To be clear, I am not a vet student and I do not even consider myself pre-vet at this point. I know nothing about the vet field or vet school or the cost of vet school.
There is a good chance these numbers are completely useless (and probably misleading) so take this with a grain of salt. Again, I think it would be great if people with actual experience could share their own real numbers. Maybe its too personal. I think it would be a great resource though.
Below are the numbers for 1) the total cost of vet school; 2) total monthly expenses after graduation; and 3) the total amount left over each month, considering salary (minus taxes, retirement, interest on loan). This is where you're at after graduation if you went through entirely on loans.
I used
this financial simulator to do it, from squeegee. The numbers shown are for the average out of state and in-state tuition with 10-year and 25-year repayment plans. I used the average in-state and out of state tuition reported in Wikipedia for 2008. For living expenses, I used $20,000 based on a guess. The average salary used was $70,560, which is the default used in the simulator. Interest rate at 6.8% is the default in the simulator (I imagine students have different loans with different rates, but only total debt is considered here at 6.8%). I also imagine salary increases over time, but no idea by how much or how to account for it in the simulator.
The interesting part is the number for Income in excess of expenses. This is how much money you have each month considering total expenses and salary. Expenses included loan payment, social security and retirement (which I dont understand and which is at $430/month default), rent, utilities, and groceries. I used bare minimums for pretty much everything. Utilities set at 100, groceries at 150, rent is more reasonable at 1,000. I set credit card debt to zero, do not consider a car (gas) or car payment, and other things like child care and entertainment are also zero.
The numbers:
Out of state school/10-yr repayment plan
Tuition + living expenses: 50,0000/year (30K+20K)
Total amt. borrowed: 200,000
Interest: 6.8%
Monthly payment after graduation: 2,302
Total amt paid: 276,193
Total interest paid: 76,193
Total expenses: 48,424/year; 4,035/month
Net income after taxes: $50,054
Income in excess of expenses: $136/month
Out of state/25-yr plan
Total amt. borrowed: 200,000
Interest: 6.8%
Monthly payment: 1,388
Total amt paid: 416,443
Total interest paid: 216,443
Total expenses: 37,463/year; 3,122/month
Net income after taxes: $50,054
Income in excess of expenses: $1,049/month
In-state/10-yr plan
17,000 + 20,000 = 37,000/year
Total amt. borrowed: 148,000
Interest: 6.8%
Monthly payment: 1,703
Total amt paid: 204,383
Total interest paid: 56,383
Total expenses: 41,243/year; 3,437/month
Net income after taxes: $50,054
Income in excess of expenses: $734/month
In-state/25-yr plan
Total amt. borrowed: 148,000
Interest: 6.8%
Monthly payment: 1,027
Total amt paid: 308,168
Total interest paid: 160,168
Total expenses: 33,132/year; 2,761/month
Net income after taxes: $50,054
Income in excess of expenses: $1,410/month
Out of state 10-year with 60,000 in debt from undergrad (assuming 6.8% and 10-year plan for undergrad debt)
Total expenses/month: 4726
Income in excess: -555
Out of state 25-year with 60,000 in debt from undergrad (assuming same as above)
Total expenses/month: 3812
Income in excess: 359
In state 10-year with 60,000 in debt from undergrad (assuming same as above)
Total expenses: 4127
Income in excess: 44
In state 25 year with 60,000 in debt from undergrad (assuming same)
Total expenses: 3451
Income in excess: 720
Summary:
If you go out of state, and you want to pay off your loans in 10 years, youll have $136 left over
after expenses each month. If you do it over 25 years, youll have about $1K extra every month-- but over that time you paid around 140K extra in interest.
If you go in-state, youre looking at $700/month on the 10-year; and 1400 with the 25-year. You lose around 100K, going with the 25-year plan.
If you decide to go out of state and then pay over 25 years, that decision costs you about $100K (total amt. paid out of state: 416K vs 308K in-state). And every month after graduation you have about $400 less to spend than the guy that went in-state (if you're salaries are the same)
Out of curiosity, I ran it with an additional 60K in debt from undergrad. Looks rough, but doable, I guess.
Again, it would be great if somebody with experience could go over this. It takes 5 mins to generate these numbers using the simulator that squeegee provided.
If any of this is even close to reality, what's the plan to take this on. It would be awesome if somebody could thrash everything out and lay down their plan for being the most successful (and financially comfortable) vet on the planet. Will you specialize, etc?
P.S. out of state vet school is rough...
, but I digress.
