Starting my PGY-2 soon, need financial advice (loans, house, marriage)

[hopeful1994]

Hello,
I live in Southern California will be starting my PGY-2 residency soon. I have ~$115,000 in student loans. I've been doing pay-as-you-earn since the start of my PGY-1 residency. I am hoping to do the 10-year public service loan forgiveness plan, but also willing to consider other options if that's too risky... (open to all opinions)
Also, my bf and I are seriously dating and hoping to get married and start a family soon (he makes a little more than a full pharmacist income and he doesn't have any loans, however ideally I would like to pay off all my loans myself...I do not want to rely on him).

Just some questions:
1) If my priority is to get married, buy a house, and start a family, is it better for me to pay off all my loans asap or is it okay to keep paying off loans via pay-as-you-earn and hope that the 10-year loan forgiveness will go through? Are there other things I need to consider?
2) How realistic is it to buy a house with my bf/ future husband considering the above? How does that affect mortgage? With the amount of loan I have, in what ways will my mortgage/ all other finances be affected?
3) I know I should max out my 401k, but are there other things I should do to be proactive? I'm sure I'm missing something...

I am willing to take any and all advice. Thank you so much in advance.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[lord999]

2 before 1:
It is not realistic to buy your house during your PGY-2 year unless you are dead certain you are going to stay in the locality. Most people need to live in their house for at least five years to break even with renting. And considering pharmacist job security right now, this might be more challenging in the near term. Also, unless you are going to live in a particularly bad area, you are going to need something around $60k for the down payment to avoid PMI or a major project house (which you don't have time for).

1: (Not sarcastic)
No, your priority certainly are not those things if you are in a second-year residency by your own decision. Your priority after residency is to get and keep a stable job, then the rest can be that prioritized. I cannot give better advice, because much of it depends on what sort of job you land and in what terms. I know the state of California pays low, and the VA in the area tends to be insular in hiring (and you really do not want to work for a couple of places in that area for the feds).

3:
Don't dig yourself deeper in debt than you already are. Pay down your revolving credit (e.g. credit card and other temporary debt).

4:
Unasked question to answer yourself, not us:

What do you really want: Your job, your family, your location, or your life? You cannot have it all. The reason that I am putting the rhetorical question out there is you are subspecializing in a job that is in one of the most competitive markets in the country. Can you uproot your husband in pursuit of your dream job? For any job? Or, are you willing to commute by plane every week or every other week home if it meant getting that job? Can you let go of your above pride if you want to be a mother and are in a job that is not tolerant of parenthood (and despite what others say, there are environments not conducive to raising children in). By choosing the second year residency, you already chose your job over your life, but what are you really about? What tradeoffs are you willing (even unconsciously) to make? Or can you let go of all six years of training and be a stay-at-home mother utilizing your career for work that is beneath you as many do in compromise? That should drive all three questions above, and one of the not nice talks that I have with my residents is that most are not really honest with themselves about what they really want, and everything suffers for it. I highly encourage you not to be the careerist single mom with an alimony payment? Nor do I encourage you to join the opt-out generation, because opting in again turns out to be difficult if not impossible in a competitive market.

 

[mentos]

Let me get this straight, you want your loans forgiven but you also want a job, wedding and house in SoCal? Ah, millennials.

Your first priority should be finding a job and paying back those loans. A residency doesn't count as a job, it just delays the inevitable job search. SoCal is expensive and saturated so good luck finding work there. Don't houses cost like a million dollars there? You'd need a 200k down payment to avoid PMI, that's more than your loans. Then more saved up on top of that for everything else. If you can't pay down 150k in 10 years, how will you save up an additional 200k?

 

[Dave1980]

10 year loan forgiveness is only for jobs in not-for-profits entities. Most jobs won't be that.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

Shed the debt, knock out the student loans as fast as possible.

 

[rxkrafted]

$115,000 is very doable.
If I were you...
I would not keep my hopes on loan forgiveness option because you aren't guaranteed a job in that field first of all.
I would wait to aggressively pay off your loans after your PGY2 program ends and you find a job... I would not keep your BF part of your financial plans until you guys are official married. You can easily pay off that amount under 4 years and live comfortably. If you lived like a resident for the next 3 years, you could dump half your monthly income into your loans and be done with it while living frugally. Definitely would not purchase a home until loans are all paid off.

 

[hopeful1994]

$115,000 is very doable.
If I were you...
I would not keep my hopes on loan forgiveness option because you aren't guaranteed a job in that field first of all.
I would wait to aggressively pay off your loans after your PGY2 program ends and you find a job... I would not keep your BF part of your financial plans until you guys are official married. You can easily pay off that amount under 4 years and live comfortably. If you lived like a resident for the next 3 years, you could dump half your monthly income into your loans and be done with it while living frugally. Definitely would not purchase a home until loans are all paid off.

Thank you so much for this response... very helpful and encouraging.

 

[RxRunner]

Follow Your Financial Pharmacist

 

[sozetone]

Hello,
I live in Southern California will be starting my PGY-2 residency soon. I have ~$115,000 in student loans. I've been doing pay-as-you-earn since the start of my PGY-1 residency. I am hoping to do the 10-year public service loan forgiveness plan, but also willing to consider other options if that's too risky... (open to all opinions)
Also, my bf and I are seriously dating and hoping to get married and start a family soon (he makes a little more than a full pharmacist income and he doesn't have any loans, however ideally I would like to pay off all my loans myself...I do not want to rely on him).

Just some questions:
1) If my priority is to get married, buy a house, and start a family, is it better for me to pay off all my loans asap or is it okay to keep paying off loans via pay-as-you-earn and hope that the 10-year loan forgiveness will go through? Are there other things I need to consider?
2) How realistic is it to buy a house with my bf/ future husband considering the above? How does that affect mortgage? With the amount of loan I have, in what ways will my mortgage/ all other finances be affected?
3) I know I should max out my 401k, but are there other things I should do to be proactive? I'm sure I'm missing something...

I am willing to take any and all advice. Thank you so much in advance.

Tough call, my wife wants a kid and so did i ( 10 years ago), today, I see things differently. I don't think she understands that buying a home and settling down are not options if you are a pharmacist today. It's just the harsh straight truth. I have already gone from Florida to Colorado, and Now with the cuts at WM , looking to open a business (working on a retail cannabis store), to get OUT of pharmacy. There is NO job stability anymore.

As far as your money goes, I advise NOT to throw ALL of it at your loans.....instead keep paying the Minimum until we suffer from a student loan crisis. It literally HAS to happen. You cant just keep loaning an average of 200,000K to young kids with no future and expect this to turn out well. Once we are in crisis, and the government has to stop loaning money at this rate, you can consider paying down the loan. A good lawyer will probably get you a lump sum payment and be done with it....but if you throw in all your chips now (and i am right in my prediction) you will have thrown AWAY a lot of money that could be earning interest somewhere and growing.....like for your house for example.

A settle down type future is possible, but not if you are serious about pharmacy, because pharmacy is not serious about YOU.....thats the reality you face...

*Remember , even if you get the 10 year forgiveness, you pay taxes on the remainder! not terrible, but its gonna be a chunk. They look at it as taxable income because technically you recieved income for a good or service as a loan right? so if you owe 70,000 and it's forgiven, that year the IRS will expect income tax rate to be paid on the 70,000. but still, a good deal i suupose......

i wish you luck....stay open to new ideas and develop an exit strategy in case pharmacy fails, (which it already has)...lol