Many moons ago, I was listening to this interview about student loan debt, and I had to stop the podcast and do a Google search right there in the middle of the show. I could not believe the numbers this new grad was putting out there. They couldn’t possibly be real.
This interview was with a new grad looking at over $400,000 in student loan debt.
WTF? How is that even possible?? Was she insane?
Then I checked the numbers. Four years at USC dental school costs $388,960, and that doesn’t include living expenses. It looks like it’s pretty easy to graduate with a half a million dollars in debt. To compound her problems, this nice young lady was making about $80,000. Holy smokes I thought dentists killed it. ??? It turns out most of them don’t make nearly as much as you’ve been led to believe.
She plans to work for the next 10 YEARS and not bring home a single penny. Ten years without earning a penny for herself or her family. Ten years of getting up five days a week, not seeing her family or loved ones, not playing at the beach.
The rest of her class is planning on entering a student loan forgiveness program. The way that dreaded awful system works is that you pay 10% of your income towards your student loans for the next 25 years. At that point, the balance on the loans is forgiven. Sounds OK right? Nope.
There are a few problems with that plan. #1 you have that debt hanging over your head for 25 years like a buzzard following you through the desert just waiting for you to die so he can eat you. #2 The loan amount you are forgiven will be treated as income for tax purposes.
If you’re only paying 10% of your pay, you’re not making a dent in that loan. Worse, because of interest, the balance is going UP every year. The result is a TAX BOMB of 37% on a $500,000 balance. That’s close to $200,000 due in a lump sum at the end. That’s tough to come up with.
Thankfully, the numbers for PA school aren’t quite as twisted. In my new book, “The Physician Assistant Student’s Guide to Money: From Broke to Debt Free and Beyond,” I talk about the average figures for PAs and how they stack up to other professions like vets, dentists, physical therapists and MDs. We’ll cover how these numbers affect your most important decisions and what you can do about it. In fact, in the book I talk about THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to do to take care of your student loan debt and get your finances together.
It’s only available until Sunday night. I want to change your future. I’ve done the work. I’ve catalogued most of my mistakes. I’ve made a good number of the really bad choices. On second thought, maybe I’m the last person you should be learning this stuff from….
Well, I already wrote the book. Here’s the link if you’d like to take a look:
The Physician Assistant Student’s Guide to Money: From Broke to Debt Free and Beyond
Brian Wallace
P.S. This Weekend only the book comes with some very special bonuses.
– The audio version delivered right to your phone for easy consumption. You’ll want the physical book because it will be easier to do the exercises, but the audio will help you cruise through the material (maybe more than once)
– Access to the brand new PAER APP. You’re going to love it.
– Access to Brian’s Brain. The brand-new secret “podcast’ I’ve been working on.
– Access to my brand-new Mini Course – On Test Taking
Better get on it.