I'm Planning On Living Off Of My Student Loans 

Dave is right. As a RN I made 80,000 last year with just my associate's degree.

Im after two years done with paying of my debt - tommorow. Two years.... Im taking my two brothers out to eat to celebrate :) Been working all weekends!

No chance this guy takes that advice.

The problem is that it’s so easy for students to borrow a lot of money for school. Schools know this so they constantly raise tuition. It’s a scam!

Randy don’t do it. I have a DPT and stupidly graduated with $120,000 in debt 🤦🏼‍♀️ $1400 per month for 10 years: I WISH I called Dave and he told me this advice. the salary growth is not so good, productivity standards are high stress level high. Listen to Dave. We are paying off debt early now that we are on Dave’s plan but honestly if I had to do it over I would not become a PT simply due to cost to income ratio and the crazy productivity documentation requirements. I’ve been a PT now for 5 years. Hope this helps.

For crying out loud people if you are almost done with your undergrad degree, get a better paying job with your undergrad degree before going into a graduate program!!!!!

I know people that deal Blackjack at a casino that make more than $65k and the casino trained them in-house for free.

150k for a 65k salary? That's pretty bad. But I've seen a 150k for a 36k salary.

Your student loans will be living off you in the future.

Since when do PT’s need Doctorates? Accreditation inflation is ridiculous these days.

The scam is that it's an extremely competitive program so it costs more and worth it. Not buying it

As someone with a DPT degree, I can confidently say it’s not worth it. Anybody out there considering dropping 100k on PT school, DONT DO IT. If your smart enough to get into PT school your smart enough to make 75k without going into life changing debt.

Enjoy your loans, Randy. Dave will still be willing to help you when you're drowning at 32.

I love how colleges brainwash kids into thinking that they are "lucky" to get in. "Omg i can't believe it I was accepted into _____ it has an amazing ____ program".... How much is it?.... "Oh only $150,000. lol, and its not like they give you the degree either... Loads of hard work, thousands of hours, and always the chance of failing and having to pay more!

Wow this guy have everything at 23. The only thing he is missing is a timeshare. All the best bud, go and clean it up asap.

Somebody sold him a dream.

This is one of those kids who regardless of what you say, responds with "Yeah but actually...." And then proceeds to explain in a roundabout way how their situation is unique and will actually work.

He’s defending against dave so why even call in, waste of time

If you know what you’re doing, you will be okay. I had 20k in student loans while working part time. I used the loan to manage classes and renting with room mates. After graduating with a CS degree I paid it off in a year and a half.

Like my cousin. she spend $60,000 to become a teacher, 2 years after getting a job. She has a kid and now a stay at home mom, Her parents co sing for the loan and now having to pay it

“You call me and I just walk on your dreams with muddy boots” I love Dave’s expressions!

A Doctorate in Physical Therapy is an intense program.There is NO TIME to work a job while doing it. A friend of mine did the program and it is crazy

Hey Dave, I want to get a PhD in feminist dance theory, itll cost 100,000/yr. Jobs are scarce and $22,000/yr but I LOVE it!! Is that a bad idea?

I know a 35 year old lady who has 230k dollars in student loan debt. She works at Starbucks for $12.00 an hour and complains about her worthless degree to customers in the drive thru.

My daughter came to me and asked me to help her pay for college. I said on one condition, you get no student loans. She said deal. Now she has a masters degree and no student loans

He can go be a Physical therapy assistant and make 55-65+k a yr here in FL and it only cost 10-20k for a 18 month program.

I made $69.5k last year as a firefighter in Orlando and I'm not even a medic (yet) :) I worked a lot of OT but I didn't have to spend over $100k to go to fire school

I wish I found dave before I went to college

I’m a RN BScN, paid $25K for 3 years of a compressed program at a University. I make $75K+ right now 5 years into it (excluding OT). Over my dead body I’d be paying over a $100K for my education. Not worth it.

As Dave says......."live like no one else so later you can live like no one else"! Don't be broke----as broke is normal. Be different

My mother was a practitioner, retired at 58, the Veterans Administration gave her student loan reimbursement as a part of her pay incentive. That was a long time ago, but look into that.

Wow I pay 2,500 for a CDL now I'm making 75k a year lol. This guy 150k for a job lol.

🤦🏽‍♀️ This is why I enlisted. I’m living off of my Pell Grants and GI Bill. Not getting ANY debt from school.

