Nursing: The Financial Side

Nursing has the strong potential of allowing one to make a good life for their family. But sometimes, people just get it all wrong along the way, either in terms of lifestyle choices or upfront in terms of school selection. Let's talk about it. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Our finances are mostly decided by the choices we choose to make or not. You do not have to be a Wall Street guru (this is also debatable!) or a whiz kid to understand that if you spend way above your income, you stand a greater risk of falling into debt and other financial messes.

Some situations are simply unavoidable on how one can get into a financial mess (think hospital fees related to lack of insurance or bankruptcy from staggering hospital fees!) and yet others are consciously made with or without thoughts to the long term effects of those decisions.

Some risk factors that can tip you into a financial mess

School Loans

If you decide to pick an Ivy League school for nursing (laughable) or an especially exorbitant one, then please do be prepared to pay the piper when it comes to time to pay the school loan. Except those schools come with a sure guarantee of a job offer after school, it would be your best bet to pick a better affordable school and network like craz before graduation. By all means, do go to that accelerated school, just try and make sure that that expensive accelerated school is at least accredited. Why spend so much money and still have limitations at picking a place of employment?Not a good investment!

Mortgage

Please explain to me again how a five bedroom house with two and a half baths (with the white picket fence) is the right choice to make for a family of three? Things add up. When you begin to pay for space (or things) you do not need, you take away from saving up for things you do need.

Latest Tech gadgets

Apple Air is all well and good. Iphone 6 or is it 7? No wait, its 8! Is even more better, but have you checked how much those run and the contract agree you have to add up along with that.

Constant eating -outs (self-explanatory)

Garage Sale

Out with the old, in with the new! All the time? No you do not need to offload all your clothes from last summer to make new ones for next summer. Pick and choose. You don't always have to follow ALL the latest fashion trends.

Reducing these risk factors

Scholarships/ Tuition Reimbursements

There are a plethora of funds out there, take advantage of them. Write that essay if that is what it takes you to get some finances towards covering some school expenses. Keep your grades up (high school students!).

Be frugal

No, you do not NEED the latest model of the Jaguar. Get yourself, a dependable Honda Accord or whatever else it is that runs well, is good on gas and still looks great, like new.

Cook in!

This might be tricky for some, but have you ever stopped once to tally how much of your spending goes on constant eat-outs? A lot! Learn to cook and have fun with it. Buy basics and staples and play with it, YouTube it, if you like. It's amazing what comes up on You Tube. Save some money while you are at it and know what goes into your meals.

SAVE!

Find a way of paying yourself, it could be automatic payments so you have no idea when it gets taken out, much less painful that way. Save for the rainy day

Get some financial literacy

"I don't know" is no excuse. Find out and then transfer/instill these good habits into your kids.

Share your helpful tips & what has worked for you.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I firmly believe that people need a little luxury in their lives. A budget that does not allow fun is not a budget you will stick with. Life is about more than saving for retirement.

If you really enjoy your daily double shot vanilla latte, or designer shoes, or eating out once a week, work it into your budget. I've started saving all of my pocket change, and taking it to Coinstar every few months. The machines don't charge for converting change into a gift card. The first time, I ended up with $21, which I converted to a Starbucks card.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I firmly believe that people need a little luxury in their lives. A budget that does not allow fun is not a budget you will stick with. Life is about more than saving for retirement.

If you really enjoy your daily double shot vanilla latte, or designer shoes, or eating out once a week, work it into your budget. I've started saving all of my pocket change, and taking it to Coinstar every few months. The machines don't charge for converting change into a gift card. The first time, I ended up with $21, which I converted to a Starbucks card.

I was able to have the same luxury by buying a Keurig, making vanilla coffee at home, and buying a big box of the same biscotti at Costco. Instead of having them in my car, I could have it in the morning while I watched GMA.

I also have a coin jar to throw my change into. The last time I cashed it out I had over $100.

The problem with many people is they don't understand the difference between an indulgence every now and then and living beyond your means. A closet full of Christian Loboutain shoes won't mean a whole lot if you can't pay your rent.

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I was able to have the same luxury by buying a Keurig, making vanilla coffee at home, and buying a big box of the same biscotti at Costco. Instead of having them in my car, I could have it in the morning while I watched GMA.

