Awesome interview!! I’m starting my first job out of PA school in 2 weeks and my student loan debt is a major concern. It’s nice hearing such an incredible financial success story from another PA
Congrats on the new job Cairo! Debt can be tricky but Kristin is so great at explaining how to avoid or get out of debt, check her out! Best of luck with the new job, it’s more fun to be paid for your work rather than paying to go to a clinical rotation!
@@PAStartup I am getting my Doctorate in Athletic Training. I have a year left. I wanted to finish it as I finish up the pre-required courses to apply in the next two cycles. I know I do not need a doctorate but figured I might as well finish it as I will not have to cover PA school due to the VA paying for it.
I wouldn’t say everyone has debt. I personally am blessed to have a great 2 income household that makes $160,000 a year living well below our means in a 2 bedroom apartment for $928/month with an overall yearly bill amount of $24,000/year and the rest is savings and do whatever we please. So I personally utilize all the grants I can get for school and pay the rest out of pocket. So I will be paying my way through PA school out of pocket and graduate with no debt!
I loved listening to this interview! What an incredible example! I'm enrolled in a PA program that’s pretty expensive (about $113k), we just bought a townhome, and we just found out that my wife is pregnant with our first child. I'm feeling pretty stressed about our financial situation while we're in school. Before I begin the program, is there anything you'd recommend my wife and I do to prepare financially?
Congratulations!! PA school, a townhome, and a baby!! That’s a lot of great things going on! We (Chris & his wife) had our first daughter about a month into school, so I can relate. It was overwhelming at the time, but (and I never thought I’d say this) it was also a pretty amazing time thinking back. The best thing (and Kristin talks about this): make a budget and do everything possible to stick to it. We didn’t go out to eat much because of the baby, so we meal planned with affordable recipes that used similar ingredients. My wife likes to cook, so that was actually pretty fun. One area that can add up quick is subscriptions: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc...narrow it down to one if you need. We used envelopes of cash to stay on our budget (in covid times it’s probably smarter to set up a few different debit accounts and automatically transfer funds to each account every month-so you’re not drawing from the same account, it’s easier to go over your budget if it *looks* like there’s a lot!) Finally-when family asks how they can help, ask for gift cards to restaurants that you can hold on to for when it’s time to celebrate birthdays, passing tests, etc. You might be in school, but don’t forget to celebrate once in a while! Hope this helps-thanks so much for watching & listening! Keep us posted on your progress, and congrats again!
I’ve been watching some of your videos and I’m glad I came across your channel! I’m a senior in high school and I’m going to college this fall for a combined 5 year pa program. Do you have any advice on what I could be doing right now to save money for everything, or just any advice in general? I’ve been trying to save up money to pay as I go, but I recently put all my savings toward getting an EMT certificate this summer. Also, I feel like the money I earn from my minimum wage job is only a fraction of what I would need to pay for pa school. I’m really stressed out about the debt that’s coming in my future, so any advice would help!!
First off thanks for checking out our channel! But more importantly, congratulations!!! You are just getting started on a fun journey through college and PA school. Finances are always stressful! Especially when thinking about taking on student loans. It sounds like you are way ahead of the curve though as a senior in HS! Getting a job as an EMT is amazing experience and will prepare you for being a PA. It also gives you some income (typically more than minimum wage) that can help pay for living expenses during school. Unfortunately, loans are inevitably part of life for most college and graduate school students. On the bright side...PAs make fairly good money. Now that doesn’t mean you should just take out all the loans you possibly can. But think of responsibly taking out student debt as an investment for your future. I personally worked all through college and paid for food and housing on my own. I was not able to do that in PA school and had to take loans for living expenses. Everyone’s situation is a little different but you’re definitely on the right track! The most important thing I can tell you is to enjoy it. It is stressful, but you can’t let the stress take over your life. College is a fun and exciting part of life. Be sure to enjoy the moment. But it’s great you are planning for the future. We have a video about paying off student loans if interested!!! I’ll link it below. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W1ntVANMoew.html
@@PAStartup thank you so much, I appreciate your response!! I will definitely watch the video. Your channel is an extremely helpful guide for pre-PAs. I can’t wait to watch more videos and see it grow!
I really like Kristen’s budget advice. I don’t have a budget per se, but I spend almost nothing to be honest because I’m scared of debt and plan to graduate PA school debt free and hopefully with a little bit of savings 😅
