moonlighting

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apellous

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Does anyone know the moonlighting laws/rules in IL.

Do residence generally moonlight in their first few years.

If not how do you make it on $38,000 in chicago with $200,000 in debt?

I am ms-II but curious what others are doing to make ends meet.
 
First of all, my advice is to get a financial planner. Medical students are very dumb when it comes to finances and business sense. That is not a bad thing, though. We med students are good with the sciences! 🙂

Anyway, there are many things you can do to make ends meet. If you have a debt of $200,000 and your income is $38 - 40,000, you will easily qualify for a hardship deferment of your loans -- reasoning here is your high debt to income ratio. Whatever portion is federal subsided stafford, the Gov't pays the interest on that part during the hardship deferment.

Moonlighting depends on your program. Some programs allow it, and others don't allow it. You have to check with the individual programs when you interview for residency. In Illinois, you must complete your internship year (12 months) before you can sit for Step 3 and get an Illinois licence to practice medicine. So, if your program allows it and you have the time and energy, you can start moonlighting during your second year of residency and the pay is usually between $50-100/hour.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the line.


apellous
 
Depending on your specialty, there may even be in house moonlighting (eg. I covered MRI at a fellow's pay as an upper level resident). I practiced in Illinois for a while. The licensure process there is a pain in the butt, although not as bad as California where you have to get finger-printed and take an oral exam if you have been out more than four years.😕
 
In some states, due to licensing quirks, you cannot moonlight until the end of your third year of residency. That's fine for longer programs (especially with research year/s) but it blows for short programs.

As for the 80 hour limit, I wouldn't dream of moonlighting during residency... with the exception of during my research year/s....
 
You can also easily apply for economic hardship deferral of your loan payments. Believe me, with your debt load and on a residents salary, you will eaisly qualify. They grant them in 3 year blocks.

In addition, you might consider looking into having your loans consolidated. There are a number of advantages to this: fewer accounts to manage, lower payments, longer payback period and a fixed interest rate. And, once you request that economic hardship deferral, it'll apply to all of the loans you have rolled into the consolidation loan -- much easier than dealing with all of the sepearate loan servicers and lenders.
 
How do you apply for a hardship deferment?
Does anyone know the moonlighting laws in NY?
Are there any good seminars or websites to start learning a little about my debt. I overdrew a lot! So primary prevention is ou of the question.
Thanks
-Jordan
 
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