Loans

Medical students are terrified of many things. Looking ahead, I'm anxious and nervous about the prospect of internship, being responsible for patients, teaching medical students, long hours, and unanticipated challenges. But even outside the hospital, we face terrifying pressures. Nearly all of us have loans from the last eight years of school, and now they're starting to come into play. Even worse, most of us have no financial sense at all (which is why we went to medical school) and know nothing about managing personal finances.

UCSF graduates have an average of $98,388 in Stafford subsidized loans at 6.8% and some Grad plus loans at 8.5%. To help us navigate the complexity of money, we had a speaker come educate us about personal finances. The problem is that students think differently than "adults." We loathe spending money we find unnecessary; we go to noon conferences for the free food, we identify free museum days. These things of course, are great habits, but as we get older, certain things change. Students are reluctant to get insurance because we think we're invincible and that risk management is an unnecessary expense. But we have to realize that our education, the last eight years, is a huge investment on our part and that we should protect it. Luckily, many residency programs provide medical, dental, disability, and life insurance. But in thinking on this topic, it's an interesting attitude I've noted among young people, especially those without dependents.

Finally, we're starting to make money next year. In the past eight years, prudent loan management dictates that we borrow only what we need. Now with a salary, we will have discretionary income. Do we save the money? Do we invest? Do we go somewhere extravagant on the two weeks of vacation we have? Do we buy a house? Do we pay down our loans? The speaker even delved into Roth IRAs, Deductible 403(b)s, stocks, and bonds. Or should we invest in real estate, private equity, commodities, or hedge funds? All these questions open up a Pandora's box of possibility for graduating medical students. I don't know! I've never learned any of this stuff before.