Comments on: Perspective on Starting a Career in Medicine http://www.debttodreams.com/2007/01/18/starting-a-career-in-medicine/thoughts-on-medicine/ The Journey of a Young Physician from Educational Debt to Financial Independence Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:44:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Dr. T http://www.debttodreams.com/2007/01/18/starting-a-career-in-medicine/thoughts-on-medicine/#comment-254 Dr. T Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:21:32 +0000 http://www.debttodreams.com/2007/01/18/starting-a-career-in-medicine/thoughts-on-medicine/#comment-254 All I can say is I am not burnt out yet basically b/c from my view the race hasn't even begun I do realize that it will be quite an uphill journey, your story is very similar all over Medicine and is sort of the premise of this blog. It is interesting to hear that some of your time spent may have been over educating yourselves. Is that because some of the felllowships didn't add value, diversity or open new doors of opportunity? We assume a large amount of debt under the illusion that we can make it evaporate quickly as soon as we get a "real Job" Eventually we realize that 30 years of payments is a long time to be beholden to someone else and that the only guys who are going to retire early are the ones pushing the money around and charging 3% for their "services" We shall see what I eventually decide to do with my loans, the majority are consolidated at less than 3% which is pretty cheap money. However, I haven't had to start writing them a check and I have the feeling that I would rather just pay them off ASAP rather than seeking a higher return. I am just glad I don't have to make the decision tonight!! All I can say is I am not burnt out yet basically b/c from my view the race hasn’t even begun I do realize that it will be quite an uphill journey, your story is very similar all over Medicine and is sort of the premise of this blog.

It is interesting to hear that some of your time spent may have been over educating yourselves. Is that because some of the felllowships didn’t add value, diversity or open new doors of opportunity?

We assume a large amount of debt under the illusion that we can make it evaporate quickly as soon as we get a “real Job” Eventually we realize that 30 years of payments is a long time to be beholden to someone else and that the only guys who are going to retire early are the ones pushing the money around and charging 3% for their “services”

We shall see what I eventually decide to do with my loans, the majority are consolidated at less than 3% which is pretty cheap money. However, I haven’t had to start writing them a check and I have the feeling that I would rather just pay them off ASAP rather than seeking a higher return.

I am just glad I don’t have to make the decision tonight!!

]]> By: anonymous http://www.debttodreams.com/2007/01/18/starting-a-career-in-medicine/thoughts-on-medicine/#comment-249 anonymous Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:12:19 +0000 http://www.debttodreams.com/2007/01/18/starting-a-career-in-medicine/thoughts-on-medicine/#comment-249 ha! your attending probably didn't graduate with 100k in debt. does he/she even know you well enough to comment? my wife and i certainly have a great deal of regrets about spending that time educating ourselves. certainly some of it was necessary and good and allow us to have a rewarding job and nice lifestyle, but some was certainly a waste of time. we have well over 200k in educational loans. we have a 30 year payoff. same payment every month for the entire duration. we write a check (electronically) for over 2k a month (required amount). my children would be out of college before we finished paying our loans, if we did not choose to accelerate and pay even more. i don't think people understand how badly it affects you to be so in debt mentally your entire life, even if you are technically earning a good income. as for paying it off early, yes that makes sense to a degree but so does stuffing money into retirement, paying off house, and we choose to put money into children's college fund first. disability insurance, life insurance, umbrella coverage, rainy day fund. money in case we ever switch jobs-the last time we switched, despite never having been sued we had to pay almost $100k for tail insurance out of pocket. still, we are not poor, but i feel like i am ceo of my own large corporation at times. ymmv ha! your attending probably didn’t graduate with 100k in debt.
does he/she even know you well enough to comment?
my wife and i certainly have a great deal of regrets about spending that time educating ourselves. certainly some of it was necessary and good and allow us to have a rewarding job and nice lifestyle, but some was certainly a waste of time.
we have well over 200k in educational loans. we have a 30 year payoff. same payment every month for the entire duration. we write a check (electronically) for over 2k a month (required amount). my children would be out of college before we finished paying our loans, if we did not choose to accelerate and pay even more. i don’t think people understand how badly it affects you to be so in debt mentally your entire life, even if you are technically earning a good income. as for paying it off early, yes that makes sense to a degree but so does stuffing money into retirement, paying off house, and we choose to put money into children’s college fund first. disability insurance, life insurance, umbrella coverage, rainy day fund. money in case we ever switch jobs-the last time we switched, despite never having been sued we had to pay almost $100k for tail insurance out of pocket. still, we are not poor, but i feel like i am ceo of my own large corporation at times.
ymmv

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