Pharmacists who work less than 40 hr/wk, what do you do for extra income?

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Timbo

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Recent grad...I currently have a 40 hr/week staff position in a smaller city. Pay is good, I make about $120k/yr which is much needed as I'm trying to pay off my loans ASAP. However I am looking to moving to a bigger metro city like Seattle, Portland, Denver, NorCal (If I can get myself to study for the CPJE) and most likely will only be able to land a floater position if any. If I get my hours cut to like 30 hr/wk because of this, that will be a significant decrease in pay (assuming similar wage). And that's not accounting for higher cost of living in those areas as well. Pharmacists living in big metro areas, how do you deal with this? Do you have an extra source of income? Or are 40 hr/wk floater positions readily available?
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Well my side gig is having a sugar mama.

In all seriousness, I work 2 pharmacy gigs (1 hospital and 1 retail) for approximately 70% (maybe as low as 50% some months) of a full time equivalent. That's enough for me at the moment. The rest of my time is spent being a stay at home dad, which I enjoy quite a lot.
 
Our inpatient float staff who have outside main jobs routinely total 50-60 hours per week, so having a main gig of 30/week + per diem/on call work will likely boost you to at least 40.



Hourly rates are much higher in Northern California but that will be against higher COL


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confettiflyer said:
Our inpatient float staff who have outside main jobs routinely total 50-60 hours per week, so having a main gig of 30/week + per diem/on call work will likely boost you to at least 40.



Hourly rates are much higher in Northern California but that will be against higher COL


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How difficult is it to get per diem inpatient jobs? I have no working clinical experience outside of rotations and to be honest my clinical knowledge has been slipping even though it's only been a year out of school
 
Most of our hired pharmacists and residents who get hired on (all of them if they choose to stay instead of going PGY2)... have full time inpatient and then per diem retail positions. It's pretty awesome to get the best of both worlds. Barely anyone here does just 40 a week, some do 50 and some do 60.
 
pharmasaurusRex17 said:
Most of our hired pharmacists and residents who get hired on (all of them if they choose to stay instead of going PGY2)... have full time inpatient and then per diem retail positions. It's pretty awesome to get the best of both worlds. Barely anyone here does just 40 a week, some do 50 and some do 60.
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Damn I guess I should've tried for a residency. Are there anybody who does it the other way around though (FT retail + per diem inpatient?)
 
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Timbo said:
How difficult is it to get per diem inpatient jobs? I have no working clinical experience outside of rotations and to be honest my clinical knowledge has been slipping even though it's only been a year out of school
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Then I would say your chances are close to zero, you'd have to find a really desperate rural area hospital 2+ hours outside of major urban centers that are amenable to new grass and retail transplants. Sorry bud.


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pharmasaurusRex17 said:
Most of our hired pharmacists and residents who get hired on (all of them if they choose to stay instead of going PGY2)... have full time inpatient and then per diem retail positions. It's pretty awesome to get the best of both worlds. Barely anyone here does just 40 a week, some do 50 and some do 60.
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This. But most settle down to ~40-50hrs/week after a few years of stacking $, buying homes, having kids, etc...


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confettiflyer said:
Then I would say your chances are close to zero, you'd have to find a really desperate rural area hospital 2+ hours outside of major urban centers that are amenable to new grass and retail transplants. Sorry bud.


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I figured. I know very few of my classmates managed to get an inpatient job without a residency and they had to either know people or have worked at that hospital as a tech or intern for a while. As a retail pharmacist even as a single guy I can't imagine surviving on a 30 hr/wk job only. It would about to about $7k per month, $4k after taxes/health. If I spend $2k on rent and living expenses and another $2k on loan payments, I'll be left with almost nothing... How do you retail pharmacists survive on a 30 hr/wk salary??? Is my math off?
 
Timbo said:
I figured. I know very few of my classmates managed to get an inpatient job without a residency and they had to either know people or have worked at that hospital as a tech or intern for a while. As a retail pharmacist even as a single guy I can't imagine surviving on a 30 hr/wk job only. It would about to about $7k per month, $4k after taxes/health. If I spend $2k on rent and living expenses and another $2k on loan payments, I'll be left with almost nothing... How do you retail pharmacists survive on a 30 hr/wk salary??? Is my math off?
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Income based loan repayments and a smaller apartment / room mates.
 
Timbo said:
I figured. I know very few of my classmates managed to get an inpatient job without a residency and they had to either know people or have worked at that hospital as a tech or intern for a while. As a retail pharmacist even as a single guy I can't imagine surviving on a 30 hr/wk job only. It would about to about $7k per month, $4k after taxes/health. If I spend $2k on rent and living expenses and another $2k on loan payments, I'll be left with almost nothing... How do you retail pharmacists survive on a 30 hr/wk salary??? Is my math off?
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Yea, living on 95k/year gross is impossible
 
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gwarm01 said:
Income based loan repayments and a smaller apartment / room mates.
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Unfortunately I refinanced my loans to get much lower interest rates and my minimum is $2k. Roommates would most likely be a must

npage148 said:
Yea, living on 95k/year gross is impossible
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Well maybe I was over exaggerating but still.... taking into account paying off loans, I'd be living on a considerably tighter budget than I currently am. Anyway my initial post was just to find out what I could do to make extra cash if I took a 30 h/week position which would leave me with extra time.

