I want to share with you one of the most important chapters of my book, Residency Drop Out (coming out March 30th, 2021).
The reason it’s one of the most important chapters is because it’s about “the money thing”. Money, student loans, income stability, debt, all of these concepts hang over our heads so heavily when it comes to career decisions.
When I ask people how their life would change if they had a billion dollars in their bank account, most of them say they would quit their job and start teaching yoga, or traveling or do the things they realllllly want to do in life. If that is you answer, that means you aren’t doing work that is actually aligned with your purpose in this world. If you are ONLY doing work for the money and the perceived stability that your income brings, then you are basically selling your soul for the price of your annual salary.
Most of us are stuck in this false dichotomy that we can either do work we enjoy OR make good money. Not both. We think that following our dreams is the irresponsible choice and staying in a job we don’t love to pay the bills and dutifully save for retirement, is the practical, rational thing to do.
But I’ve started to see money completely differently. That’s why I want to share with you my book chapter called “What Are You Going to do About Your Loans”. I want to help you shift your perspective of what is possible when it comes to work and money.
Chapter 10: What Are You Going to Do About Your Loans?
“Can I ask you something personal? What are you going to do about your loans?” This was a question one of my attendings asked me after finding out I had resigned from residency with no plans to continue pursuing medicine. It’s something I’ve been asked about countless times in the 2 years since leaving the medical field. What are you going to do about money? How are you going to travel and pay back your loans?
My Loans Kept Me Stuck
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the financial predicament of aspiring physicians (and many other healthcare professionals), medical school is expensive. In order to fund it, many students take out hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans. It’s seen as an investment in your future self, because as an attending physician you are guaranteed to make a lucrative six-figure salary.
This attendings’ salary makes the idea of paying back your loans more doable. Although, by the time you’ve gotten through your medical training, you’ve likely racked up some serious interest on your loans.
Compared to many of my friends and classmates, I had a relatively low burden of loans. I went to an instate public school for medical school, got a partial scholarship and only had to take out about $30,000/year to get myself through medical school. I graduated with approximately $120,000 in student loan debt, which was manageable but still seemed pretty significant to me.
For the longest time, this student loan debt kept me feeling trapped in medicine. It was this huge weight on my shoulders. When I was first starting to question if medicine was the right path for me, I immediately dismissed any ideas of quitting because … “my loans.” I thought that the only way I could pay back my loans was if I had an attendings’ salary. I felt stuck on this path to becoming a doctor because- how else would I pay back my loans?
Shifting Into Freedom
Until one day, during my 5-week leave of absence, I had an eye-opening conversation with a physician burnout coach. During our hour-long phone call, she asked me several very impactful questions. First, she asked me what my ideal day would look like. I described waking up feeling rested, having time to do a slow morning routine, going to a coffee shop and getting some work done and then spending time reading and learning about personal growth and human psychology.
Dreaming up this ideal day felt so exciting to me, until I came back down to earth and realized… nothing I just described is compatible with being a physician. I never mentioned going into the hospital or seeing patients. That honestly wasn’t something I wanted to include in my ideal day.
Next, she asked me, what was keeping me from achieving this “ideal day?” “Why wasn’t I living that way right now?” The first thing that came out of my mouth was “money.” The reason I wasn’t quitting medicine to pursue this freedom lifestyle was because I had to become a doctor to make that six-figure salary to pay back my student loans. Then she asked, “anything else?” Was anything else standing in my way or keeping me from living this life I dreamed of? I thought for a few minutes and then truthfully said NO. Nothing else. It’s just the money.
That truth hit me so hard. Money was literally the only thing standing in the way of me living my dream life. More specifically, my belief that being a doctor was the only way to make significant money and pay back my loans was standing in my way. I decided that was completely unacceptable. Once I brought my fears and excuses into the light, they started to unravel.
I started to question my assumptions. Being a doctor couldn’t be the ONLY way to make a six-figure salary. There had to be other ways. I started listening to podcasts and reading blogs of all these online entrepreneurs who founded thriving multi six and seven figure businesses. I was in sponge mode, absorbing story after story of women in their 20’s and 30’s who started with a dream and found a way to turn their hobbies into a hugely successful business.
