2 full-time jobs?

Cococure · Sep 29, 2018

Ok working 2 jobs is possible but it's hell speaking from experience. You will be a brand spanking new RN and that transition from school to real word is hard enough. You will be learning and adapting your 1st. My advice is to get into a specialty area like ER ICU L&D etc get 2 yrs of experience and then do travel nursing or get the experience and do full time job and a PRN job or you can work nights weekend option and do OT plus all the holidays. When you graduate move back in with family if that is an option, make a financial plan and stick to it. So why your friends may be partying and traveling you will be working like a beast to pay down that loan.

Good luck!

Elaken · Sep 30, 2018

The absolute, single best thing you can do, is learn to live frugally. When it comes to paying down debt and saving for retirement the biggest thing is how much you save. Someone who makes 50k a year and saves 50% is better off than someone who makes 200k and saves 10%. Because that first person can live a year for every year they save whereas the other person has to work 9 years for every year saved. I strongly consider you look up Mr. Money Mustache and read the articles. If you learn to live a good life without excess then you can stop stressing. You will pay off the debt in no time.

Since you will live with your parents you will have minimal expenses. I recommend at least putting in enough to 401k/403b to do whatever matching your company has and then spending rest on your debt depending on the interest. If you work full time (picking up OT when possible) and a part time job there is no reason you can't have your debt paid off in 5-6 years. And then you will be fiscally responsible enough to be in a good place to start catching up on retirement.

I don't know anyone who does 2 full time

Jobs. It would be very rough and you can avoid it.

Pheebz777, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2018

Do 1 full time job and another as agency or PRN at another facility for more flexibility and more pay. Be sure to max out your tax deductions (ex. filing for single on your W2) that way by the end of the year you will (most likely) not owe the IRS.

I used to do 2 full time jobs for almost a year, one in ICU and one in ER. 13 nights straight then, 1 day off.. repeat.

NurseDiane · Sep 30, 2018

Why can't you get a job now? You can certainly work at least a part time job while going to school. $200K for a nursing degree is ridiculous.

Get a job, and transfer to a school that is cheaper. Try to get into a school near your family so you don't have to pay for room & board. There are tons of ways to lower college costs--the problem is that many college students don't want to make sacrifices to do it.

NurseDiane · Sep 30, 2018

How would it be more expensive to transfer to a community college at home for two more years? If you live at home, that saves you a crap ton of money.

"Time consuming"? Do you know what time consuming is? Time consuming is working 7 days a week to pay off school loans.

The school you're going to isn't the only nursing school in the country. I cannot see how pre-reqs wouldn't transfer to another college. I don't know what "they don't transfer well" means. They either transfer or they don't. Pre reqs are pre reqs, no matter where you take them. Anatomy & physiology is the same no matter where you take it. Pharmacology is the same no matter where you take it. Statistics is the same no matter where you take it. Inorganic & organic chemistry is the same no matter where you take it.

I don't want sound mean, but it seems to me that you would rather just stay in the situation you're in than put in the time & effort to figure this out. If you have to forego a semester to move back home, get your credits transferred to another college, find a job, then that's what you have to do. $200,000 is one HELL OF A LOT OF MONEY. And that is without interest. You can buy a home with that kind of money. If you are saddled with that kind of debt right out of school, you can forget about buying a new car, or a place to live, or living anywhere else but a studio apartment on the bad side of town for 10 or so years. And nurses are having hard times finding jobs these days. You shouldn't count on being able to even get 2 full time jobs. There isn't any nursing degree worth $200k. You already have close to $100k in debt. If you put your nose to the grindstone, do what you have to do---which means getting a job, learning to live frugally, taking as little loan money as possible, living with your family---you can get away without having to take any student loans. You can't do anything about the past, but you can control your future.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2018

The only thing crazier than going into $200K of debt for a nursing degree is LOANING someone in this situation that kind of money. It should be illegal to take advantage of young and naive young people like this.

