If you had student loans, how long did it take to pay them off?

[Anonymous]

I graduated with $18k in loans and paid them off for my 30th BD. I graduated in 2001 and was able to consolidate at some obscenely low interest rate. So low, it was a waste of money to pay early, but it felt good to be done and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening thread. Parents need to do their best to save for their kids college and maximize their education dollars by using all available options - including state schools.

Why? A loan won't kill you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:250k in loans after medical school. I am 10 ys out and have 180k to go. Depressing.

Holy shit. Do you mean you're 10 yrs post med school or 10 yrs post residency? What specialty/area of practice? Do most drs. defer loan payments for the 4+ years of residency?

10ys post med school. Deferred loans for 3 ys of residency (most people have to unless married with another income or can live with parents/family for free), so I have been paying toward them for 7 ys. I am primary care physician so at low end of pay scale for MD. Luckily most of what is left is very low interest 2.25%. Because of that, I have been maxing 401k rather than throwing that money to the loans since I am way behind in retirement savings after all the years of school and residency.

Ugh this is so depressing to me. I'm an MS3 and I am going into peds. Its so nervewracking to think about the future.

Primary care does not pay well. One need not select a specialty one would hate but there are specialties involving kids that pay fairly well.

Was going to say the same. Do you necessarily HAVE TO be a pediatrician? And even if you must do peds, why not do a subspecialty -- pretty sure the neonatal and the pediatric cardiologists are making a LOT more. Sure they are in training for longer post residency but the given the lifetime earnings, the numbers more than work out in their favor.

I want to be a pediatrician but I am definitely considering doing a subspecialty. I like endocrine and critical care and would consider either of those but I think pediatric endocrine is actually a pay cut compared to a general pediatrician!

My parents paid for undergrad and they pay for my rent, groceries, and gas but the rest I pay for. I attend a state school for med school and will probably come out with like 175k in debt. Its pretty crazy!

My dad is thinking about medical school. She want to go instate if she can get in. These loans are so scary. I will help her as much as possible like your parents. I wish you all the best in your endeavors and hope you will be able to pay off your loan soon!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening thread. Parents need to do their best to save for their kids college and maximize their education dollars by using all available options - including state schools.

Why? A loan won't kill you.

It won’t kill you, but it is better not to be so much in debt if there is a way to avoid it. State schools are wonderful options.

[Anonymous]

I had about 20k in loans after undergrad and added 100k more after law school. I graduated law school in 2007. I made my last loan payment in January so it took about 11 years. I always paid extra towards my loans, and after I got married we essentially began paying double payments.

[Anonymous]

$30K - I actually took out $60K but got half of that shaved off thanks to a loan forgiveness program (I'm a speech therapist). I had it paid off at age 31 (but I graduated from the program when I was 27 so 4 years total.)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:250k in loans after medical school. I am 10 ys out and have 180k to go. Depressing.

Wow! My son had almost $200K in student loans when he finished his residency about 18 months ago. He has paid off all but $20K which he expect to pay off by June. He is single and lives well but keeps his spending down because he wanted to pay it off within two years of completing residency.

I don't know how this is possible. You would have to have a ridiculously high net pay in order to pay $180K in 18 months.

He earns approximately $450K gross annually ......

Right. So he's a specialist. Bit different for those guys bc they know when they finish residency they'll make 300k+ or 400k+. Not sure why you're feeling so cocky about this comparing him to a PCP who likely makes less than 1/2 what he makes. Are you also shocked when Wharton MBAs who go into the hedge fund world pay off loans in 1 year while their non profit counterparts who don't have loan forgiveness can easily take 20 years?

Don't mean to come across as cocky but when one has substantial loans after any course of study - whether med school, business school or any other field - one does need to consider earning potential to meet loan obligations and not have to struggle for years thereafter.

It is a point that I have made to all my children and anyone who asks for advice. Pursuing one's passion is all very well but in the end one has to consider earnings potential as well if one is taking on a lot of debt.

FWIW -- I agree with you. Lawyer here who can't fathom why my (not rich; not married to money; not having trust fund) friends are slogging away at non profits for under 6 figures when they could earn 2-3x that in private practice. And in their cases, it's BS non profits that generally give you the feelings of "doing good" but how much are you really accomplishing?? Bit different for MDs -- we NEED people to want to do primary care bc I for one don't want to be seeing NPs and PAs for everything. If these folks are willing to take one for the team financially to provide care we ALL need -- I wouldn't lecture them on that. But like you -- I personally considered by debt/standard of living etc. when deciding how to move forward educationally and professionally. I'm the one who graduated with 75k in debt and paid it off in 13 years -- super slow bc market returns >> 2.8% interest rates and I wanted the net worth/investments built up fast.