EastBay80 said:
Being single is always more expensive than living as a couple.
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Ironically that's one of the reasons why I want to leave this stable 40 h/week job - because the dating scene here sucks
 
So youre a staff Pharmacist that doesn't do any clinical work?

I work part time hospital and pick up random shifts in the ICU, NICU, Central basically whenever I want. Theyre always asking me to cover since Im not OT and I don't piss off the RNs (trust me, coming back to your floor after a crappy PRN person filled in is the worst). BCPS maybe?
 
sakigt said:
So youre a staff Pharmacist that doesn't do any clinical work?

I work part time hospital and pick up random shifts in the ICU, NICU, Central basically whenever I want. Theyre always asking me to cover since Im not OT and I don't piss off the RNs (trust me, coming back to your floor after a crappy PRN person filled in is the worst). BCPS maybe?
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Nope I graduated last year and went straight into retail like most. No residency, no BCPS, ... Any inpatient jobs at this point even per diem at this point sounds unlikely :/
 
My advice - work 30 hours a week and enjoy life. I used to work crazy hours and hated life - you only live once - at 30 hours a week you still make more than 75% (or more) of the country.

That being said, you could always look up staffing agencies in your area. Only inpatient job you are going to get is in the rural areas - you might get lucky with a hospital if you apply in the off season (meaning not around graduation/residency graduation) depending on the local job market,
 
Dred Pirate said:
My advice - work 30 hours a week and enjoy life. I used to work crazy hours and hated life - you only live once - at 30 hours a week you still make more than 75% (or more) of the country.
,
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Shuttup frenchie, we don't want none of that barack hussein obama socialist talk 'round here!


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Dred Pirate said:
My advice - work 30 hours a week and enjoy life. I used to work crazy hours and hated life - you only live once - at 30 hours a week you still make more than 75% (or more) of the country.

That being said, you could always look up staffing agencies in your area. Only inpatient job you are going to get is in the rural areas - you might get lucky with a hospital if you apply in the off season (meaning not around graduation/residency graduation) depending on the local job market,
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That's what I did when I was briefly at 30. I just cut back and enjoyed my free time.
 
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confettiflyer said:
Shuttup frenchie, we don't want none of that barack hussein obama socialist talk 'round here!


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I have a friend from Holland - works crazy hours, long ass commute - says he just doesn't get the "American Way" - there is something to be said about how the Euro's do it
 
Dred Pirate said:
My advice - work 30 hours a week and enjoy life. I used to work crazy hours and hated life - you only live once - at 30 hours a week you still make more than 75% (or more) of the country.

That being said, you could always look up staffing agencies in your area. Only inpatient job you are going to get is in the rural areas - you might get lucky with a hospital if you apply in the off season (meaning not around graduation/residency graduation) depending on the local job market,
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It would be hard to enjoy life on a tight budget. Throughout school I did not go in ski trips, concerts, etc because I could not afford it - now I can with this current job. I feel like I would be back to living like a college student minus having classmate friends to hang out with if I was stuck with a 30 hr/wk job. A 30 hrs/wk job, if you take into consideration $2k/month loan payments, would actually end up being about median average for the country; if you live in a larger metropolitan city it would be below average for that area :/
 
Timbo said:
It would be hard to enjoy life on a tight budget. Throughout school I did not go in ski trips, concerts, etc because I could not afford it - now I can with this current job. I feel like I would be back to living like a college student minus having classmate friends to hang out with if I was stuck with a 30 hr/wk job. A 30 hrs/wk job, if you take into consideration $2k/month loan payments, would actually end up being about median average for the country; if you live in a larger metropolitan city it would be below average for that area :/
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This is why you should pay off your debt asap. If you have student loan payments for more than 5 years after graduation, you are terrible at money management.
 
BenJammin said:
This is why you should pay off your debt asap. If you have student loan payments for more than 5 years after graduation, you are terrible at money management.
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I don't know about that. With my current job I can probably pay it off in 4 years and because I pay an extra ~$1000 every month in addition to $2k minimum. With a 30 hours per week job in a bigger city, most likely people would have a hard time paying more than $2k per month. Assuming $130k worth of debt out of school, it would definitely take more than 5 years to pay that off
 
Timbo said:
I don't know about that. With my current job I can probably pay it off in 4 years and because I pay an extra ~$1000 every month in addition to $2k minimum. With a 30 hours per week job in a bigger city, most likely people would have a hard time paying more than $2k per month. Assuming $130k worth of debt out of school, it would definitely take more than 5 years to pay that off
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"Terrible at managing money" in this context is code for wanting to live somewhere with a high cost of living. 😉
 
BenJammin said:
This is why you should pay off your debt asap. If you have student loan payments for more than 5 years after graduation, you are terrible at money management.
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Or you are investing it expecting the average return of 7-8% and paying off the 3 % loans slowly. Because that's what I'm doing...and my retirement account will be fatter for it.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Or you are investing it expecting the average return of 7-8% and paying off the 3 % loans slowly. Because that's what I'm doing...and my retirement account will be fatter for it.
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That's the opposite of financial peace and independence. You're not gaining anything by investing in the stock market instead of paying down your debt. If you can put in the time to get a higher return on your investments than your loan's interest rate then good for you but the golden handcuffs have you set where you are. You can't take the risks that I can because you're riddled with debt.
 