I’m 34 and drowning in student loans due to living off them!!!! I think colleges need to have financial advisors for students before beginning college! DO NOT EVER TAKE OUT A PRIVATE LOAN!!!! My federal loans are under IBR. My private loan through Navient originally Sallie Mae, is 87,000. My monthly payment is a mortgage and I can’t afford anything!!!! Not a roof over my own head without help from others! It’s pathetic! I’ve contemplated driving off a cliff many times to escape this torment! Colleges never tell you about the mess your get into afterwards!

Hey Dave, should I starve myself in order to save more money???

This idea of "Oh I'm lucky since I got accepted into ___" is so toxic. I got accepted to do an interview for a "full tuition" scholarship at a university that's pretty well-known nationally, but it was such a scam. You had to live on campus for all 4 years, and the scholarship didn't cover dorms or meals, so I still would've had to pay for that. And we had to do 300 service hours a year (which either amounts to 40 hours a week in the summer, or 10 hours a week during the school year) as well as attend mandatory weekly meetings totalling about 6 hours. It was such a huge commitment, and I still would've had to pay about the same amount as going to a public university. Instead I turned down the interview, and now I go to a local public university that's a top-research school (not a community college), I get a free bus pass with my tuition, and I got enough in scholarships to be PAID TO GO TO COLLEGE for the first 2 years.

When he started talking I was thinking awww man... you know when your sibling does something wrong and dad comes home and you’re on the sideline like, “oooh you gonna get it”

The biggest factors for PT salary are what specialty you work in and where. Home health and travel pay MUCH higher. Look at the pay by location as well. Nevada home health is around/upwards of $100k and that’s new grad pay as well....just as an example. It’s such a wide range because our profession, in my opinion should be divided into about 6 different titles. Outpatient orthopedic salary is probably what this caller is referring to. Much lower salary because everyone wants it. I’m considering orthopedic plus one day of home health on the weekend just doing evaluations for extra money. Many options if it’s your dream and you’re ready to work hard. About to graduate from PT school.

I paid about $4000 all in for my carpentry ticket and making $85,000/year in town not counting overtime

That man is going to make his wife pay his outrageous loan

It’s like watching a bad accident about to happen.

I’m in this boat right now, although not technically a DPT program, but a DC program for chiropractic. I currently have 2 years left, but I’m thinking about pulling the plug on it just due to the income to cost ratio! I was told going in about how it’s so easy to pay back the loans and how well chiro’s do that I didn’t even give it a second thought, but decided to start meeting regularly with different chiros in the area, and EVERY SINGLE one told me how absolutely hard it is to make the business work as well as pay back the absurd amount of student debt. It’s one of those things where I feel like I’m running away from something I enjoy, but I also don’t necessarily know if I’ll enjoy something more that won’t cost me everything (time, social, financially, mental health etc) many professional degree people here know exactly what I’m talking about. Thoughts?

"This was an extremely competitive program and I'm lucky to have got in." 1 minute later "I applied to 8 schools and this is the only one that accepted me."

Dave: most people that spend 150k come out and are like a lawyer Caller: yea.. Dave: yea.. Caller: well yea...

I’d like to see some blue collar options talked about.

It's probably too late to help this caller, but I had a similar situation when I went to college. I took my Harvard acceptance to my home schools (Auburn and Alabama) and asked them what they could do to keep me in state. I ended up with a PhD and less than $7K in student loans. Haggling is a good thing in almost every circumstance!!

The lip smacking means he will not heed anybody's advice on anything.

He probably already called Dave for an advice on how to get out of debt three years later.

As someone who was heavily considering going for a DPT because I wanted the knowledge. I dropped that in favor of just getting my bachelor's and becoming a supervisor for Amazon. When I get there I'll make basically the amount of start at as a pt in a clinic and with maybe 10-15k in debt

I almost made this exact same mistake. Thank God I found Dave Ramsey between graduating college and applying to grad school. When I realized the doctorate in PT ROI was trash I said nope! They turned all the masters programs into doctorates just to charge more.

Paying 1500$ a month on a 65k salary is insane

As a person whos whole career is based on reading people, I can tell you this person went to that school and is now racking up 100,000 in debt. Sad.

I think Dave is a little mistaken here. A PT can easily make 100k a year IF they are willing to work more than 40 hours a week. PRN jobs pay really well and the rate or burnout, job satisfaction and stress level tends to be way lower than RN. Starting pay is higher too. Do travel therapy when you graduate and make 100k a year and pay it off.

