The 15 years is only for undergrad loans. Grad school loan forgiveness under Trump's plan is getting extended to 30 years!
There's a lot of ways I can help dentists plan for their loans as that's what I do for a living. There's a bunch of things you can do with PAYE, REPAYE, minimizing taxable income, etc. However, I created this thread bc I've seen the stress firsthand and I would never recommend putting yourself into that situation prospectively.
In general, being a lawyer, chiropractor, and veterinarian is a worse decision than being a dentist from a loans perspective. Being a physician is better. Being a PA or pharmacist is better from a loan standpoint unless you get into a reasonably priced in state school. Most of my PA and pharmacist clients are either refinancing or doing PSLF. In other words, loans are a part of their lives but they aren't a dominant centerpiece like they are for my NYU dentist clients, some of whom call me literally having no idea what to do.
Thanks
@Ollivander , if I saved one person it was worth it.
Definitely be careful I agree. I'm giving a talk at an in state dental school in the bottom cost quartile and am really pumped about it. Will be able to give really useful tips on how to keep debt down, get into a practice, what are the biggest hurdles and opportunities my clients have said they're facing financially, etc. If NYU asked me to give the same talk, if I was honest with the students I would never be invited again anyway.
Not optometry. That's like vet med, lower income, lower ceiling, and you've still got substantial debt.
Pharmacy is a good choice if you just want to work to live. Not to say you can't be passionate about it, but pharmacists are essentially choosing a less risky path by going with around 150k debt and guaranteed 100k-120k incomes that will go up at the rate of inflation. I only have a couple pharmacists above 200k while maybe 85-90% of the dentists are above that.
The primary draw of dentistry is the option to be an owner and be self employed. That route isn't really open in pharmacy.
However, if you're gonna take on $650,000 in dental school loans and another $700,000 in practice loans, why not take $50,000 and go see if you can start your own small business? Figure out some skill that's needed in society and provide the solution to it. Try a couple things and see what sticks. Charge less than you're worth then increase the price.
I'd bet that if you're smart enough to get into dental school, you could do some pretty amazing things with $1.3 million in funding for a small business idea. Probably could do some amazing things with $100k. You should look up Tim Ferriss if you haven't already. He's a big fan of taking the money you would've spent on an MBA and using it to learn from the success and failure of trying to be an entrepreneur.
