So you’ve chosen a medical school, enrolled, and are happily studying through first year and loving anatomy lab. How do you manage your expenses and loans while in school? Excellent question, dear reader, and this builds on the previous post in the series that provides a high level summary of securing student loans.
Every person has a unique financial and life situation – perhaps you have a partner and are sharing living expenses. Are they in school? Are they working? Do they make a comfortable amount and are you close enough such that they can support you while you’re in school?
What kind of loans do you have, private or public?
From the perspective of managing loans while in school, both private and public loans generally allow you to defer making payments while you’re a full time student. Note however, that your loans will continue to accrue interest whether or not you’re making payments. Because you’re fully focused on school, it doesn’t make sense to make payments until after you’ve graduated. I’ll go into detail about ways to manage your public and private loans once you’ve graduated from medical school in a future post.
Managing Expenses – Find a Roommate!
Here’s where having the discipline to focus on keeping a budget will save you in the long run. By using one (or more) of these tools, you can get a perfect picture of your monthly income and expenditure, and carefully plan out what you’ll need each semester.
If you don’t have a partner that you’d consider sharing expenses with, there are additional options you have to save on housing costs. Check with your fellow classmates to see if they’re looking for roommates – do make sure you’re compatible living together. If the idea of living with a fellow med student is like bringing work home with you, see if you school has other graduate programs. Like med students, students in other grad programs are typically focused, high achieving, and might make an ideal roommate or three.
Ultimately, shacking up with a roommate for a few years while in school isn’t the worst thing you can do. It’s a great way to save on your largest expense outside of med school tuition and can reduce your need for loans.
Budget for Larger Expenses
As you progress through medical school, remember the long game. By the time you become an attending, (if you’re in the US), your superlative education will include:
- Four years of undergrad
- Four years of medical school
- at least 3 years of residency
- TOTAL: 11 YEARS after high school
If you’re like the Surgeon and planning on a surgery sub-specialty, that’s a seven year residency (including research). Tack on roughly two years of fellowship. Say you’re interested in becoming a Thoracic Surgeon. That’s a 17 YEAR ride after high school – buckle up.
My point with this isn’t to scare you, but to realize that your high income years (at this point) are about a decade away, the decisions you make regarding finances early on can save you much later in the long run. Remember, life is a marathon, not a sprint.
During medical school, larger expenses might include mandatory testing (like STEP exams), vacation (responsibly), transportation (keeping your car alive), and in your fourth year: residency interviews. Loans are certainly one way to manage these expenses. But another, perhaps more prudent option, would be budgeting and planning for these expenses ahead of time.
What Should YOU Do?
In the end, I can’t tell you what to do. I know what worked for The Surgeon and me, and I’ve seen what can work for others. Ultimately, it’s about being responsible with your financial decisions, closely evaluating living arrangements and expenses, and keeping your mind and body healthy for the long run.
It’s also great to instill these habits early, so that once you are making a bit of an income (at least adding to the positive side of the ledger) in residency, you can work on saving. Keeping those habits into your attending years will have you set up to be debt free while maximizing your financial potential for your life time!
What questions about expenses and budgeting do you have while in med school? How to make ramen more tasty? Adding an egg and some leafy greens can really kick up a ramen pack on the cheap.
-SurgeonJourney