Earn more money. Can you do overtime? If not, how good are your pharmaceutical skills? Can you become a clinical pharmacist? They're in demand and potentially earn much more than dispensing or even compounding pharmacists.

Also, what's the situation with the fiance? Can she help, since you're going to be married? Or you taking on a whole new debt load once you're declared man and wife?

Clinical pharmacists, both from what's posted and from what I know from friends who do it, tend to not make as much as retail pharmacists (who are paid as well as they are because they put up with a lot of abuse). I make about $1 less per hour than a retail pharmacist but a raise is in the near future. I'm looking at other things as well, but for now this is my only income. My wife and I are sorting through our finances right now to see if she can contribute a little more to our joint savings. The real issue is how to prioritize and tackle all the goals with such debt.

- If I save for a house now will I have time to save for retirement, will I get killed with interested on the loans?

Ugh

Just out of curiosity, was your brief retail stint with WAG? That's what they did with my class (a couple years ago): promised us full time when we agreed to employment, then only guaranteed 48 hours per pay period when we first got licensed. Fortunately, I had a flexible schedule and ended up getting close to 80 hours every pay period by picking up last minute shifts, then I moved to nights.

Are you willing to work nights? A lot of places schedule 7 on, 7 off, or 8 on and 6 off. Either way, you could get another job (I know the market is pretty saturated right now) or pick up OT in your off week. I've been able to pick up shifts practically q week I'm off. (A little pharm humor there )

Personally, I max out Roth IRA and 401k, but I only have about $35K in loans remaining, and a car loan of $13,700 @ 1.79%. Good luck, you're much younger than I was when I graduated. You can probably knock out the loans in 6-7 years if you throw everything you can at them!

That's interesting; the situation for that seems to be the opposite where I live, which is in Southern California. Perhaps what I'm seeing is a local phenomena. I'm only quoting my wife who is in healthcare, and she is saying that being a clinical pharmacist is where the action will be going forward.

So how about adding a part-time job? It doesn't have to be forever; just long enough to take the edge off your loans or build up some cash for a down payment for a house.


Possibly. Sorry about being so vague; it's hard to tell the future and there are lots of variables. If it were me, I'd be working everything at the same time but giving great emphasis to debt and retirement, with the house taking last place. Your debt is high, but it's certainly not insurmountable, especially given your new income. If you can make a sizable dent in your debt, the inevitable interest rate increase won't sting so much. And you need to take advantage of your youth and let compounding work for you, so you need to start on the retirement funding. The housing issue is a question mark; since you're so young, are you sure you'll be staying in that area for a long time to come?

$400 per month for a dog-walker? That is some low-hanging fruit, my friend.

To answer some questions, yes my stint WAS with Walgreens, they seem to do that. I did do the overnight shift for a bit, but I felt WWEEEIIRRRD doing those hours, plus I wasn't in a good location to pick up extra shifts (the only open shift were about 2 hours away from me). My hours right now are M-F 10am-6pm. I usually stay until about 630pm doing paperwork so I do get some overtime. I'm looking at some other ways to bring in income but I guess my objective in this forum was to look for the best advice in tackling costs and saving.
Example: Put $400/month into savings, $200/month into 401k, as much as possible into student loans.

Also, the high end of a clinical pharmacist makes 111k, I make 115k, so I guess it's comparable. It should be a bit more once I get my matching in a few months

The dog walking one has me stumped, there's got to be a good explanation for that expenditure.

Next one is to work out an actual budget. You're stating expenditure but not indicating the frequency, i.e. Rent: 1k, is it weekly, bi weekly, monthly or annual? Guess is monthly, but guessing sucks when an answer can be easily supplied. Near as I can see you've got ~4,250 a month spare, but that's not accurate as the information supplied isn't accurate.

Does your work offer matched IRA? Even if you maxed out your IRA and did a Roth IRA you'd still have plenty of spare cash per month dedicated to paying of the SL and be able to put some cash away for a house deposit as well.

I'd love to provide you with something like this:



But I need more info to help. Break down each SL into amount owed and % on it. You can then target it either by snowball method or highest interest rate first.

Hi guys,
I see we are getting more pharmacists here We are plugging away on my husband's pharm school loans. Yesterday we had a conversation about buying a bigger house and ultimately decided that we will have to wait until we have a downpayment situated to avoid pmi. Until then, our 950 sq f condo will have to do Plus we have the albatross of teh student loan on our necks. Everything else is paid off! yey! Paid off the car last month, so now we just have the student loan and the mortgage.

