My student loan payment and my rent payment are automatically withdrawn from my bank account exactly one day apart: loan on the last day of the month, rent on the first. I was just looking at the two charges, one on top of the other in my bank statement, and I noticed that with the recent increase in the prime rate, my loan payment is now only $8.61 less than my rent.
For my loan payment and the cost of two Starbucks grande frappucinos (java chip, please), I could pay my rent every month. For ten bloody years.
If I could go back to pre-medical school me, the one who was about to abandon her natural frugality and embark on an eight-year-long spending spree, I would tell myself to smarten up. You aren't a doctor yet. Loans are hard to pay back. Pack a lunch.
I feel the urge to say the same things every time I overhear medical students talking about buying a new car or going on an expensive vacation or paying for two first-class seats on a plane to bring home the wedding dress they bought in another city*.
Smarten up. Loans are hard to pay back.
*True story. One seat for the bride, the other for the dress.
Yeah, people have a YOLO attitude about money at times (myself included). I've come to the point where I regularly set aside the $ first, then happily spend it on the indulgence(s) instead of paying for it later. Nice to come home from a vacation without anticipating/fearing the next credit card bill.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely got a YOLO attitude towards money, but my goal now is to save enough of it so that I can retire early and enjoy that life!
DeleteI lived with some pharmacy students during grad school. One literally would pick up the bar tab for a bunch of friends for fun. I asked him how he afforded it: loans! He took out the maximum possible. And then proceeded to talk about how much he'd buy once he was finally a pharmacist. I pointed out that, at ~$100k a year, he could buckle down and pay off his loans in maybe 5 years if he's diligent.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't seem to worry about the total of loans, and he also had the attitude that he'd always be paying loans. Some people don't understand the jails they've built for themselves.
Two first class seats! For a dress! What the...
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that was added for humour. Then I read the end...
Yeah...I can't even. It still stands out in my mind as the most ridiculous expenditure I've ever heard of. (Minus the exploits of ridiculously rich people like Johnny Depp.) I'm all for splurging to celebrate big events, but I suspect the dress could have survived being put into the very cushy first class closets.
Delete