Question about kids, college and the medical field

[Jennsnoopy]

This question pertains to anyone who has gone into medicine or had kiddo's who did. I'm looking for advice on how to navigate this financially and help your child learn to navigate this JUST IN CASE this actually comes to fruition.

Our daughter (11) wants to be a vet. Yes I know many young girls want to be a "vet" but we believe this will stick. First, she is a cancer survivor and been around a lot of medical situations since she was very young. She does not want to work on people (too close to what she went through) thus vet. This past summer she got a great opportunity to intern at a vet hospital. She did all the non glamorous work, poop duty, cleaning cages, etc. but also watched surgeries such as amputations, spays, putting sick animals down, etc and still is enthralled.

She's an excellent student and we luckily live in a state with a great state vet school (CSU).

Now I know it's far away but I spoke with a mom who's adult child is in vet school as we speak and this kid knew he would be doing this by age 10 and the mom said now she wishes she would have planned for this.

My husband a I both went to inexpensive undergrad colleges. Our feelings are get excellent grades there and do not rack up debt in undergrad. Hubs went to MIT for grad school and ended up doing fellowships so MIT was paid for. We hate student debt.

We have a decent college where we live that our daughter could do undergrad at. Fairly inexpensive and just 2 hours south of CSUcwhich would be her grad (vet) school. The fact that CSU is in state allows reduced tuition but currently that's still a $100k bill upon completion (in today's costs).

While we have college savings set up for both kids, there is no way we will have whatever is equivalent to $100k (vs $200k out of state) by the time she is ready for vet school.

How would you plan for this? Our daughter has already spoken to over half a dozen vets and wants to specialize in a certain area in order to be "marketable". (I can't believe my 11 year old even knows that word).

Maybe I need to teach her how to be frugal with her allowance so she can learn habits to repay money she needs to borrow?

Thoughts?

Please no "she's a kid, she will change her mind.". You don't know this girl and what she has overcome already.

We are just trying to figure out how to be proactive with this while paying off our mortgage early, making good retirement decisions for us and setting up how to help our special needs son with his goals and life plans (he is younger than his sister but it's unclear if he will be able to live independently as an adult).

Thanks.

[disneysteve]

Maybe I need to teach her how to be frugal with her allowance so she can learn habits to repay money she needs to borrow?

I think this is part of good parenting no matter what, teaching our kids how to manage money, live below their means, and save for the future.

Sit down with her and explain what college and vet school costs. Show her how student loans work - how much she would need to pay over what period of time based on predicted borrowing amounts.

She is almost old enough to start working. Babysitting would be at the top the list most likely. If she can get a few regular babysitting jobs from the time she's 12 until she's 18, she can save up thousands of dollars.

[Jennsnoopy]

Thanks, Steve. I know you are a doctor and I was hoping you would respond. I appreciate the advice.

[disneysteve]

Since she loves animals, dog walking and pet sitting could also be ways for her to earn money. Encourage her to put herself out there, talk to friends and neighbors, and sell her services.

[Jennsnoopy]

Good idea. She is doing some of that. In a previous post I mentioned we are a small fish in an expensive pond with regards to our house and the surrounding neighborhoods. She has been helping various neighbor's with horses by feeding the horses and letting them out while the neighbors go on vacation. Only doing it for 2 families so far and they don't go out of town that often but it pays $20/day which is great money for what she does. She currently uses thst money to pay for her bearded dragons (reptile) care. She completely pays for her lizards food requirements on her own and I'm impressed she is responsible for her pets financially.
I'll have to see if she can pick up a few other jobs. I want to help her learn this lesson while not overwhelming her as she has school assignments, volunteers at the vet clinic and she does ballet as her outlet during the week.

[disneysteve]

I want to help her learn this lesson while not overwhelming her as she has school assignments, volunteers at the vet clinic and she does ballet as her outlet during the week.

My daughter got a weekly babysitting job that was in walking distance from her school. The kids were 7 and 9 or 8 and 10 and pretty self-sufficient. Basically all she had to do was be there when they got off the bus, make sure they did their homework, and nuke some dinner. Most of the time, she was just sitting and doing her own homework, but making $10/hour at the same time.