I also have a coin jar to throw my change into. The last time I cashed it out I had over $100.

The problem with many people is they don't understand the difference between an indulgence every now and then and living beyond your means. A closet full of Christian Loboutain shoes won't mean a whole lot if you can't pay your rent.

Faved and faved! I figured why spend so much when you can buy and make at home.This is where the "cook-in" comes in and you can customize as much as you like.What fun!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I believe in living a nice comfortable life: driving a nice car, living in a big house and going to a reputable university. I have seen my mother live such a frugal life and I really wonder when she's ever going to enjoy the good things in life. I worked fulltime to pay for my college so that she did not have to worry about me. I also plan to take care of her in her old age because of all the sacrifices she has made. I don't want to be 80yrs old with 300 million dollars in the bank but bed ridden. As someone said, just balance the balance sheet and invest wisely. Go back to school. It is another good way to create disposable income.

I agree you need to have some fun in life and not save everything. If all your spare money went to saving for retirement it would be a very dreary time. It's a balance between saving for the future and living for today. I agree it's better to do things now than wait till retirement because what if it never comes!

Problem is most people don't save and it is more critical now with the loss of pensions and the outrageous cost of health insurance! On top of that many are dealing with massive student loans being told it was "good" debt, but it is actually draining away your future!

I get weary from saving and then go on a mini spending spree. I didn't start any retirement savings till my 30's and then suspended it when I bought my house and now 10 years later I'm just restarting my retirement plan. It is an uphill battle since time is no longer on my side and out of pocket medical/dental costs are so high both now and will be in retirement! If only we had national healthcare it would lift a tremendous burden from so many people!

I at least have a pension, unlike so many, although I have to say I'm very underwhelmed by the cash balance, and it will now be worth thousands less in retirement from what I was originally told. They claim this is simply because of low interest rate environment we are in now and that they've cut the benefit as well, of course. Also I expect my pension will eventually be frozen anyway before I retire.

I wish I had started saving earlier, but in my twenties I wasn't making more than the minimum wage and going to school part-time to pay cash. Eventually I took out student loans to get my nursing degree which has been a drag on my spending money for years! I can't imagine having to deal with $60-100,000 in student loans like some people are doing today!

I lived for today and enjoyed traveling and my hobbies and have lots of great memories. That said I wish I had known about Elizabeth Warren's 50/30/20 budget back then, because it doesn't require sacrificing all your wants, but rather limiting them to 30% of your income so you can still have your little pleasures. Also if you can keep your necessities to 50% it if very helpful if you were to be sick or unemployed and forced to live on less. The only caveat is her idea re healthcare costs is completely unrealistic to the reality today and that alone makes it difficult to stay in the 50%, also childcare pushes someone's budget beyond 50% in most cases. Still it is a balanced budget that balances living for today with saving for tomorrow. Even if you can't get your budget in line completely, the closer you get the better off you'll be. So I think it's worth the effort to try!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.

I graduated with a BSN and $65,000 in debt. I worked two jobs during college so that I could pay my rent, my car, books, and still take vacations and go out to eat. in 2.5 years, I paid that debt off by myself. I worked two jobs, usually 5-6 days per week, long days. The debt is gone. In those 2.5 years, I still managed to get engaged, go on numerous trips home, occasionally go out to eat or go shopping. I paid off my car as well. People thought I was crazy, working 6 days a week. But they were the first ones to say, "oh must be nice", when I posted a picture of taking a weekend getaway to South Florida or went to the Superbowl when my team played. Some said I was working away my life during weeks of nonstop shifts, but no one said that when I bought a plane ticket on a whim to visit a friend.

It's simple: WORK HARD PLAY HARD!

That's how I live my life. I have worked way too hard and lived it up way too much at the same time, and I don't regret either one.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I admit that my vice has been eating out, but with my on-the-go lifestyle, I usually don't have much time to pack, plus I consider it one of the few "leisure" activities I allow myself to enjoy.

I doubt most people in my generation will be even able to retire. I definitely see myself working into my mid-seventies. So, that is another 50-55 years to work. I won't be working the floor, but I can see myself as a school nurse!

That being said, get it while you can! I recently calculated this. When I'm a new grad, if I work four hours of overtime each week, I can easily add an additional 7,000/yr. That adds up pretty quickly!

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