Feel sad with me

[The White Coat Investor]

It breaks my heart to get emails like this. Yes, yes it is too late. If ever there were a perfect candidate for PSLF....

 

- PGY6 Fellow, finish 06/2018, signed to start at a nonprofit hospital,

- Debt: ~600K, mix of federal and private loans in

deferment/forbearance

- Have not been able to consolidate due to high rate credit card debt

Is it too late for PSLF?

[Dicast]

Ouch that hurts. I would be depressed. I hope this person has good income and can budget like crazy.

[The Physician Philosopher]

This is why I started learning this stuff and started my site. since I work in academics I am going to try and prevent as much of this as I can with my students and residents.

That 600k is gonna hurt. What specialty?

[Kamban]

Hope he is a neurosurgeon and not a pediatrician.

 

How did it come to $600K?

[VagabondMD]

I do not understand the student loan mumbo-jumbo, but I DO understand $600k. Money talks...loudly.

[Dilaudidopenia]

This is a tragedy.

Although a bit of personal responsibility goes a long way, I see this as a failure of the medical education system.  In 4 years of medical school, I received zero hours of personal finance education.  In 4 years of residency, I received 2 conference hours (one of which was given by me).

Personal Finance 101 should be mandatory in medical school.  Could easily fit in a 2 week course during 4th year (aka the year you take almost no courses but they still rob you of tuition).

[RosieQ]

There is a lot of individual willful ignorance that goes into a combination o 600k in debt and forbearance along the way rather than being 6 years into a 10 year forgiveness. This person wasn't asking questions along the way. I can explain a 1 year delay in getting signed up, or doing IBR instead of PAYE or something...but this is just silly. Recovery from this kind of mistake will hurt.

[Zaphod]

If this is a surgical residency, sometimes you dont have a lot of spare time to think about these kinds of things. In the past you were actively discouraged from doing so in fact and repeatedly told dont worry by your mentors. They were very wrong.

[Donnie]

Angry is probably the better emotion. Angry at the universities for gouging students while amassing ridiculously large endowments. Angry at the lending companies for poor disclosure that results in situations like these. Angry at the government for working in concert with universities and lenders to create this current mess of exorbitant tuition costs and easy to access financing. Angry at the OP for wondering how he is going to pay back his debts only after borrowing a staggering total of $600k.

[cgossage]

That's heartbreaking to read. Especially the part about taking a job at a non-profit hospital.  Thanks for sharing.  Hopefully it will help keep others from the same outcome.

[jz]

Not my wheelhouse.  Why is it to late for PSLF? when is the deadline?

[Hatton]

jz wrote:

Not my wheelhouse.  Why is it to late for PSLF? when is the deadline?

Click to expand...

I am no loan expert either but he/she could of had 6/10 PSLF if the paperwork was filled out.

[The White Coat Investor]

jz wrote:

Not my wheelhouse.  Why is it to late for PSLF? when is the deadline?

Click to expand...

Because this doc didn't make 6 years of tiny IBR/PAYE payments. What gets forgiven with PSLF is the difference between "real payments" you would make as an attending and the lower payments you make in residency...unless you're in deferment or forebearance. If you don't start making payments until you're an attending, there won't be anything left to forgive.

[The White Coat Investor]

Dicast wrote:

I hope this person has good income and can budget like crazy.

Click to expand...

Kamban wrote:

How did it come to $600K?

Click to expand...

The Physician Philosopher wrote:

What specialty?

Click to expand...

Sorry guys, trying to maintain some anonymity. I've got the answers to all those questions from the email, and they're important questions, but when it isn't my financial life I try preserve some anonymity for people. If this doc wants to come and post and ask questions and provide those details, that's fine, but I'm not going to.

[The Physician Philosopher]

Appreciate you being private about it.  Sorry for prying.  Hope this one figures something out!