What you are proposing is incredibly unwise. Texas has many community colleges with nursing programs. Even if you lost some credits in a transfer, it would be MUCH cheaper than your current plan. You could even start out getting your LVN, then going to an RN bridge program, then to an online RN to BSN.

Listen to the advice you are getting. It SHOULD NOT take $200K to get a nursing degree, no matter what mistakes you have made prior. Don't compound your previous mistakes by continuing to make more of the same.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Oct 2, 2018

Why is your 20K debt going to cost you 2K per mo? I had to take out a LOT of loans: 57K, and I pay ~350/mo on extended repayments.

At $2K/mo you'll be done paying in less than 1 year or so.

oh, wait. You said 200K?! That's way too much to take out!

JRockNP · Oct 3, 2018

Working two full time jobs is doable but you will have no life. Honestly you usually come out better tax wise working one job and picking up extra shifts when ever you can even if you have to float to other units to get the overtime. Most big hospitals offer incentives for extra shifts plus you get time and half for overtime. One full time job and one PRN job is also better if you can get the incentives for PRN work.

Pheebz777, BSN, RN · Oct 5, 2018

Hi! I am wondering how likely and doable it is to work two full-time jobs as an RN?
I am currently in nursing school and will be graduating with over $200,000 in student loan debt (before interest) because of some stupid financial decisions I made. I chose to go out of state for a different major and took the wrong route on changing it. Rather than transferring back to an in-state school or even community college, I stayed out of state and somehow wound up in a private nursing school. Long story short, I am doomed when I have to begin paying my loans.
I am terrified of not being able to make my ~$2000/month loan payments working as a nurse, and I know I would not be able to live a sustainable lifestyle this way. I will be moving back in with my parents and throwing almost my entire paychecks towards loans, and I am afraid that after bills I will not have enough to make these payments. I would do absolutely anything to be able to have these loans paid off within ten years but it'll be nowhere near possible with one job in nursing.
My situation being as stressful and complicated as it is, I am having a difficult time wanting to keep going and graduate, but I know I won't be able to afford to pay off my current loans without a degree. Due to all of this, I was wondering how possible and doable it is to work two full-time jobs as an RN? I plan to work in the DFW metroplex, and my preference for my first job would be in a pediatric ER but I am open to anything, just because of my situation.
EDIT: I am still unfortunately 3 years out from graduating but am stuck in the situation I am in. I am a first generation so nobody in my family understood what I was getting myself into, so please don't judge too hard!

Have you looked into working for the Military to pay off school loans?

Wuzzie · Oct 5, 2018

Have you looked into working for the Military to pay off school loans?

The OP is not eligible due to a seizure disorder.

fsudmbRN, ASN · Oct 5, 2018

Thank you for giving me this information rather than only telling me to escape what I was in. I will definitely look into an ADN, I have just heard horror stories about it being more difficult for them to get jobs as opposed to those holding a bachelor's so I have never put much thought into it.

I only have an ADN. I have been working for 10 years. I have had every type of nursing job out there... minus a DON, but I have never even THOUGHT about pursuing that one!!! I have never been without a job during that time. While it seems to be the trend moving to BSNs, there are still MANY, MANY, MANY of us ADN's still around.

Many hospitals will also help pay for your ADN! If you work the floor as a patient care tech, many will have you sign a contract that will require you to work for the area for a certain amount of time. They will reimburse you for your classes at the end of the semester. I have worked with several people who would have never been able to go to nursing school without this option.

fsudmbRN, ASN · Oct 5, 2018

2 years of pre-reqs before you could begin the ADN?? Something doesn't sound right.

My Florida pre-reqs were close to two years at the school I went to. Things like A&PI, A&P2, Microbiology... those couldn't be taken together.... so you ended up in school taking pre-reqs for two years. There was some complaints about it, so they ended up working it into the program... when they found that people go "lost" because they didn't know basic anatomy, they changed it back to the "old way."