I agree w/ Dave here. W/ that said, how can you give advice so easily regarding EVERY profession that calls into your show? Do you really know how much a PT makes in Orlando? I do agree that Randy sounds like he's out of his mind and is chasing something w/ just a hope that it'll work out the way he thinks, but stop giving advice like it's so absolute like you know so matter of fact.

Doctoral Programs are brutal enough without having a second job, I don't know anyone in one who didn't work 60+ hours a week at it and taking near all your energy. I'm Canadian so student loans here are much smaller, but all my friends who went into graduate programs just did that - although they usually got paid for their TA and research work and such.

Did he really start out the call saying his wife is in school too, but works part time, "I'm gonna live off my student loans; should she be paying interest on my loans while I'm in school?" I got married at 22 and have been very happily married for over 11yrs now and we've always kept all of our finances together. We're "one flesh" as well as "one bank account." All that to say I'm all about both sides being responsible for any debt. Still though, this guy sounds pretty selfish and lazy to put everything on his wife.

Stories like these makes me so glad I went to community college out of pocket decided it wasn't for me and dropped out

Do you think these people know you can make 100k a year in construction? Everyone frowns upon blue collar workers but we're debt free, including our home and I get to follow my dreams so I mean.... is white collar really better? Idk seems like they have a lot of debt and bills 😕

I am a RN and I know for a fact I make more than the PT working in the same hospital where I work. I also can work almost unlimited OT. in 2019 I made gross 110K. I work inpatient and I have been a nurse many years and I work OT. I also paid way less for my BSN.

Best thing I did was not go to DPT school. Got into two programs one would have costed 150k the other 200k. Decided to keep the job I was already working and pay off undergrad debt. Within the same time span I would have been in school I payed off all my debt (including car), got married, and got my first home (mortgage). That would have never happened if I would have gone to DPT school. Seriously, think about what your giving up for that job. Honestly would have loved the job, but not worth it.

It’s funny I was in the car with my wife and she was like I know this kid! Lol. They actually go to the same school. She’s in clinicals now to be a PA soon and yeah she’ll have debt coming out :(. Luckily I got no debt and I’m an engineer with a decent income so we’ll use both our shovels and hoping to get out of her mess in 2 years

I'm in the health care field...Dave is right, please listen to him. Where I live we even have payment plans for RN school...pay your cash as you go through school.

Physical therapy is great, but very competitive, and you need a DPh Don't go into debt, but look into a physician assistant

Starts with hope -- ends with tears.

This is the whole “Live the whole college experience” mentality. Borrow the max so that you don’t have to work while in school. Then cry victim when the bill comes due and blame the everyone else for your poor decision making.

I will NEVER pay for my spouses student loan, and will NEVER wanted my spouse to pay mine neither

Like that Dave slowly walked into this. "How long you neen married?" etc.

Your expressions are priceless, Dave.

As someone who has dealt with competitive internships, if you get accepted to somewhere and don't end up going, there is a legit risk of being blacklisted. I'm in a different field but i imagine it's like that in a lot of fields. I don't agree with his advice. This guy sounds stuck on becoming a PT and this might be his only chance. The call would've been better spent figuring out how to repay the loan that this guy is obviously gonna take

I had a buddy who did just this. He was treating student loans like it was his money. Taking them out with no regard as to how he'd pay them back. He tried getting me to take them out saying how easy it was.

I knew a guy who became a nurse in the 1980s. He made A TON of money and is now a millionaire.

If he has only one acceptance he should NOT try again next year to save maybe 10 grand. I'm in PA school and I only had one acceptance. With about a 2% acceptance rate at any given school, you can't afford to gamble with your future over a few thousand bucks. Sure, if you have multiple acceptances, by all means, pick the cheaper one. You'll have the same letters after your name no matter what school you go to. Grad school is stupidly expensive no matter where you go, and that bubble will burst eventually. But for now, it is what it is and you gotta pay to play.

Dave, you're missing the point. No one plans on paying the student loan debt back.

I read the video title then looked at Dave’s pic and literally laughed out loud 😂

If there are PT school bound students watching this and read this comment look into WIchita state university in Kansas. Just trust me and look at it. It may be helpful in your journey and it has a lower price tag. Shoutout to Ramsey I love your videos I’d love to call the show one day when I’m ready. Keep up the good work

He should wait until his wife finishes school gets a dental hygiene job and help him pay for school at a lower cost physical therapy school. Hygienist make 65k annually and over if they work fulltime.

This video makes me glad I choose engineering lol

Dave gave good advice. I hope he took it. A lot of people only take into consideration the best case scenario. Debt is the worst. Debt keeps you up at night.