It's too bad that you can't understand people who have other priorities besides making the most money they can, but it's pretty unattractive to judge your friends because they do...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening thread. Parents need to do their best to save for their kids college and maximize their education dollars by using all available options - including state schools.

Why? A loan won't kill you.

I graduated with 5k in debt and bought my first home in NArl in 2001 at age 24. I now am 41 and have upgraded my home 3xs, and live in a home nearly paid off with a $2400/mo mortgage and am sitting on over 1M in equity, plus a 401k I have been maxing out since age 23. My home will be paid off before my kids step a toe in college. While you all were paying off your loans, I was already preparing for retirement in my early/mid 20s.

Not having debt puts you at a huge economic advantage. Who wouldn't want that for their kid? My kids are now at an advantage over others. I can afford a full ride for them to public or private and will leave them an inheritance and be able to help them financially.

[Anonymous]

My parents had no college savings account for any of us. I had saved a couple thousand working summer jobs and got decent financial aid/scholarships but had about ~$20k in federal loans and my parents took out another ~$15k in private loans. They made the minimum payment on those for a while but we’re never going to be able to pay them fully back so once out of grad school (which I had an assustantship for so no new loans) I started sending them money for that one too.

I did a year with Americorps and put the educational award towards my loans but didn’t really start making a dent until I was done with grad school at 26. Finished paying them off right before we bought our house when I was 34. Thankfully DH had no loans and had been saving for a house down payment.

Needless to say we started a 529 as soon as DS was born.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening thread. Parents need to do their best to save for their kids college and maximize their education dollars by using all available options - including state schools.

Why? A loan won't kill you.

It won’t kill you, but it is better not to be so much in debt if there is a way to avoid it. State schools are wonderful options.

They are, but I wouldn’t discount private universities entirely. Oftentimes they give you more aid, bringing the cost close to that of a state school. Unless you’re living at home and commuting, state schools are not the cheap bargain they used to be.

[Anonymous]

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FWIW -- I agree with you. Lawyer here who can't fathom why my (not rich; not married to money; not having trust fund) friends are slogging away at non profits for under 6 figures when they could earn 2-3x that in private practice. And in their cases, it's BS non profits that generally give you the feelings of "doing good" but how much are you really accomplishing?? Bit different for MDs -- we NEED people to want to do primary care bc I for one don't want to be seeing NPs and PAs for everything. If these folks are willing to take one for the team financially to provide care we ALL need -- I wouldn't lecture them on that. But like you -- I personally considered by debt/standard of living etc. when deciding how to move forward educationally and professionally. I'm the one who graduated with 75k in debt and paid it off in 13 years -- super slow bc market returns >> 2.8% interest rates and I wanted the net worth/investments built up fast.

It's too bad that you can't understand people who have other priorities besides making the most money they can, but it's pretty unattractive to judge your friends because they do...

Not the pp you addressed but I have no issue with anyone choosing to pursue a profession or calling that may not pay well. Like you said there is more to life than making money. But I think for someone who does choose such a profession to then complain about how it is taking years to pay off loans and how the amount of those loans is affecting their overall lifestyle does not lend itself to inviting sympathy or understanding. If anyone is going to take on a whole lot of debt, it makes sense to also give some thought to how the debt will be repaid - this applies whether it is education loans or any other type of debt.

[Anonymous]

Graduated in 2011, paid them off in 2015 (after having a child in 2012). We were still renting at the time and my credit took a big hit (still pisses me off lol).

[Anonymous]

DH put himself through college and grad school. He paid off his loans last year, when he was around 42.
We paid for me to go to law school. I graduated 7 years ago, at 29. We are still paying my law school loans.
DH is our financial planner - I think he was generally okay with having these loans at a decent interest rate, so we are paying them off but not necessarily concerned about having them or trying to pay them off sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:This is an eye-opening thread. Parents need to do their best to save for their kids college and maximize their education dollars by using all available options - including state schools.

Why? A loan won't kill you.

It won’t kill you, but it is better not to be so much in debt if there is a way to avoid it. State schools are wonderful options.

They are, but I wouldn’t discount private universities entirely. Oftentimes they give you more aid, bringing the cost close to that of a state school. Unless you’re living at home and commuting, state schools are not the cheap bargain they used to be.

This. And there are differences in the privates for how much aid they have. I got into both Princeton and Wellesley (did not attend either) and Princeton was cheaper. My parents are actual working class though. If I were applying now, all the top schools would be free for me.

[Anonymous]

I am 46 and still paying. I am in no rush. Will take it to the grave. It hasn’t hurt my credit at all. I have a super low interest rate so I don’t care.