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dvm360 Leadership Challenge: Curb your debt
Like other Americans, veterinary professionals are being saddled with the ballooning cost of education. But when these newly-minted veterinarians and veterinary team members land their first jobs, the pay simply doesn't add up and can damage more than their financial well-being. Join as we explore the realities of student debt as well as various professional and personal options that could help restrain the stresses and limitations it brings. Our ultimate goal: to curb debt's control over your life so it doesn't curb your enthusiasm for this amazing profession.
Like other Americans, veterinary professionals are being saddled with the ballooning cost of education. But when these newly-minted veterinarians and veterinary team members land their first jobs, the pay simply doesn't add up and can damage more than their financial well-being.
Join as we explore the realities of student debt as well as various professional and personal options that could help restrain the stresses and limitations it brings. Our ultimate goal: to curb debt's control over your life so it doesn't curb your enthusiasm for this amazing profession.
This Leadership Challenge is supported with an educational grant from Banfield.
The big picture
Finding freedom: The smart way to leave your student debt behind
It keeps you awake at night. It overshadows every life decision. It may even make you question your career choice. But you can be free of the soul-sucking burden of your veterinary student debt-as long as you have the right information and the right plan.
Before you judge your colleagues, take a long, hard look at our survey data on the educational debt they carry and why it might be limiting their choices ... and, overall, bumming them out.
Where DVMs fit in the U.S. student debt crisis
Take a look at the numbers, and you see the student debt crisis is bigger than veterinary medicine. But the debt-to-income ratio makes our profession's student loans particularly tough.
Vet confessions on student debt
Read the real reactions your colleagues in the veterinary world feel regarding their student debt.
For many veterinary technicians, the cost of school just doesn't add up to the money they can make in a practice. Here's what vet techs told me about their debt, finances and frustrations as well as the passion that keeps them holding on.
Data: What technicians owe and how much they get paid
Our 2018 dvm360 Student Debt Survey dug into, not just veterinarians' school debt, but the debt veterinary technicians carry and how much they get paid. Here's how it shook out, with 199 veterinary technicians responding.
Personal accounts
An associate veterinarian paying down $110k in debt
This veterinarian muses about the steep cost of therapeutic diets for her four cats-and that's with the professional discount.
Fetching a bit of education, plus fun with family
This associate started the week by finishing up a veterinary continuing education conference and then digging into a more normal work week, with a bonus of spending a little time with her extended family.
A week of overtime and a little play time
In an effort to pay off her student loan by the end of the year, this technician and her husband watch spending carefully and still find moments to splurge.
Tips and tools to help
Tackling veterinary student debt: 1-hour webinar
Get an hour of CE credit as you learn the first steps to curbing debt's control over your life so it doesn't curb your enthusiasm for this amazing profession.
Veterinary internships: Examining their value in an era of six-figure debt
If a new graduate wants to to spread her wings in a structured learning environment, the cost of delayed earning may be too high-unless she plans to transform into a specialist.
5 steps to get you out from under vet school debt
A little common sense-and some support from your veterinary colleagues-will keep you from being crushed.
Student tip: Keep loan interest in check with a few bucks a day
Knowledge is power, and a simple formula can help even poverty-stricken veterinary students keep debt from snowballing.
Change your money habits, change your future
If your financial life as a veterinary professional still consists of putting cash into envelopes at the start of the month-or the online or Excel version of that-you should know there's a better way.
Self-care and wisdom
Expelliarmus debtus! Magic tricks for facing student debt
OK, there's no spell for veterinary technicians or vet tech students to cast and make student debt disappear. Believe me, I've tried. However, the tips and tricks I've found along the way are pretty magical indeed.
Your money, your life: Will this app save or break my bank?
When it comes to repaying veterinary school debt, are money-saving apps like Digit worth the download, or will the fine print cost more in the long run?
Comic relief
Share this short, to-the-point algorithm with anybody who's on the road to vet school ... or just starting to dream about a career as someone who TOTALLY spends ALL DAY playing with cute puppies and kittens (sarcasm, people).
Want innovative ways to tackle your student debt? This veterinarian has done the thinking through it for you.
