How long, realistically, will it take to pay back my loans?

[meraki_soul]

I will not have any undergraduate or graduate (Master's degree) loans. However, as of now, I will have to take out loans for medical school. I'm assuming I won't receive any scholarships or merit/need-based aid. Let's say I attend a medical school that is ~75-80K per year for a total cost of about 320K. I want to do a 3-year primary care residency and launch into my career from there, so I have no fellowship planned. In my situation, how many years after residency would it take for me to pay off all my loans? I'm pretty poor with all the financial planning and interest stuff, so I could really use a realistic breakdown of what is involved in paying back these loans. I'm taking a few gap years, so I'll become a doctor later than most people...the last thing I want to do is make financial mistakes

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[Lost in Translation]

If you live like a med student when you're a resident and then live like a resident when you're an attending, you should be able to pay everything back in 6-7 years post graduation. But that's living frugally and not making big life purchases like a house and starting a family.

 

[slow twitch]

It’s hard to say exactly but if I make a few assumptions about your loan interest rate and the amount you will pay towards your loans each month it comes out to be about three fifty

 

[meraki_soul]

If you live like a med student when you're a resident and then live like a resident when you're an attending, you should be able to pay everything back in 6-7 years post graduation. But that's living frugally and not making big life purchases like a house and starting a family.

Really? I keep hearing from friends that they are going to pay back their medical school loans in 3 years tops after residency, but some of them are optimistic about paying them back in residency itself

 

[meraki_soul]

It’s hard to say exactly but if I make a few assumptions about your loan interest rate and the amount you will pay towards your loans each month it comes out to be about three fifty

I'm sorry, do you mean $3500 per month? Also, how much do you predict the loan interest rate to be?

 

[TheWolfOfMainStreet]

Really? I keep hearing from friends that they are going to pay back their medical school loans in 3 years tops after residency, but some of them are optimistic about paying them back in residency itself

Nobody is paying back med school loans in residency.

 

[mydogmolly]

It’s hard to say exactly but if I make a few assumptions about your loan interest rate and the amount you will pay towards your loans each month it comes out to be about three fifty

tree fitty?

 

[Doctor or bust]

tree fitty?

Curse you Nessie!

 

[Doctor or bust]

With loans gaining interest, you will probably come out with around -375k or so once you are done. Say you get a starting salary of about 200k. Take out money for taxes and other expenses of the job (around -70k). If you can live on around 50k a year, you have a remainder of 80k to put towards your loans that first year. At this rate, it'll take you about 5 years to get out of debt if you go about it in this manner of obvious over-simplifications.

 

[begoood95]

It’s hard to say exactly but if I make a few assumptions about your loan interest rate and the amount you will pay towards your loans each month it comes out to be about three fifty

tree fitty?

I'm sorry, do you mean $3500 per month?

No, no. They mean tree fiddy

 

[mydogmolly]

Curse you Nessie!

I thought he'd go away if I gave him a dollar.

 

[ephemeralsunshine]

I will not have any undergraduate or graduate (Master's degree) loans. However, as of now, I will have to take out loans for medical school. I'm assuming I won't receive any scholarships or merit/need-based aid. Let's say I attend a medical school that is ~75-80K per year for a total cost of about 320K. I want to do a 3-year primary care residency and launch into my career from there, so I have no fellowship planned. In my situation, how many years after residency would it take for me to pay off all my loans? I'm pretty poor with all the financial planning and interest stuff, so I could really use a realistic breakdown of what is involved in paying back these loans. I'm taking a few gap years, so I'll become a doctor later than most people...the last thing I want to do is make financial mistakes

Check out NHSC

 

[21Rush12]

@slow twitch you win this round...


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