[scfr]

Have you thought about helping her get through her undergrad studies, then letting pay her own way through veterinary school (either with loans, or working and saving for several years possibly as a vet tech before starting vet school, or some combination of the two)? I don't have children but have been doing a little bit to prepare my niece & nephew financially for college. I think wanting to help children is admirable, but with finite resources and multiple priorities there are limits to what any of us can do.

One thing I'm thinking about as a "next step" for my niece is offering to match what she saves from her babysitting job to put in to a CD that would mature when she is half-way through college. I'm already contributing to her 529 College Savings plan but thought the CD experience would be a more tangible way to introduce the concept of mid- to long-range planning.

[snafu]

Wonderful suggestions! I hope her higher education fund is at least invested in a low cost Index fund. Our kids were encouraged to invest 1/2 their 'earnings' from PT and summer work in a Dividend Fund. My dad talked to the other grandparents and gifting relatives to make them aware of the benefit to DSs to add to their education fund for birthdays, Christmas and other gifting occasions.

They got slightly fewer toys, games, cute T's etc. but those sums from others added to MFs collectively compounded to unanticipated sums over 20 years.

[Jennsnoopy]

There is no way we are paying for her entire grad school. That's why I'm asking now. How to help her, help herself. Both hubs and I got full scholarships for undergrad. If she follows our path the money we have set for that will go to her gradschool.

I just brought this up from recent discussions on here about college degrees and debt. I see no way around significant college debt if one chooses a medical field. I'm just wondering if others have had different experiences if they chose to be an MD or DVM. Outside of coming from a pretty wealthy family, I don't see how you can escape college debt if earning a degree in these fields.

[disneysteve]

I see no way around significant college debt if one chooses a medical field. I'm just wondering if others have had different experiences if they chose to be an MD or DVM. Outside of coming from a pretty wealthy family, I don't see how you can escape college debt if earning a degree in these fields.

I graduated with about $102,000 in debt, $88,000 of it was from med school. That was in 1990. My goal was to pay it off in 10 years but a brief period of unemployment knocked that plan off track and it took me 12, which still wasn't too bad.

[Jennsnoopy]

That's impressive, Steve. Thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate the truth. I really want to give my kids the gift of learning how to manage their salaries vs expenses. It took us until our 40's to learn it. Better late than never.

[FLA]

one way to save money down the road and beef up a college resume would be for her to take AP and any other college classes offered usually starting in 8th or 9th grade. DD will graduate with a year's worth of credits under her belt. She may not be able to shave that year off a 4 yr program but it will easily allow her time to have a minor or two. It's also good prep for learning what college level classes will be like.

[Jennsnoopy]

Thx, FLA, she's already on that track. It's great to hear all of these suggestions

[breathemusic]

I would also suggest that she keep in mind overall high school GPA and extra-curriculars and things that would make her eligible to apply for lots of scholarships. I was lucky in that I got a lot of financial aid during undergrad due to a lower income single parent... but I also knew that I was paying for school 100% on my own with the exception of the cost of books (my mom was willing and able to cover that for both my brother and I). I knew this before even starting high school, so I busted my butt to maintain straight As and did whatever I needed to do to look good for scholarships. I also applied for lots of local scholarships since those are easier to win than national ones due to less competition.

The other thing I did was get a credit card as soon as I was old enough. I got one before I was 18 by getting a card on my mother's account, then got my own as soon as I was 18. I made sure I only put minimum expenses on them like gas, so I paid the bill in full every month, but I wanted to establish credit history as early as possible so that when I had to take out my own loans, I didn't require a co-signer and was also able to get a lower interest rate.

Depending on your income, if your daughter is eligible for any financial aid, I actually turned down the school's offer for work study because they were all campus jobs that paid horrible wages and I knew I could get a part time job while in undergrad that paid more money.

The fact that she knows to go into a specialty that's marketable is great. It's also just important that she keeps in mind what a recent graduate makes from vet school in whatever area she wants to go into. Then compare that to what her student loan payments would be each month depending on the debt she estimates she might graduate with.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I think encourage her to go somewhere free for undergrad and gift savings for later. She might change her field into something else that also needs an advanced degree. Think teaching even and that is not high paying yet can be pricey for what you are making. Or anything. Who knows. The best thing is to help them decide and make wise financial decisions early on.