Medical Student Loan

Paying off a medical student loan is like having another small mortgage to pay, as the author of this article explains ...

Life will be good again when my husband’s medical student loans are paid off.  As if the life of a medical student and resident isn’t tortuous enough, you then have to deal with these awful medical student loans, which can easily top $200,000 by the end of training.

They come from a variety of sources, including the government and private banking institutions.  The private institutions are more than happy to hand out medical student loans to people, as they hope to keep your business for when you start making the real money (whenever that may happen).  However, they have those pesky interest rates to contend with.  If you are lucky, like we were, you will graduate during a period of extremely low interest rates and can then consolidate all of your various loans into one payment at a locked rate.  If I have any piece of advice, it would be to consolidate your medical student loans no matter what.  Otherwise, you are playing crapshoot and could easily lose.

Once the consolidation is done, you realize exactly how much money you have in medical student loans, as it’s all on paper right in front of you.  If you don’t have a heart attack right then and there, you have to start thinking about forbearance during your residency years.  Yes, the financial institutions actually do give you a break and let you not pay off your loans while you are working 80 plus hours per week and only making about $33,000.  Problem is, you have to suck up your pride and claim economic hardship through a series of paperwork.  But smile, just about every resident is in the same boat as you and is just a poor schmuck trying to avoid paying their medical student loans so that they can do things like eat.

Forbearance on medical student loans only lasts through residency and fellowship training, so once those are completed be prepared to start making payments.  We haven’t reached this point in our household yet, but just let it be known that we really aren’t looking forward to it.  It’s estimated that our payments will be about $1200 per month for 30 years.  So basically paying off a medical student loan is very similar to having another small mortgage to pay.  On a pediatrician’s salary, we certainly won’t be living the glamorous life that everyone seems to automatically associate with doctors.  But, after all the arduous training and another house wrapped up in student loans, my husband will be doing something that truly makes a difference.  It just might be worth it after all.

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