How much savings should I have as an almost 20 third-year in college, and soon to be Med School? I live on my own, and I grew up dirt poor. I have no expectations as to how much money I should be holding onto. Any of you wise ones have good advice?
Keep your eyes closed, charge ahead and don't look up until you get to where you want to be (an MD, I presume?). Yes, in all likelihood you will owe a significant amount of money before it's all over with (Med school will set you back, what, $100k on average?), but if you EVER have to go into debt, do so because you're getting an education...not because you want a better car or a Plasma HDTV. Just be smart, that's all. But if you don't have significant savings/rich parents to pay for your schooling, you will end up with lots of debt before it's all over. But that's "good debt" if you ever have to take on one. As for how much savings you should have, in your situation, at your age? Nothing! You should be in debt, that's the 'norm' at this stage of your life, given your aspirations.
Private med schools run around that 100K average, but public state med schools aren't much more expensive than an undergrad education. Like 5-6K per semester. You will start earning about 50K in residency right out of med school. Most people I know don't really start saving anything till after they are 30. This is due to paying off school loans, debts, etc.. For your age, I wouldn't worry at all about having any actual savings at the time other than being able to have a roof over your head, food, tuition and books.
Most professionals counsel that you should have up to 6 months of living expenses in savings, but student life is a different animal... and professional student life still another. It would be a good idea to have some if you can swing it.
Wait until you begin your career. Then speak to a financial advisor (like at Fidelity or something) to build a savings plan.
You don't have to necessarily save because you shouldn't have a problem securing loans to cover all your expenses. The question then becomes how much and what kind of loans you're getting. It also depends on where you go to med school. If you're a Texas resident going to to school in a Texas school, it's significantly less than an out-of-state school. Tuition at all the TX schools is ~6500/year with another $5000 or so in fees. So, you with living expenses and such, you should expect to need at least $25,000/year which works out to ~$100K over 4 years. There's very little "free money" out there in terms of scholarships or grants that you don't have to pay back, so most everything is usually loans. You can find some no-interest loans and lower-interest loans, which you should get as opposed to higher rate private loans. There are some larger loans you can get that you pay back in terms of service in a underserved area for several years or you can enroll in the military and have them pay for your education. Anyway you slice it, it's a long, expensive, and hard trek. However, the illusions of making it rich as a doctor are just that IMO. It's still a wonderful profession (despite the efforts of lawyers and managed care), where you have job security and the ability to look forward to work everyday, but you shouldn't do it for the money.
