Living Expenses After College
It’s been one of those weeks where I feel like obsessively thinking about my life decisions and the future. Today, it’s time to map out my pay with future living costs and loan payments.
I have a little over $28,000 in loans to pay since getting my bachelor’s degree five months ago and haven’t made any payments yet. I apparently am going to start paying back around $289.67 a month starting on July 11th (which will be seven months after graduating).
Since I’m about to start medical assistant training for a year as a full time student, I may have the opportunity to postpone loan payments but I think I better just start making those payments to get it over with sooner.
I currently still live with my parents although they are strict and sometimes we don’t get along, but they are also loving and supportive and my mom lets me use her car.
I need experience working in hospitals and clinics with health care providers before trying to get into PA school, so I applied to work as a medical scribe. This medical scribe place will pay me $9.50 per hour with a pay increase to $11.50 per hour after the first year of working there. I plan to save a lot (if not all) of the money I make. My money will be tight at first, but once I get the pay raise and an additional job as a medical assistant in a year and a half, things should get better.
If I end up working the medical scribing job for 30 to 40 hours a week during the summer, I can make $285 to $380 per week; which amounts to around $1,140-$1,520 per month. Taking away $289.67 to pay my monthly student loans would leave me with $850.33 to $1,230.33 per month. Then, taking away $120 for misc. purchases and eating out would have me with $730.33 to $1,110.33 per month to put into savings. A lot of these savings will most likely go towards paying for my tuition while going to school for medical assisting too.
*Living Costs: I read that the living wage for one adult in the state I live in is $11.39 per hour. (I got this information from http://livingwage.mit.edu.) This means that I won’t be moving out for at least another year, which should be fine. In the meantime, I will have to start doing my own taxes. According to this website, I’ll be paying around $3,761 on taxes annually. For now, paying my tuition, loans and taxes are all I have to deal with. Luckily, I still don’t pay for the groceries so for now I won’t include the cost for food.
Eventually, I will need to start making car payments. After adding up the average cost for insurance in my state and things people who have a car end up paying for, I found that I could be paying $4,474 per year or $372.83 per month on transportation.
Then there’s medical costs. Based on the living wage calculator on the first website I referenced, one adult where I live tends to pay an average of $2,217 annually on medical payments. This is equal to $184.75 per month.
All of these living costs combined are equal to $10,452 per year, which is $871 per month.
Working minimum wage full time would cover these living expenses but would not leave much room for savings, loan payments, and potential for paying for my own food and housing. But if I were to be working part time as a medical assistant and a scribe simultaneously in a year from now, then I could be making an estimated amount of $28,600 annually or $2,383.33 per month.
Conclusion: This part of my career is a stepping stone in a young part of my life. I won’t be making enough money to afford to pay for all living expenses until well over a year from now, but one of these days things will get better as my career advances when I get the job I want after graduating from PA school.
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