Paying off your student debt

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Anne Budzinski, an AABP member practicing at CalfCare in North Manchester, IN,  where she focuses on calf medicine and consulting. Dr. Budzinski is a 2015 graduate of Michigan State University. She shares her story of paying off $184,000 of student loan debt in 5 years and 4 months! We discuss her background of growing up on a farm in Michigan and selling potatoes as a child and baling hay to learn the value of hard work and managing her finances. She recommends only borrowing the amount of money you need for tuition and living expenses while in veterinary school versus taking the maximum amount of loans offered. Continually re-assess your needs each year to limit the amount of debt you incur in veterinary school. After veterinary school, she suggests not taking the grace period but starting payments immediately. Dr. Budzinski offered a few tips for those paying off student loans:

1. Pay off your smallest debts first and work up to the large ones. As the smaller debts are paid, roll the payments into the next largest debt and so forth. This helps the borrower with a sense of accomplishment as each debt is paid.
2.  Have financial plan or budget. Stick to the budget. Know where your money is going each month. 
3. Make a visual chart of your goal and cross off your accomplishments. She made a chart from 1 to 184 and crossed off the numbers as her debt decreased. 
4. Don’t compare yourself to others. You know your situation and should develop your own plans and goals.

Dr. Budzinski also discusses managing work-life balance as a busy associate veterinarian, a wife and a mother of a young child. She states she is a “work in progress” which is true for all of us. She also shares her goals now that she is debt free which includes increasing her retirement savings contributions, starting a small herd of cows, and taking a trip to the “motherland” – Poland!