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So I think I'm loving up with my money. I graduated from college with a BS in medical laboratory science in August 2009 and moved back to my hometown of Austin, TX where I pretty much took the first job that was offered to me. When I moved here I had about 4,000 to tide me over until I found a job, 6 weeks later I started my job and had about 2,000 at the end of 8 weeks (paychecks are every 2 weeks). It wasn't long after that that I decided I am incredibly bored with what I do. I also don't get paid a whole lot. I make 18.50 an hour plus 1.40 an hour evening shift differential and an extra 2 bucks an hour every other weekend. I have basic health insurance, I'm pretty sure it sucks but whatever. I also have a gym membership and a 401k. Those 3 things are deducted from my paycheck. So my income is roughly $2,500 a month. I guess to be closer it'd be like 2,550 but it doesn't really matter. My budget is roughly : Rent/utilities - 400 Car insurance - 80 Car loan - 300 Student loan 1 - 234.40 Student loan 2 - 59.60 Student loan 3 - 56.00 Netflix - 15 XBL - 9 Phone - 55 Credit card - 200 Savings - 200 So every month I spend at least 1600 a month, leaving me with around 900 a month for food and gas and entertainment and whatnot. I put 100 a paycheck into a basic savings account, I'm up to 1100 now. The problem is even with this, the amount I spend on other poo poo just makes it so I don't save much other than the 200. My account has grown from the 2,000 in October to now about 20 bucks over 4,000 today. I keep overpaying my car loan or my student loan or my credit card in the hopes that this poo poo will just go away because I paid an extra hundred this one time. Obviously that will not make my 25k in student loans or 13k car loan or 2k credit card go away. But that is not where it stops. I want out of my job. I feel like being here is a punishment designed to crush any hopes and dreams I may have one day had and have presently forgotten just because this sucks so much. I don't want to touch pee and poop and blood all day for the rest of my life. So I found a masters program that will let me stay in Austin, keep my job at full time, and get into a more theoretical aspect of healthcare which doesn't involve touching people or their excretions. I'm planning to enroll for fall 2011 at the University of Texas School of Public Health for a masters in public health at the Austin regional campus. 3 classes every semester, 3 semesters a year means I should graduate in 2 years. The cost is approximately 2,000 a semester. So I'd need 6 grand a year, and I already know I'm going to start out at only 2 classes and see how it goes from there before going up to 3. So it may take an extra semester. How do I come up with this money without taking more student loans while also paying my debts down and not living in ramen? I know I should probably have a roth IRA or whatever the gently caress, but I need the money in a year, not when I'm 65. I just want to sit in a nice office and do math goddamnit. Maybe wear a nice shirt or something. You know, classy like. There was a period where I was drinking a lot. Like 300 dollars a month in bar tabs, but its sort of petered out from every night crunk 2010 to once or twice a week if even. The overspending of the last 2 months was the result of getting my new phone and then buying a 500 dollar DSLR camera. I don't normally make big electronics purchases.
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May 5, 2010 23:11
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Actually without a credit card payment, and not having to pay the student loans once I start I'm not really put out very much. An extra 600 a month, x 12 months is 7200 a year. Which is more than its going to cost per year. gently caress yeah. I'm just going to pay that credit card off then. I'll miss you ball of safety I call my checking account.
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May 6, 2010 03:23
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So I've put some thought into stuff and decided I don't want to do the masters I previously mentioned. Instead I'm going to go back to school completely and get a doctorate of pharmacy which at least in my area pays about 100k+ per year. After talking to this girl I work with who is going to medical school who seems kind of obsessed with money she makes it seem reasonable to just do this all on student loans/financial aid. So I'll lay it out again for goon input. I think it will cost me roughly 30k per year in tuition and living expenses to do this degree, taking 4 years. 3 if I go to a certain school but I don't think I'm into that option. It will cost roughly an extra 15k plus moving expenses if I have to go out of state as I'd have to pay non-resident for the first year. I'm looking to go to UT Austin, which is about 15k a year in tuition, so about 15k to live on. 30k at 4 years is 120k just for my pharm.d. In addition to my current debt of about 26k in student loans 13k car and 1.7k credit card (I didn't pay it off because I was re-evaluating what I wanted to do). So thats the back story. It will take another whole year before I can start regardless of where I'm accepted which means I can work for another year and take the 3 or 4 classes I need to meet the pre-pharmacy requirements (not to get accepted but to complete the degree) as I already have a BS. I figure I can take them at the community college. Is that enough to get the bank to deferr my student loans? I'd like to funnel the money from that into my credit card and car payment so that I can get them taken out early on into my pharm.d years. In addition I think I'd like to save a safety net of about 7-10k. I have 1300 in savings now. Which is not very close to 10k. I could say I have 5k in my checking account but thats the account I pay bills with so its not entirely accurate to say that. But 4k of it is essentially savings. So thats 5300 starting from right now. Also I know theres a financial aid thread but I need to go out and run some errands and I wanted to get some input over that the time I'm out, so just incase anyone does know, will financial aid for me include grants as they did for my first degree? the pharm.d programs while you are awarded a doctorate are sort of undergrad/professional. I have to apply as an undergrad transfer. Considering I'd be quitting my job to do this, and I'd be 26 when I started, my EFC would be 0 after my first year so would all the grants I used to get come back? What are you folks thoughts on this?
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May 23, 2010 17:45
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slap me silly posted:That's $160000 in mostly non-dischargeable debt, and nobody's going to guarantee you a six-figure job when you finish. How much do you love pharmacy? Why are you done with the MPH idea already? You seem kind of all over the place. Its kind of hard to explain. The gist of it is I want the higher pay, and I know I can do the job well and get through the program with not a lot of effort. The MPH wasn't going to get me what I wanted. The slightly longer version is I want to do overseas volunteer work and I wouldn't get there with the MPH in the capacity that I'm looking for.
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May 26, 2010 07:13
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I have a question about loan interest. I've noticed that if I pay more than the minimum amount on my car loan, the remaining balance does not reflect the additional amount I've paid. All that happens is when I get the next months bill, the additional payment is subtracted from that one. This makes it seem like regardless of whether or not I were to pay the balance early I'm paying the full amount of interest in advance. When I pay my credit card whatever amount I pay is what is knocked off the balance owed. So if I owe 900, pay 100, it goes down to 800. Why is my car loan different? If I pay 273, why isn't the balance going down by 273? Edit: I actually just logged into my loan providers website to check my payment history, it seems like whats put toward the balance and whats towards interest is completely arbitrary. For example, 10/3/2010 -$177.35 -$96.35 9/11/2010 -$123.30 -$150.40 Both payments were the same amount, left number is balance, right is interest. Merou fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Oct 30, 2010 |
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Oct 30, 2010 02:04
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