FINANCING YOUR HEALTH PROFESSIONS EDUCATION: Credit Cards
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Credit Cards or How to Bankrupt Your Future

What are you actually paying?

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How Can You Save Money?

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Student Loans 

• If you borrow $15,000 per year for college you will have paid for a house by the time the loan is paid off!
  
  
• $60,000 @ 4.06% OVER 120 months (10 years) = $73,101.00

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Paying for Your Education

• Scholarships

  • Corporations

  • Federal/State funding

  • Community

  • Private Organizations

• Family

• Service Obligated money

• Loans

Budgets

Define Goals (Calculate what you need vs. what you want!)

• What do you want to do?  Own home, car, kids in private schools, retirement lifestyle,etc
• What is the philosophy of the financial aid office of each school you wish to attend?  Will they pay for child-care/sibling/parent/spouse?  Will they give additional funds for travel home?     

Collect data and ascertain your costs

• Identify income sources
• Parents
• Relatives
• Savings
• Work-study
• Loans
• Scholarships – no payback required
• Service obligated scholarships
• Analyze cash flow (see budget worksheet below)
• Fixed Expenses
• Variable Expenses
• Outline options
• Compare financial aid packages
• weigh loan rates and maximum amounts you can borrow
• Look at repayment terms/grace periods
• Deferment options
• Pay off consumer debt before you begin school!
• Design budget
• Control your financial actions
• Limit credit card debt!!! See chart of credit card rates
• Get rid of cell phone
• Sell car or don’t buy one
• Get a roommate
• Call home collect
• Don’t eat out a lot
• Do your own nails/hair
• Ask for clothes for gifts at X-mas, birthday, etc.
• Copy someone else’s CDs
• Live with your old computer until it dies
• Find receptions with free food
• Establish and maintain records
• Set-up filing system
• Maintain copies of all correspondence from your financial aid office
• Keep lenders appraised of your address
• Find a financial planner and begin looking at future expenses vs. future earnings.

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Fixed Expenses
These are usually unavoidable and typically unchanging in their amounts.

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Variable Expenses
If you do not have a good sense of how much you spend in this area, consider keeping a personal diary of all your expenditures for at least a two-week period. At the end of those two weeks you will have a much better sense of just where your money goes. Do your total monthly expenses add up to more than the amount of your school’s budget for you? If so, trim some of those variable expenses!  Even though you have a particular expense, the Financial Aid Office may not be able to include in your budget.

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Live Like No One Else
Will For a Few Years So
That You Can Live Like No One Else
For the Rest of Your Life

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