How much money to save up for podiatry school?

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prepod2011

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Hello everyone,

I am stating this tread because I just wanted some clear answers.

So I have been living with my parents and have managed to save up roughly 19K so far that I am going to use as I am starting pod school this fall.Is that enough money given that living expenses and tuition have been raised significantly in the past couple years?

I am just nervous because finances freak me out and I am still waiting to see my award letter from my school. Is anyone else conservatively saving like I am for pod school this fall and if you are like me and you are moving to another state to go to school and will not have parents helping you out, how do you feel about financing the big move and all the cost involved? Any advice would be appreciated.

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You will never be able to save up enough money to not have debt, it's just unrealistic. You will have to take out loans. What you can do is use that money to pay off the interest while you're in school...I think that's the smartest thing to do, but I'm not a financial advisor or anything.
 
About 250k would safely be enough.

You're going to have debt unless someone else finances your schooling. Your loans don't cover moving expenses, though, or "time off" (because apparently they think it's easy to find good paying jobs for 2/mo per year), so if you want to give yourself less stress, grab a couple thousand for your first move, and a few thousand for the off months, as well as money that you'll want for vacations.

You may want to gift this money to someone you trust, though, because I have a feeling they (the gubbament) will assume this money tucked away will be for tuition and housing, and may give you less loans because of it, kind of defeating the whole point of it.

I'd rather use loan money to finance my education, and pay it off with interest when my time is worth about 10 times what it is now, and spent way less time working for my education. I can work in construction for 20 years to save up the money, or just get loans and pay them off with /some/ of my income later.
 
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Which school are you planning on attending?

Here's my take - I'm perfectly content to borrow the tuition money. The killer is the cost of living which seems way higher than I would ever believe. I've got a job right now and I live on way less than $25k which is what DMU basically lists for the non-tuition costs. Now some of the costs are school related - ie. books and instruments, but a lot of them are lifestyle. Perhaps someone will prove me wrong, but I suspect that with 19K in your pocket you can borrow the tuition money and live out of pocket for a year. If it truly costs $25k then Iowa is a lot more expensive than I've been lead to believe.

http://www.dmu.edu/financial-aid/tuition-and-budget-information/doctor-of-podiatric-medicine/

What is this $920 dollars of equipment we're buying?
 
If you are talking about just the first year, borrowing your tuition and using the 19k for living expenses...yes, I would think if you find the right living arrangements, that can be accomplished. If you can pay your interest as well, then you will be in an even better situation.

DMU seems to have the lowest tuition and cost of living, so you are in good shape there.
 
If you are worried now about it, it will just get worse when you are in school with all the other stresses involved. Worry about the things you have control over (spending habits, choosing a school with low cost of living, etc) I will have a ton of debt but am content because I know I will pay it all off in the end. I have no financial help from family, ha no savings coming in, live in Miami, and am married with 3 kids. I am able to do this with student loans. If you are single, you will be more than fine, depending on your lifestyle.
 
You may want to gift this money to someone you trust, though, because I have a feeling they (the gubbament) will assume this money tucked away will be for tuition and housing, and may give you less loans because of it, kind of defeating the whole point of it.

My advice is not to get rid of the money for the reason of hiding it from FAFSA. No matter what your EFC is (up to some certain extreme, I'm sure), you will qualify for all of the loans you will need.

My wife and I have well over $19K in our savings account and she is salaried at her job (full time of course), so our yearly income is substantial as well. I think our EFC last year was around $14k and I still qualified for the full amount of Stafford loans.

If I was in your situation I would keep the $19k, use it to move and pay that first/last months rent, safety deposit, anything else that might be due before your loan money comes in and then leave the rest of it in a savings account. You never know when you might need a few thousand dollars (hospital bill, car repair, flights back to see family for weddings/funerals, etc.). Using it for living expenses will completely wipe it out in a little over 1 year. Live off of your loans, be a little more frugal than most, and maybe get an on campus job to subsidize your weekend festivities.

A couple of my single buddies only take out around $37-38k/year. That puts you at around $150k after 4 years. Plenty of students have racked up over $200k of debt and still managed to pay it off and live comfortably. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
If I was in your situation I would keep the $19k, use it to move and pay that first/last months rent, safety deposit, anything else that might be due before your loan money comes in and then leave the rest of it in a savings account. You never know when you might need a few thousand dollars (hospital bill, car repair, flights back to see family for weddings/funerals, etc.). Using it for living expenses will completely wipe it out in a little over 1 year.

:thumbup: After thinking about it, I completely agree with this for all the reasons you mentioned.
 
What do yall think about FAFSA and the Federal Stafford Loan?
 
I'm a little curious about how they determine how much financial aid you get. They gave me an estimate which was nowhere near as much as I need to support myself. How much do we get? Can any existing pod students help?
 
I'm a little curious about how they determine how much financial aid you get. They gave me an estimate which was nowhere near as much as I need to support myself. How much do we get? Can any existing pod students help?
please help...
 
You can accept up to the amount that your school considers "full cost of attendance". And you can pretty much bank on being approved for the full amount ($50k+ at every school). Staffords are also based on that cost of attendance number but now max out around $47k (I believe). Anything on top of that up to the full cost of attendance is Grad Plus (which has a horrendous interest rate, 7.9%, and should be avoided IMO). I would even limit my stafford's as much as I could now that they are completely unsubsidized.

You can take as much or as little out as you want. I would recommend taking out more than you think you need your first year, just to be safe. You can always return loan money early before you end up paying a ton of interest on it. Granted, you will be out the "disbursement fee" that they charge up front but you can minimize that loss by taking out less in subsequent years when you have a better idea of how much $ you actually need. The disbursement fee is a % of how much you take out. Taking out less = smaller fee.

ie I took out $40k my first year and ended up writing a check back to the school for a little over $5k each semester, essentially paying off just over $10k of my initial $40k by the end of my first year. Now I take a little under $30k each year. I'll probably take out more during my 4th year just to be safe. You never know how much more $ you are going to need while out on rotations as monthly expenses can change drastically from month to month based on housing/travel at the different residency programs.

Hope that makes sense...
 
My advice is not to get rid of the money for the reason of hiding it from FAFSA. No matter what your EFC is (up to some certain extreme, I'm sure), you will qualify for all of the loans you will need.

My wife and I have well over $19K in our savings account and she is salaried at her job (full time of course), so our yearly income is substantial as well. I think our EFC last year was around $14k and I still qualified for the full amount of Stafford loans.

If I was in your situation I would keep the $19k, use it to move and pay that first/last months rent, safety deposit, anything else that might be due before your loan money comes in and then leave the rest of it in a savings account. You never know when you might need a few thousand dollars (hospital bill, car repair, flights back to see family for weddings/funerals, etc.). Using it for living expenses will completely wipe it out in a little over 1 year. Live off of your loans, be a little more frugal than most, and maybe get an on campus job to subsidize your weekend festivities.

A couple of my single buddies only take out around $37-38k/year. That puts you at around $150k after 4 years. Plenty of students have racked up over $200k of debt and still managed to pay it off and live comfortably. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Good to know! My wife got a good paying job recently, and this is nice information to hear.
 
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