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Natalie went through 7 years residency and fellowship and during this time, she amassed $50,000 in credit card debt and $550,000 in federal student loans.
After training, she found a job she loved. The culture felt right, the work would be fulfilling, but it was private practice - not a nonprofit organization. Because of this, if she pursued the private practice role, she would no longer be eligible for PSLF despite being two years away from reaching the 10 year benchmark.
As part of the job search, home affordability came into the equation. While her and her partner were not currently married, they planned to do so in the future so she needed to consider a few different factors.
She also wanted to get a better understanding where her money was going every month and how to get started with investing for retirement.
Lastly, as part of my role as a financial planner, I conduct deep research and in this situation, it turned out that they had two years worth of full time work at a nonprofit in between undergrad and medical school. With the recent PSLF waiver rules (which were temporary) we were able to get the work included.
Just recently, they found out that all $550,000 worth of their federal student loans were forgiven.
Pam & Phil are married and while they both have student loans, only one of them is going for PSLF. Phil is currently in training and Pam has already completed her training. Right now, they live close to work and their kid's school and while they enjoy the area, the results of Phil's job search could put them in a position to move across the country.
They have some savings built up (~$75,000) because they've worked hard and been very intentional with their spending. With Pam's higher income, they're able to save some money each month and after Phil graduates, they needed a plan for what they should be doing with extra dollars and how to manage cash priorities.
In addition to answering their most pressing questions, we created a plan to that included: