Live below your means. Live like a resident for the first few years as an attending. Get the highest paying job you can and pay down your medical school loans fast.
However, the way today’s doctors pay for medical school has completely changed, and so have the rules. Physicians need to have a plan in place to maximize savings on their student loans.
For almost every resident, the Revised Pay As You Earn plan (REPAYE) will provide an enormously helpful interest rate subsidy and will maintain their eligibility for loan forgiveness if they remain at a not-for-profit hospital after training.
Changes to the PSLF loan program could also preference those already certifying their status towards loan forgiveness. You have every reason to submit the PSLF form if you’re working at a not for profit hospital and you have student debt.
If the REPAYE plan’s interest subsidy applies to you, then you’ll be excited to know you can increase the subsidy to an even higher level. All you need to do is reduce your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI).
It would behoove you to check what your interest rate would be with leading private lenders if the private employer and debt to income ratio characteristics describe you.