Creating my own online business wasn’t even a career option that was on my radar in college, but now I was hooked on the idea. I thought… if so many other people have made it work, why not me? If I can figure out how to get my MD, surely I could figure out how to build up a successful online business and pay back my loans in a reasonable way. I decided to bet on myself.
I decided I was going to pay back my loans one dollar at a time.
Your Loans Don’t Have to be Such a Big Deal
There are plenty of options for paying back your student loans in a way that works for you. You can apply for income driven repayment plans using your income information from your tax returns. Usually, these payments will be no more than 10-15% of your discretionary income and adjustments are made based on family size and other individualized factors. You can continue income-based repayment options even if you are no longer pursuing the profession you took out the loans for.
Additionally, there are options to temporarily postpone your loan payments entirely by applying for deferment or forbearance. These options offer a temporary reprieve from any sort of payments if you are currently unemployed, going through economic hardship, or any other extenuating circumstances. Basically, you can press pause on paying back your loans while you get your shit together and figure out what’s next.
My best advice on this topic would be to contact your personal student loan servicer and have a conversation with them about which option would work best for you.
Currently, my loans are being paid every month using the income-based repayment option. If I need to, I will make these monthly payments until the day I die, or for 20 years. (Usually, with income-based repayments, if you continually pay the minimum payment for 20 years they will be forgiven.)
I’m honestly just not worried about it. Having loans and making payments doesn’t bother me one bit. I don’t spend time ruminating on how I’m going to pay everything off. I have every bit of confidence I will pay down my loans without any problems and until that day, I refuse to stress about it. I feel a sense of inner freedom around my student loans.
Here are some things I’ve learned about money and debt that have helped me create this sense of inner freedom
When it comes to money, it’s all about the mindset.
Money itself is neutral. When I told my coach that “money” was keeping me from quitting medicine… that’s actually not the truth. The truth is my limiting beliefs and scarcity mentality about ways I could earn money were keeping me stuck.
I was living under the false assumptions that I had to work really hard to make money and that being a doctor or some other employed professional with a graduate degree was one of the only ways to guarantee myself a six-figure salary. These limiting perceptions created my limited reality, but once I started opening up my mind, I started to see other possibilities.
Being a doctor is absolutely NOT the only way to make a six-figure salary.
With the world of online business exploding, the sky is the limit for how you can make an income. Even if you don’t want to start your own business (because not everyone does), there are an infinite number of ways to make money outside of the medical field.
You also don’t have to go back to school, get another degree, or do rigorous training to be qualified for a well-paying job. You don’t need to get an MBA or an MPH or any other master’s degree. In many industries you can leverage your previous experiences, personal connections, and online certifications to land or create your dream job.
Your loans don’t have any power over you other than the power you give them.
If you think of your loans as this huge weight on your shoulders, they will feel heavy. If you think you have to live below your means and deprive yourself so you can pay down bigger sums on your loans, you will be living in an energy of restriction and scarcity.
If you are constantly checking the balance on your loans, watching your interest building exponentially, and feeling this rush to pay them off before the interest gets too high, you will live in a perpetual state of anxiety. But I bet that once you finish paying back your loans, you will find something else to feel anxious about. Your anxiety will simply transfer to the next thing.
Your loans are only a big deal if you make them a big deal. They are only a source of stress and anxiety if you make them a source of stress and anxiety. You don’t have to wait until you pay back your loans to start enjoying your life. You don’t have to let the fact that you have loans loom over you and dictate all of your life decisions.
Changing how I view money has been one of the most pivotal parts of my career journey thus far. It’s something I am continuing to work on as I unpack all the lies and limitations that I internalized about money growing up. If you want to start shifting your money mindset, here are some of the books I recommend on the topic.
- You are a Badass at Making Money , by Jen Sincero
- Get Rich Lucky Bitch, by Denise Duffield-Thomas
- Rich as F*ck, by Amanda Frances
- Unleash Your Inner Money Babe, by Kathrin Zenkina
- Happy Pocket Full of Money, by David Cameron Gikandi
So now, I’d love to hear from you. What are your current thoughts and beliefs about work and money? Is money one of the places that causes you to get hung up and stay stuck in your current job?
Also, if you want to download the FULL book, go to Amazon.com and search “Residency Drop Out”. It will be available starting on March 30th!
