2 answers
3
Questions
Asked
707 views
Do pharmacist go into debt? If so how much on average?
I want to know if this career will involve me trying to pay back lots of debt. I want to pay as minimal as possible #financial-planning #debt
Login to comment
2 answers
Updated
Luke’s Answer
1. Try to avoid going into debt. Best way to do that is to try and find a future employer that will pay for all or part of your degree if you agree to work for them once graduated. I believe there is enough of a labor shortage in this field there should be employers out there offering this sort of deal. Hunt it down, it's $100k+ of value!
2. Worse case scenario, if you end up going into debt it's all about the "shovel to hole ratio" when you're out. You may have 6 figure debt but you oughta also have a 6-figure salary (I'd assume and hope). In most places, as a single recent college graduate w/o dependents you should be able to live on about $35k pretty easily, maybe $40k with inflation over the last and next few years. If you make $120k, you can put $80k to debt per year and be out of debt very quickly, quicker than most, despite the big "hole" of a 6-figure debt number. A lot of doctors end up broke because they live like doctors straight out of school and live beyond their means with lots of debt, lots of interest and not enough investing.
If you want to do some philanthropic job once you graduate that yields a far lower salary, you should wait on that, make the good money in the private sector until you've, not just paid of the debt, but secured you're financial situation. It's a classic, time-tested principal to secure yourself before you secure others. That allows you to help the most and reduce the risk of you needing to be the one that's helped.
And never use any of these income based repayment plans or anything else. Don't let that enable you, everyone I know who complains about debt is doing something like that and spending a lot of money they could be putting toward the debt.
2. Worse case scenario, if you end up going into debt it's all about the "shovel to hole ratio" when you're out. You may have 6 figure debt but you oughta also have a 6-figure salary (I'd assume and hope). In most places, as a single recent college graduate w/o dependents you should be able to live on about $35k pretty easily, maybe $40k with inflation over the last and next few years. If you make $120k, you can put $80k to debt per year and be out of debt very quickly, quicker than most, despite the big "hole" of a 6-figure debt number. A lot of doctors end up broke because they live like doctors straight out of school and live beyond their means with lots of debt, lots of interest and not enough investing.
If you want to do some philanthropic job once you graduate that yields a far lower salary, you should wait on that, make the good money in the private sector until you've, not just paid of the debt, but secured you're financial situation. It's a classic, time-tested principal to secure yourself before you secure others. That allows you to help the most and reduce the risk of you needing to be the one that's helped.
And never use any of these income based repayment plans or anything else. Don't let that enable you, everyone I know who complains about debt is doing something like that and spending a lot of money they could be putting toward the debt.
Updated
Amanda’s Answer
Hi Brayan, I agree with what Luke mentioned. The only thing I would add is, try to look for grants or scholarships that will help reduce the cost of education. A simple Google search will be beneficial and will provide several opportunities that you can apply to. Typically, degrees like doctor, dentist, optometrist, pharmacist and the like require advanced education, meaning more tuition. The more financial help you can get, the better.