Is this debt manageable?

[Iamindebt]

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So I was lucky enough to receive a pretty generous scholarship from a private MD school that I will be attending next year. Regardless, I will be around 200k in debt(including undergrad) by the time I finish medical school. Is this debt manageable if I want to go into a primary care field? Can anyone give me an idea as to what my monthly payments would be after residency?

Edit: Also, the school estimates around 15k for living expenses aside from tuition. Should I take the full amount out for loans or is this estimation too generous?

 

[CyrilFiggis]

So I was lucky enough to receive a pretty generous scholarship from a private MD school that I will be attending next year.

Congrats!

I will be around 200k in debt(including undergrad) by the time I finish medical school. Is this debt manageable if I want to go into a primary care field?

Probably. See Below.*

Can anyone give me an idea as to what my monthly payments would be after residency?

No. Not without knowing what type of loans they are, what the APR is, are your undergrad loans subsidized/unsubsidized, etc.

*Every school's financial aid office will have a counselor you can talk to with regards to what your debt will look like. Also, you should really look at getting in touch with a financial planner. The consult can run anywhere from free to a few hundred $$$, but is well worth it. they will give you insight on how this debt will grown, things you need to do once in residency to start paying it off, projections on earnings, etc.

 

[frosted_flake]

FWIW, in my city, the public MD school lists $739 as the cost for a single adult. Yeah.... not even close. That is what one would pay for rent alone... in a sketchy area to say the least. Unless you want to starve, not pay your other bills, etc. you will likely need more than that.
And I live in a state where cost of living is not outrageous like most places. Perhaps look up COL in your area?

 

[Iamindebt]

FWIW, in my city, the public MD school lists $739 as the cost for a single adult. Yeah.... not even close. That is what one would pay for rent alone... in a sketchy area to say the least. Unless you want to starve, not pay your other bills, etc. you will likely need more than that.
And I live in a state where cost of living is not outrageous like most places. Perhaps look up COL in your area?

The apartment I will be renting next year will be around that price per month, all utilities included. Luckily the COL in my area is low compared to the rest of the US. I figure that will give me around $5000-$6000/yr for everything else?

 

[Mansamusa]

$200K is manageable. There are attendings now who have or paid off that much debt. And that is around the average amount of debt, so over half of med student will have more.

https://students-residents.aamc.org/financial-aid/
This site has a loan calculator to estimate your payments

And congrats!

 

[frosted_flake]

On the low end you would get say $5000/month. That is about ~$415/month. If you don't go crazy that should be enough. But you will have little to no wiggle room what-so-ever.
:/

 

[Mansamusa]

On the low end you would get say $5000/month. That is about ~$415/month. If you don't go crazy that should be enough. But you will have little to no wiggle room what-so-ever.
:/

Do you mean $5K/yr? (I couldn't tell if you were referring to living costs or future salary)

 

[frosted_flake]

Do you mean $5K/yr? (I couldn't tell if you were referring to living costs or future salary)

Cost of living.
🙂

 

[jsquared91]

We had a really helpful family medicine interest group event at my school where several family medicine residents/attendings talked actual numbers about debt and salary. 200 seems totally doable based on that to me.

Does that include interest over the 4 years and estimated tuition increases?

 

[Iamindebt]

We had a really helpful family medicine interest group event at my school where several family medicine residents/attendings talked actual numbers about debt and salary. 200 seems totally doable based on that to me.

Does that include interest over the 4 years and estimated tuition increases?

No it doesn't include interest and estimated tuition increases. I believe factoring those in my debt would be closer to 225k.


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[jsquared91]

No it doesn't include interest and estimated tuition increases. I believe factoring those in my debt would be closer to 225k.


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Still not terrible from my perspective. I'm probably going to be a little under 200k including undergrad, tuition increases, and interest. I'm still keeping primary care open as an option at that debt. 200k was my goal when I was deciding where to go because I think it will still give me flexibility to pursue whatever specialty I choose. Of course I'm realistic about how my life will look and I have a significant other who is helping with living expenses.

 

[mvenus929]

It depends completely on your spending habits and where you want to practice. If you budget well and try to pay off that debt aggressively (rather than riding out one of the extended repayment options and getting your loan 'forgiven' in 25 years with a sudden huge tax bill), you should be fine.

 

[Psai]

Your debt burden should be no more than 2x your expected yearly income