Loan Repayment

[Guest]

Hi all, our school is going on about telling people to consider various repayment plans (PAYE vs REPAYE vs ICR). Any residents have insights on this given the longer residency and higher post-residency compensation?

[Guest]

Tips:

PSLF is your friend. 3 extra years of not-for-profit work after residency is doable (fellowship counts, academic jobs almost all count, VA counts, etc.) otherwise you are planning on getting a lucrative private job and you can just pay your loans down quickly by continuing to live modestly for a couple years.

REPAYE is generally the cheapest monthly payment, and paying as little as possible during residency is fine if you are going for PSLF.

Consolidate your loans in May/June of MS4 year. You will be able to declare $0.00 income (assuming you didn't have a job during medical school) and enter repayment, but income-based payment schemes will charge you nothing even though you are technically "paying." They won't revise your payment until you file your next tax return, and that will only be based on 6 months of salary. This helps you save a couple grand up front to get settled in residency.

All your best laid plans can be utterly exploded by the whims of Congress. But it'll okay, there are no homeless neurosurgeons.

[Guest]

that's right because all neurosurgeons have high fucking step scores