BenJammin said:
That's the opposite of financial peace and independence. You're not gaining anything by investing in the stock market instead of paying down your debt. If you can put in the time to get a higher return on your investments than your loan's interest rate then good for you but the golden handcuffs have you set where you are. You can't take the risks that I can because you're riddled with debt.
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It's leverage. Learn the word...

Lots of people get rich buying houses and using leverage to their advantage. You can accelerate early retirement by investing vs. Paying off low interest loan first over the long term.

I never pay an extra penny to my mortgage even if I can pay it in full today. Stocks give me 4-9% return a yr. Paying it off sooner is a dumb move for me.
 
BenJammin said:
That's the opposite of financial peace and independence. You're not gaining anything by investing in the stock market instead of paying down your debt. If you can put in the time to get a higher return on your investments than your loan's interest rate then good for you but the golden handcuffs have you set where you are. You can't take the risks that I can because you're riddled with debt.
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Brah, do you even max out 401k, roth, and HSA?

(I think that's the investors version of "Brah do you even lift")
 
msweph said:
Right - I was just letting you know the student loan rates BLOW compared to 5-7 years ago.
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I think the era of really low interest student loans was before even that. When I started getting student loans I think the Stanford rate was 6.9% and that was over 7 years ago. Once the person is out of school you can always refinance to a lower rate though. Well, that's what I did anyway.
 
msweph said:
I grad in 2012 and the TAs 2 years ahead of me had loans at 3% - at least for part of their schooling - but I'm not sure. Mine were higher than that also
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So you probably started getting loans in 2007 and that's already been 10 years and they were higher than 3%.

I feel you though, I graduated a year after you and heard stories of people in classes before mime getting like 3%. Lucky Bastards.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Ok, then you obviously pay that first. You take guaranteed 7% over an "average" return of 7-8% every day of the week.
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Mine is 6% interest. Most borrowers post 2012 have significantly higher rates when the Obama admin overhauled loans and offered new repayment plans (part of that was significantly higher interest). Oddly it's cheapest for me to do PAYE then save for the tax bomb. When I calculated it I pay as much as I would if I did the 10 year standard plan only stretched out over 20.
 
BenJammin said:
That's the opposite of financial peace and independence. You're not gaining anything by investing in the stock market instead of paying down your debt. If you can put in the time to get a higher return on your investments than your loan's interest rate then good for you but the golden handcuffs have you set where you are. You can't take the risks that I can because you're riddled with debt.
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Sounds like an emotional way to allocate money.


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Pharmacy Kid said:
Me too, the dating scene in 90% of IHS sites suckkkkk.
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At this point it feels like my only options are either be miserable because:
1) I live in a small town and there's nothing to do and no one to meet or
2) I live in a big city but can't afford anything because I can't get enough hours.
 
I work only 32 a week, plenty of money and free time to do whatever I want and pursue many hobbies. To be honest, I like it a lot and do not wish to work 40+ hours... No, I don't have a mansion and a ferrari either but I don't care about those things.
 
owlegrad said:
So you probably started getting loans in 2007 and that's already been 10 years and they were higher than 3%.

I feel you though, I graduated a year after you and heard stories of people in classes before mime getting like 3%. Lucky Bastards.
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makes me happy to have gotten 1.7%
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Or you are investing it expecting the average return of 7-8% and paying off the 3 % loans slowly. Because that's what I'm doing...and my retirement account will be fatter for it.
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this is the question I always ask- would you borrow money at 3% in order to invest it?
 
Charcoales said:
I work only 32 a week, plenty of money and free time to do whatever I want and pursue many hobbies. To be honest, I like it a lot and do not wish to work 40+ hours... No, I don't have a mansion and a ferrari either but I don't care about those things.
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What do you drive and live in and what DO you care about?
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Yeah.

As for the question...it's a good thought experiment. I guess in theory, you'd be ahead to leverage the low rate on stocks. But I couldn't imagine taking a loan for this reason in real life.
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this is my point exactly - paying off the loan is guaranteed income - borrowing money to invest (which is what you are doing if you invest vs paying off your student loans) is not a guarantee - you may win in the long run, but there is no feeling that not having that debt over your head and knowing you can say eff off to your boss and walk away
 
trailerpark said:
What do you drive and live in and what DO you care about?
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not that you were asking me, but I agree with the previous sentiment
-tacoma, live in a townhome, and I care about hanging out with friends and travel
 
El Trombopag said:
I'm currently at 32 hours a week, would happily drop to 24.

I invested heavily into marrying well though.

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You should revise it to "marry a rich girl". 🙂 Heck, I'd work 24h only or even less, no point working a lot to only pay her yearly taxes.
 
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