Do you have a lot of Debt to pay off

musingmom · Jul 16, 2012

I will have close to $80k by then time I finish my ELM/FNP. I will look for loan repayment based employment, and/or will make a 2-3 year plan to pay them off by continuing to live on just my husband's income until they are paid off. I had about $30k in undergraduate loans for my original degree from 15 years ago that we paid off about 7 years ago.

Everyone's situation is different and there is no one financial solution for everyone. In my opinion, taking on education debt is directly linked to wether or not that debt will enable you have the earning power to repay it. $80k for a teaching degree is unwise these days, but anything in healthcare should still have earning power upon graduation. As hard as new grad jobs for nurses are to come by, they are MUCH worse in other industries.

I paid for my pre-reqs at a community college out of pocket, and tutored on the side to pay for it. But I am attending a private (not for profit) university for my ELM, and while it is expensive, they have very high nclex pass rates, new grad employment rates, and its close to my home. With a husband and 5 kids at home, those were my particular priorities. Could I get an ADN for much less? Yes, but in 3 years I'd still be working on a BSN bridge program, and it could be as much as 6-7 years before I completed a Master's that way. I'd lose 3-4 years of earning power as an FNP.

BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2012

By the time I'm done I think I will be at around $20k. I wouldn't have had so much but I lost my job last year (my hospital outsourced the transcription department) and am currently on unemployment. My husband works but it's hard for him to work too much given that we have two children and he is HUGELY supportive of me going to school. So far all of my debt is in the form of federal loans and I believe it is a reasonable amount that we will be able to pay down.

Jennie.K · Jul 18, 2012

When everything is all said and done, I will be in about $50K in debt. I am going to an private, not-for-profit, university. I have enough scholarship to cover tuition but take out loans for books, fees, and childcare expense. I could have gone to a CC and received an ADN; but I would lose my scholarship and have to pay almost 30K for a bridge program and I would lose 1-2 yrs in earnings. We will be able to continue to live off my husbands salary until loans are paid off. Hopefully it should only take 2 years.

prettymica, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN, NP · Jul 18, 2012

None at the moment, I hope I dont have any ever!

Stoogesfan · Jul 18, 2012

When I'm done, about $25,000. There is just no way I could have paid cash for it and honestly waiting wouldn't have made any difference as once we pay for gas, groceries, insurance, etc, there just anything left.

WahineMakai · Jul 18, 2012

I had a sizeable chunk of student loan debt back from my first foray into university education (for a degree I never even completed, sigh) that I paid off about 8 years ago. I will do anything to keep myself from entering into another student loan situation ever EVER again.

My husband and I are paying cash for my LVN program, unless I get a scholarship for it. We are good savers, and will be saving for my RN bridge program so that, too, can be paid in cash. Once I'm done with my nursing education, I want the money earned working as an RN to go toward living and enjoying our lives, not paying off a mountain of debt.

ChrisMarie09 · Jul 19, 2012

Anywhere between 19.5-31K depending on how these next 2 years of school are being paid for. That tiny little fact hasn't been made clear to me yet. I can't seem to get a straight answer from my dad as to whether I should accept my loans for this year, whether he's paying or if I'm using the rest of my college fund.

tenjuna, MSN · Jul 19, 2012

I am going to be in it for $35k due to being a single parent of 2 teenagers (who eat constantly) and having to scale back my work hours.

I also had to sell all of my toys, hell practically everything that isn't required to feel like I don't live in an empty box.

sometimes you have to sacrifice everything to live your dream. if I don't get a job after all this I may actually HAVE to live in an empty box lol.

veggie530 · Jul 19, 2012

Notice most of the people without debt are people who are married (someone else is bringing in an income). If you do a BSN program without doing ADN first, you'll likely get some hefty debt. If your university is 12k per year for full-time enrollment living off campus, do you think you can come up with $1000 a month to avoid debt? I doubt it, otherwise you'd probably keep the job you have.

ADN program I'm in is costing less than $5000 total, not including gasoline and such. When I do my BSN afterward my total savings is going to be in the tens of thousands and I'm debt free.

take it for what it's worth.

macalania54 · Jul 24, 2012

3 years into my undergrad BSN program (4 years), and I have about 10K in loans so far. I don't know if that's "good" or "bad", but I do know it's pretty much nothing compared to some of my friends who'll be graduating with about 25K+ in debt. I can't even imagine...

hgreen2011 · Nov 25, 2013

not_a_hat_person, so do you only have your lpn and not rn? if so can you tell me how long your school loan was and the approx monthly payment? Im looking at getting my adn and its bout $20,000 all together. Also, was it worth taking out that much of a loan for your lpN?

calivianya, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2013

My family was able to help me some, so I have no debt from my BSN, but honestly - my whole program only cost 2-3k per semester, so you're talking 20-30k tops for a BSN. If you are paying more than that, and you're not an out of state student, you're doing something wrong.