Here’s some advice for anybody getting into college. 1: think of going to community college for the first two years. LOCAL. 2: avoid going out of state as much as you can 3: don’t take a useless degree. I went to FIU in Miami for 42k got my degree in sustainable agriculture. It’s a decent university and I finished it all in 3 and a half years instead of 4. Don’t pay 20k a semester just to get the same education somewhere else

My brother is a PT assistant making 6 figures. Works in home health in Houston and has about 8 rental properties now.

Lol go look at unemployment rates for lawyers. Dave's old and not always familiar with these medical/ science related jobs and the changes that have occurred over the past couple decades. A PT degree nowadays is a doctorate. Starting salary is around 65 but median is more like 85k-120k. Its stable with a lot more job security than a lawyer. Lawyer unemployment rate is 15% and the underemployed rate is probably quite a bit higher. Unlike getting a degree in medicine you don't have huge 100k malpractice Bill's meaning you can still make a private business, whereas the private practice primary care physician is basically extinct. This is a huge life decision and I don't feel like Dave is knowledgeable enough in medical/ science related jobs to be giving this advice. With an aging sedentary population the need for PTs is growing, also people are working more hours and watching stuff on their phones all the time.... that's a ton of neck and back pain and postural issues waiting to happen. There are also PT aides and those are much cheaper to hire than physician assistants and will do a lot of the manual labor. The PT might do a checkup, give a prognosis and program the therapy and the PT assistant will carry out the actual rehab exercises. I decided to go into molecular bio research but i looked into pt education before, so I'm not trying to be defensive about physical therapists, just my honest take.

Dave doesn’t even say he has to take Dave’s advice nor is Dave the only plausible advisor there is, but Dave’s advice is a well valued and expert-backed opinion among the stack of opinions he will obtain. Much like in Olympic contests the judges don’t all always agree on the same score.

The majority of people with $100,000+ student debt got there because they used their debt to finance their lifestyle, and I don't mean groceries and gas. They use it to eat out at restaurants, get daily Starbucks, go out to bars, movies, etc. Think about that when you hear them asking for debt forgiveness.

LIVING OFF THE LOANS....and now they want the loans forgiven.

Almost all doctoral programs are free unless it's a professional doctorate (even still though)??? Idk why people are applying for schools charging 150k???

I remember grad school. Most people had a grad assistant ship, a teaching assistant ship or company paying for their education. I made $20k while in grad school. How times have changed.

An acceptance offer usually has a deadline for more than a year, he could work for a year and save some money and gain some work experience before gifting out more educational expense... I feel bad for the wife... RIP

Competitive education doesn’t mean good education.

He should just go to PTA school. I’m in California and am making over $75,000/yr just starting out and paid cash for my program. I know PTAs that do home health and are making over $115,000/yr.

We never even asked if he has other student loan debt or how much the car debt is.

With a health science degree and acceptance into PT school with no way of paying for it.... apply for Health Professions Scholarship through military, get commissioned, receive a stipend while still in school and return years of service on active duty as a PT after you graduate. You’ll be debt free (except the time you owe to the military which would be 3 years max), getting paid while you serve and building up a resume for when you separate and take a civilian job. It’s still a grind, but if it’s your dream to be a PT it’s worth considering given the other options.

This guy could make more than a lawyer, in 2019.

His first mistake was getting married at 23.

A student loan is like buying a house, it’s crazy, get a scholarship or go to school out of the country. School here is too expensive.

He could go the military route but I would advise that he apply to the VA as just a PCA or tech and then apply for their scholarship program and they will pay for a masters degree up to 40k. A lot of people are going to say that Dave is wrong but actually he has a point. I believe there has been a mantra of more and more schooling.

Has he applied for grants and scholarships? He might be eligible. He should go through the college's financial aid office to find out.

I worked for the state of Florida.. In 2005 I went back to college. took 6 to 9 hours a semester.. paid cash each time.. Took me 6 years to get a 4 year degree but I did it without debt

They have PT in the Army he should definitely look into that. I have done so as well.

If anyone is interested in a Ph.D. in speech-language pathology or audiology, you should pay 0 for the Ph.D., Just FYI. Look up the bureau of labor statistics for future job outlooks as well to make sure you do not get a degree that is not valuable in the job market!

I am going to school in the fall to be a heavy duty mechanic and my tuition, tools and safety gear is gonna run me $10k and after going for 1 year I will start my apprenticeship making $50k and could work my way up to making well over $100k with overtime in 5 years.