2: The Financial Pressures of a Premed Parent

Session 02

Today, we hear from a premed parent who has been accepted to medical school and is now worried about the financial ramifications and what to do next. Listen in as I share my thoughts as well as some possible options you can take if this is also something you’re going through.

[01:16] Poster of the Week: Dealing with Financial Stress & Having Fear of the Unknown

"I'm a premed student, have three kids. I'm married. I work full time, my wife works full time, so there's been a lot of stress. I graduated five years ago from undergrad. It's been a little while. I'm doing some postbac, work, and everything. But it's really stressful right now because we have three kids and they're all in daycare. We have to pay for it and we're trying to do bills, budgeting, debts. We're barely in the black in the idea of going to medical school and how to pay for everything.

I got accepted to one medical school so I guess this is a trick to be a little bit of both - overwhelmed for everything but at the same time, being excited and having that security that I'm accepted somewhere.

I don't know where to go as far as the financial things go. I'm not really sure what the best move is going to be. I'm still interviewing for other schools. I got accepted to one school so I'm really excited about that. But just trying to figure out the finances behind everything. What's going to be the best for my family to be able to put food on the table for at least just the four years of med school and residency beyond that. There are plans for my wife to work while in school but making sure there's going to be enough for everything.

I've heard advice from other people on federal loans and if it can't take enough to cover everything then just do private loans. I'm at a loss as to where to even begin or what I should be doing right now. I’ve made some poor financial decisions in the past but we’re beyond that. I think it's just a little overwhelming. It takes away some of the excitement of finally getting an acceptance and still being excited about interviewing at other schools that are away from where we live right now.

Just a lot of my mind trying to make sure that I keep everything together with my kids and spend time with my wife and we can actually still have our relationship. I know that med school is even going to be even harder than what the journey was to get to this point."

[04:00] It's Tough Stuff!

This is tough stuff. This is not easy-peasy. This is the really hard stuff of life. When you're working toward becoming a physician and also trying to put food on the table for your family, the stress and anxiety that come with that are huge.

But first of all, congratulations on getting that acceptance. That is huge. After all, you only need one acceptance to become a physician. Many of us had one acceptance and that's where we went. If that ends up being your only acceptance then that's all you need and you'll make it work.

"You only need one acceptance after all to become a physician."

[05:08] Where to Begin

Financially, it's hard. So I'm directing you to my husband, Ryan's podcast on MedEd Media Network in terms of where to start.

Check out some of his episodes on The Premed Years Podcast such as Session 94, where he talks with Ryan Michler who runs WealthAnatomy.com. In Session 223, he talked with Dr. Dahle, the publisher...