVICE


I’m 33 and a resident doctor with $250,000 in student loan debt. This is the only debt I have, and I’ve managed to scrape together about $1,000 in savings.
Next year I’ll finish my residency and increase my income from $40,000 to about $400,000. The interest rate on my loan is just 3.5 percent, so I’d like to postpone paying it off and buy a house and begin saving for retirement instead. Is this a good idea?
– Derrick

Dear Derrick,
I wouldn’t do it that way. That student loan debt hanging over your head is unbelievable. I mean, it’s massive!
I’m thrilled that you’re going to be making that kind of money. You’ve spent most of your life going to school, training, living on nothing, and working yourself to death. But if you’re not careful, you might catch a nasty disease called “doc-itis.”
“Doc-itis” is an ailment that afflicts lots of new doctors. Some of the symptoms include two or three leased BMWs and a fully-furnished house with a pool on the golf course. It’s a financially-debilitating disease, and I don’t want you to get sick!
You’ve been used to living on $40,000 a year for a while now. Just keep on doing that for a little bit longer. With the kind of money you’ll be making, you can have that student loan debt knocked out in a couple of years. After that, just follow the Baby Steps. The only difference for you is that there will be a few more zeroes attached.
If you stay smart and play this right, Derrick, you’ll have no problem living well and retiring a very wealthy man!

– Dave Ramsey


Dave Ramsey knows the lure of easy money (guaranteed return of 6 percent is anything but guaranteed) leads to bad decision making. Paying off the loan is the real guarantee.

I believe in investing money for the long term once you get a handle on the debt. There is no such thing as good debt. All debt is bad but some debt is less bad than others (e.g., mortgage for a home).

Certainly, there will be those who decide to pay their loans over the next 30 years and invest the capital instead. I can't imagine having any debt for that long which is why I took out a 15 year mortgage and paid it off early.
 
All those bankers must be dumb, for not investing their money in the stock market instead. 😉

I would strongly disagree. The market can go into depression for many years, even over a decade, where one just doesn't see 4-5% returns on average for many years. It's also enough to start "investing" at the end of a bull market to get seriously burned when the market tanks. Rule #1 is not to lose money.

The market has to do extremely well to beat paying back a 6-7% APR loan, long-term.

If you have 3 percent loans, there's no rush to pay them. 4-5% you are still probably better off investing. 6-7% your risk/benefit starts to favor paying down debt.

Even if you think the market is going to tank in the next year or two, you'd be better off paying the minimum and saving cash than paying down low-interest loans aggressively. Then you'd have plenty of cash to invest after the market correction and you're return would exceed your loan interest savings even more!

and if you think that we will have high inflation in the future, then you have another reason to hold on to that debt that will just be getting cheaper and cheaper to own.

I can't predict downturns and my loans are <3% on average, so I'll keep with the slow and steady loan payment and slow and steady investing and (hopefully) keep watching my home value grow at a much higher rate than my student loan interest rate.
 
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Obviously, there are many views on this topic. Ultimately, it is your money to do with as you wish. You can play the numbers game which adds some volatility and risk or you can play the emotional game by paying off debt. But the real scenario for most people is somewhere in between these. For example, as I described earlier, I had every intention of paying student loans for 30 yrs but when my HELOC APR dropped to the student loan APR I paid them off since I could also deduct the HELOC interest. Don't forget the importance of an "emergency fund" otherwise known here as an "F*** You" account by Jet. My emergency fund is immediately available to me while also accruing interest at a 7% rate which is also better than paying off my loans would have been. With this acct I can pack up and leave ( tell everyone to F***Off, which is where jet got its name) at any time and it still makes more money than paying my loans would.
 
Obviously, there are many views on this topic. Ultimately, it is your money to do with as you wish. You can play the numbers game which adds some volatility and risk or you can play the emotional game by paying off debt. But the real scenario for most people is somewhere in between these. For example, as I described earlier, I had every intention of paying student loans for 30 yrs but when my HELOC APR dropped to the student loan APR I paid them off since I could also deduct the HELOC interest. Don't forget the importance of an "emergency fund" otherwise known here as an "F*** You" account by Jet. My emergency fund is immediately available to me while also accruing interest at a 7% rate which is also better than paying off my loans would have been. With this acct I can pack up and leave ( tell everyone to F***Off, which is where jet got its name) at any time and it still makes more money than paying my loans would.
Just curious where you have your liquid FU fund at is earning SEVEN%?? That's a pretty damn good return for an FU fund which you have instant access to!
 
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It's easy to say that paying off loans is better, but if you do the math, there is almost no scenario in which paying down low interest loans would beat out investing in the long term. Even if you expect historically terrible returns from the stock market, you would still have a hard time doing worse than 3-4-5%.

Careful with that line of thought. There's no Thunderdome in Tokyo, but their stock market still just went about 20 years with no growth.

You may like the odds of our stock market outperforming 3-5% interest on debt, but it's certainly not a no-brainer obvious decision.

Just curious where you have your liquid FU fund at is earning SEVEN%?? That's a pretty damn good return for an FU fund which you have instant access to!

Risk free? That's a tall order. Part of our emergency fund is in I-Bonds purchased about 2000 when the fixed rate was higher. I think they're getting about 4% now. I don't think it's possible to do better than that and have FDIC cash / fed bond level of risk.

You can get 7% and be very liquid today ... it just won't be low risk. Which may be fine depending on the rest of your financial situation.
 
Pay off the loans. Develop a plan for your debt, savings, expenses, mortgage, etc.
But why in the world would you want student loan debt at age 50? I just don't get it.

Leaving the math aside the on,y debt you should really have 5 years post residency is mortgage and business debt.

So when junior heads off to college you will still be paying off your own student loan debt?
 
I'm not going to go into details of my financials. All I will say is that as my portfolio grows, so does my opportunities on the investment front. And since I invested from day one rather than pay off loans with low APRs my portfolio has grown well.

Blade has a solid plan as well. Investing is personal. Get informed and become active in your investing. I am not the most savy investor so I get help. So far, it's worked well for me.
 
I'm not going to go into details of my financials. All I will say is that as my portfolio grows, so does my opportunities on the investment front. And since I invested from day one rather than pay off loans with low APRs my portfolio has grown well.

Blade has a solid plan as well. Investing is personal. Get informed and become active in your investing. I am not the most savy investor so I get help. So far, it's worked well for me.


Do you use a large WallStreet firm or an small independent adviser? Besides stocks and bonds what does he/she recommend?