There was an opening with the IHS (Indian health Services) here, but I was surprised to learn they only pay like 67K/year. So, for now, we are sticking with Wally World

Hey Geof. Both my wife and I work 9-5, so a walker has to come during the day, typical rate for a dog walker is $15-20/day, we do five days a week, hence $100/week. Rent is 1k monthly. Minimums on all the loans comes out to around $1100 total a month. I've decided to take the snowball approach to the debt, but while throwing everything I can at the smallest debts first, what is an optimal $$ amount to put into an account for retirement? If I did $400/month, would that be good?

I find myself digging up compounding calculators, but that means for retirement I would have to have my money in an investment portfolio with conservative, consistent growth, so when I calculate:
Principal: $10k
Annual addition: $4800 ($200 per paycheck, $400 total per month)
Years: 38 (Assuming I retire at 65ish)
Interest rate: 2% (really have no clue on this one)

This would be while throwing the rest at my debt so I can start saving for a house after paying it off. I have no problem with living on a little if I know that the amount I'm putting towards retirement is adequate; knowing this would alleviate a great amount of stress. Thanks in advance

Is your wife's income low enough that you qualify for a Roth IRA? If so, I'd start putting $400 per month in a Roth. If not, you may want to do a traditional IRA-->backdoor Roth. That amount will pretty much max you out for the year. When eligible for 401k employer match, contribute enough to get the match. As for your $10k savings, you may want to keep about half of that (or all) around for an emergency fund. It it's "extra" right now, throw it at your loans, maybe pay off a small one if you can. After that, if you can pay $1000 extra per pay period, you'll start seeing the progress in no time!

Personally, I've been paying my loans highest interest first, but I don't have private loans. If the terms aren't too onerous, I'd start by paying the minimum on those, with a plan to start paying more if interest rates go up. 3.8% is a lot lower than 6.8%, but federal loans have more consumer protections, from what I've read around the web.

As far as the house down payment saving goes, I'd wait until you've paid at least half of your student loans, and then reassess the situation.

What sort of portfolio are you looking at for retirement savings? I know the stock market is volatile, but you're young and have time to ride out the swings. A target retirement fund (Retirement 2050 or 2055) with Vanguard (low expense ratio) is a good place to start if you want to keep it simple for now. Whatever you do, remember that index funds outperform the majority of actively managed funds.

Whew, that was long! Hope it helps, and good luck on hitting those loans with all you've got! Keep your expenses low and you can make a major dent quickly.

Why? At your age you should be taking on a considerable amount of risk and volatility to maximize your growth potential.

CCC has you covered with some decent advice.

I'd only question the need/want in regards to a dog that you need to pay $400 a month (which could be spent on your debts) to someone to walk for you. What's wrong with you/your dog/where you live that you can't take it for a walk before or after work?

I paid it off!

I was finally to the point that my savings account balance was higher than my student loan balance. I couldn't resist. I am now 100% debt-free! It feels fantastic
Now the question is, will I continue to sock away the same funds at the same rate for savings?
I've already adjusted my automatic withdrawals for my HSA and my Roth to max out this year and I've set up a bi-monthly automatic withdrawal back into my savings account. My rate of savings is around 40% of my income including my 401k from work. In my initial plan and calculations I would have paid off the loan around October of this year. So my new goal is to see if I can be comfortable with this savings rate until then and perhaps bump it up a few points if so.

Keep on keeping on fellow student loan re-payers!

Congrats, annadragon! I'm **almost** there too... I'm sure you feel like a million bucks.

Annadragon-- congratulations!! That is awesome! Ahead of schedule, even! It must feel great to be debt free. You are a star. Flinch is next and then me, I think!
Things I'd like to do once debt free: get a tattoo as a reward, plus start paying myself each month instead of Sallie Mae (investing for long term)!

$400/month for dog walking -- I guess that depending on how intense one is willing to get with their get-out-of-debt plan, relates to how quickly they'll be out of debt. If you hate debt, get creative and pull out all the stops.

Pharmacists-- holy pharmacists, batman! We seem to get new ones each week! Very cool. Welcome, guys! High debt levels but also high incomes to work with.

Retirement saving while killing debt-- there's a lot of discussion on this; personally I'm not a fan. I'm 31 and not setting aside for retirement right now. In my view, I believe I'll be able to save faster for retirement in a year or so once the student loan is paid off. I wish I'd been able to start sooner, trust me. Part of me wants to start now, but I know that if I do, that means my financial focus will be split and I will be in debt longer. Those of you saving whilst paying student loans-- are you willing to set back your freedom? Are you positive that you won't catch up on your retirement savings that much faster once your whole income is available for it?

Interested to see what y'all have to say! Hope you are having a sweet weekend. Keep up the momentum!

Best,