Residency/parenting question

[JaneDoe]

Thanks so much for your responses! I really appreciate your candid posts, especially pertaining to issues that are rather private. Along the same lines as DeeRunner, I will share that my husband and I plan to start "trying" in July. Right now, we're just talking ALOT about it; i.e., what it will be like, how are lives will change, working, parenting, etc. So, that's good I guess.

Also, I often wonder what it will be like for me when I stop taking the pill and how long it will take. Part of me doesn't want "it" to happen right of way, but a part of me really fears that it may take too long. Who knows.

Good luck DeeRunner, I sure hope things go well for you. If you don't mind, I will keep you posted if anything should change for me too. (Don't hold your breath though, it may be a long time for us!)

maybe but maybe not!

Maybe it wont' be as long as you think! I hope we can keep in touch. I put an alert on this post-topic just in case it ever gets a response. It automatically notifies my email address.

I don't think its going to happen this month I feel rather PMS-ee. If ya know what I mean? Okay, sorry, that was too much information, huh!

[Michele]

Money question

For those that had children during med school...were you on loans? The financial aid office and loans give us around 12K a year each. If we shoot for giving birth after I graduate we will be living on his 12000 a year. And nothing else. Is that possible? I'll have ot start paying my loans back then since I'll have graduated. Do you qualify for more aid when you're a father? Florida has low cost childcare for children (http://www.floridakidcare.org/) and our families would be the closest then. But that's not very much money...especially since we are used to living on twice that. I guess residency would give him 35K (he says) but then both of our loans will be due huh?

Money issues aside, I think my biggest fear right now is not knowing what I am supposed to do after I graduate. If I have children I have a purpose and a plan. Otherwise, I don't really want to be a vet right now. Maybe my mind will change in the next two years, but these past two years have been changing it away. So I keep wanting to do a residency. Thinking that at least I'll be doing something. Gainesville is such a hard town....work for general vets is practically non existant unless you want to make 30K...which is ridiculous when I'll be in debt 85K. If I do a residency, I'll only be making 20K but after passing boards my potential will jump to 100-200K. Having children during residency is really difficult. It has been "not recommended" to me. Waiting seems so long though. The other thing is how do I know where Russ is going to match? What if he plans to stay here and really only applies to places 2 hours away tops and doesn't match? He talked to some people about match and my status as a vet student...and they said "it'd be better if she was a med student." They also told him that unless someone from my residency department could put pressure on the UF med match people, there wasn't much hope for special consideration. We're planning on buying a house this year. I don't want to have to sell it and move...and I don't want to be here with a house and a residency and no husband. If I don't do a residency I could just follow him.

I guess there are a lot of things for us to figure out in the next two years. Being a year ahead of him in an equally challenging field is really hard.

Thank you for letting me use you all a sounding board.

[SueC]

I know nothing of having kids during med school, but I know in our case my husband's student loans are deferred until he finishes fellowship. So I guess if you are thinking of waiting till your husband is a resident, you shouldn't have to worry about his loans at that point at least. Actually, I've put my school loans on forbearance a time or two since I finished college also. It only lasts 6 months or so, but if things get tight, it is helpful to put that on hold for awhile until we get back on our feet.

We found out that we could only defer my husband's med school loans for two years of residency before we had to start paying them back. And on top of that there are certain other loans that we will start having to pay in June, I think. Sue, how did you defer through fellowship? Maybe we can defer again when my husband starts his ID fellowship in July? That would be so great! Also, question about forbearance...do you know if that would effect getting a mortgage for a house?

[SueC]

I'll have to ask my husband about deferring his loans during fellowship. And actually, I don't have any idea if putting your loans into forbearance would affect a mortgage--I would think as long as your credit report doesn't show late payments, it wouldn't matter but like I said I don't know. I guess you could call Sallie Mae (or whoever your student loan is through) and ask them, or ask a mortgage person.

I found out that after the two year maximum deferment you can apply for a residency forbearance, which (I think) is different from a regular forbearance. I will find out about if it affects applying for a mortgage. Thanks for all the tips!

We put our loans into deferment and then forebearance. Our loans will come due right at the end of residency.

We also got a mortgage and it didn't affect it. We did have to have a written statement from the loan holder stating that we were in deferment until such and such a date and then the loan would go into forebearance. There was some paperwork involved but it wasn't a problem for us. Sorry for the scant details. My husband took care of most of this.

Robin

[Amiens]

We have Matt's loans in an economic hardship deferment, and this is the second year. I believe we can do it one more year, depending on what Matt's salary is next year. If not then we will take the other option allowed by the government- I believe it is a special forebearance for residents and interns. There is some law that states you do not have to pay back on medical school student loans while you are in residency. I will have to ask Matt about it.

We were lucky that Matt doesn't have any undergrad loans. Now as for me we do, and each year I have had to apply for an economic hardship deferment. I can do it two more times, in which I will be at my limit when Matt finishes- it works out well anyway, as we want to pay it all off once he is finished in 2 yrs and 2 mos.

Crystal

[Michele]

*bump for Nicole*

[JaneDoe]

The 'bump' on this thread was good timing for my husband and I. Last night, we were just hashing out whether he qualifies for another year of economic hardship deferment- and he doesn't. He doesn't have "enough" loans to qualify for the deferment, yet he has "enough" loans to sink us. Okay, that's a little exaggeration. But, it just feels like that right now with repayment on the horizen and a new baby on the way.

I also have student loans, a hefty amount too. Fortunuately, neither my husband nor myself have undergraduate loans. I'm currently paying my loans off at the 10 year rate (only 7 years to go). However, once my husband goes into repayment, I will have to switch to the 30 year payment plan until he finishes residency.

We've thought about getting a residency-forbearance, but with that option the interest accrues on all of this loans. Ouch . . . another 2 to 3 years of interest will really hurt (and that's not counting on him possibly doing a fellowship, which I so hope he doesn't - but, that's another story) . So, we're going to suck it up and start making payments at the 30 year rate. Fortunately, he was able to lock in an excellent interest rate - 3.5%.

Student loans stink (at least while you're repaying them)!

[migirl]

Student loans stink (at least while you're repaying them)!

Yes they do! We were in the exact same position as you are, my husband's med school loans were not "enough" to put us into deferment due to economic hardship, but they are enough that they make me grouchy every month when I write the repayment check to the bank. Fortunately, neither of us has any loans from undergrad and I don't owe anything for my graduate school... I can't imagine what we would do if we owed more than we do now!

We went the forbearance route. I think we were just shy of the economic hardship requirements -- it seems kind of crazy that had we taken out more loans (that we didn't have to have), we would have easily qualified. So, yes, ours are accruing interest and now will accrue interest for 3 more years!
Eric is looking into consolidating his loans at a lower rate. We would still forebear, but at least they would be accruing at a lower rate. I think that you have to consolidate at the 30 yr schedule so techinically it ends up being more interest over the long haul. We think we can pay them off in 10 years once he's finished so it should work out to be a better deal.

Thank God for the loans otherwise he wouldn't have gone to med school. But I think my stomach does a backflip every quarter when we get a statemetn in the mail!