Abi90
Well-Known Member
I mean I lose from my salary each month about the same as I would pay off a £9,000 loan. Except I’ve been doing it for 10 years and my loan figure seems to keep going up!!
Army veterinary surgeons
- Thread starter HannahB
- Start date
I mean I lose from my salary each month about the same as I would pay off a £9,000 loan. Except I’ve been doing it for 10 years and my loan figure seems to keep going up!!
Michen
Well-Known Member
Yes, but when you are earning enough to be paying it off you will notice it and, as Abi says, it'll very much be like having a chunky loan.
You shouldn't worry about it but you should be aware of it. You will want to be rid of it as quickly as you can once those payments become bigger as your earnings increase.
crazyandme
Well-Known Member
Ahahahahahaha Michen, I currently owe the government 50k. I am not convinced that I am ever going to pay that much back! (I was the first year who paid 9k a year, finished in 3 years but still had 3x maintenance loans. Then 6 years not hitting the minimum payment threshold!)
Especially as they will cancel it within 30 years anyway
Especially as they will cancel it within 30 years anyway
Dexter
Well-Known Member
Under 30k its a pretty small amount so really isn't noticeable.
Just checked, on 30k a year its £20 a month.
ponynutz
Well-Known Member
deleted (sorry dexter for the random notification x)
Michen
Well-Known Member
For a significant length of time on 40k ish (actually I could be remembering that wrong, but it would have been well under 100k) I was paying about £400 back a month. It was a Scottish student loan, maybe that was different? And a while ago!
Sossigpoker
Well-Known Member
How can it be going up? That's crazy!
Abi90
Well-Known Member
I’m paying £230 a month back on just over £40k a year.
View
Well-Known Member
Our eldest also found his loan amount increasing despite the money being paid each month, due to the interest rate applied.
Orangehorse
Well-Known Member
I have two nieces in the USA who both joined the army in order to get trained in medicine. The first one trained as a dentist, the second as a doctor. The deal was that however many years they spent training, they had to stay in the army for that many years. At the time - 15 ish years ago, the annual university fee for medical training in the USA was $72,000 and it was 5/6 years training, so they didn't start earning until well past their mid 20s.
The dentist did her training and then later did a further 3 years to do facial surgery.
Obviously they had to be fit enough to join the army, although they are both not tall they were pretty fit and did a lot of tennis and swimming, but they both said that the initial training was the toughest thing. Out in the desert, unrelenting heat, really being put through their paces and having to tough it out, many of their fellow recruits did not get through the first few weeks. My second niece failed a fitness test by one push-up, she had to go through the whole thing again from the start.
They trained alongside the other medical students and veterinary students and although they were soldiers, the army did take care of their expensively trained personnel. The eldest was in Afghanistan and set up a dental surgery for the local population, although heaven knows what has happened to it now.
The dentist did her training and then later did a further 3 years to do facial surgery.
Obviously they had to be fit enough to join the army, although they are both not tall they were pretty fit and did a lot of tennis and swimming, but they both said that the initial training was the toughest thing. Out in the desert, unrelenting heat, really being put through their paces and having to tough it out, many of their fellow recruits did not get through the first few weeks. My second niece failed a fitness test by one push-up, she had to go through the whole thing again from the start.
They trained alongside the other medical students and veterinary students and although they were soldiers, the army did take care of their expensively trained personnel. The eldest was in Afghanistan and set up a dental surgery for the local population, although heaven knows what has happened to it now.
HannahB
Well-Known Member
I worked most of the maths out recently. The loan for the course would be £46,250 for the 5 years at uni. Due to current cost of living and £500 per month for accommodation (I'm hoping to go to Bristol or Liverpool), I think I would struggle to live on less than 10,000 a year, so £50,000 for the whole course. Which adds up to a grand total of around £100,000 for 5 years.
From 2023 and therefore for when I start uni in 2024, they have set the interest rate (it won't change while I am repaying it) for student loans at 9% which is just crazily unfair. Also, the government are trying to move back the 30 year cut off period.
Since starting salary for a vet is typically 35k, I'm going to struggle to pay back any more than the interest, as that alone would be 9k the first year and would increase thereafter, as one of the perks of being compound interest, so over the time that I would be paying it back, the loan will continue increasing. So over a career, you wouldn't even think about it but I would end up paying at least 6 times as much as the original loan. So if I can self fund, I would save appropriately 600k which would allow me to, for example, start my own practice and find ways of helping future vets cope with their uni fees. But then I would have to find 20k a year from my family which is easier said than done
From 2023 and therefore for when I start uni in 2024, they have set the interest rate (it won't change while I am repaying it) for student loans at 9% which is just crazily unfair. Also, the government are trying to move back the 30 year cut off period.
Since starting salary for a vet is typically 35k, I'm going to struggle to pay back any more than the interest, as that alone would be 9k the first year and would increase thereafter, as one of the perks of being compound interest, so over the time that I would be paying it back, the loan will continue increasing. So over a career, you wouldn't even think about it but I would end up paying at least 6 times as much as the original loan. So if I can self fund, I would save appropriately 600k which would allow me to, for example, start my own practice and find ways of helping future vets cope with their uni fees. But then I would have to find 20k a year from my family which is easier said than done
Michen
Well-Known Member
I worked most of the maths out recently. The loan for the course would be £46,250 for the 5 years at uni. Due to current cost of living and £500 per month for accommodation (I'm hoping to go to Bristol or Liverpool), I think I would struggle to live on less than 10,000 a year, so £50,000 for the whole course. Which adds up to a grand total of around £100,000 for 5 years.
From 2023 and therefore for when I start uni in 2024, they have set the interest rate (it won't change while I am repaying it) for student loans at 9% which is just crazily unfair. Also, the government are trying to move back the 30 year cut off period.
Since starting salary for a vet is typically 35k, I'm going to struggle to pay back any more than the interest, as that alone would be 9k the first year and would increase thereafter, as one of the perks of being compound interest, so over the time that I would be paying it back, the loan will continue increasing. So over a career, you wouldn't even think about it but I would end up paying at least 6 times as much as the original loan. So if I can self fund, I would save appropriately 600k which would allow me to, for example, start my own practice and find ways of helping future vets cope with their uni fees. But then I would have to find 20k a year from my family which is easier said than done
You sound very switched on, best of luck with whatever you do. I wish the starting salaries for vets were better. I dated one for a while and even as a relatively senior vet but not partner in a practice he didn’t earn much more than 55k which I think is appalling for the work he did.
Sossigpoker
Well-Known Member
I didn't know that ,.I thought they'd be on a low ,.flat interest rate. That's really bad.
teapot
Well-Known Member
I worked most of the maths out recently. The loan for the course would be £46,250 for the 5 years at uni. Due to current cost of living and £500 per month for accommodation (I'm hoping to go to Bristol or Liverpool), I think I would struggle to live on less than 10,000 a year, so £50,000 for the whole course. Which adds up to a grand total of around £100,000 for 5 years.
From 2023 and therefore for when I start uni in 2024, they have set the interest rate (it won't change while I am repaying it) for student loans at 9% which is just crazily unfair. Also, the government are trying to move back the 30 year cut off period.
Since starting salary for a vet is typically 35k, I'm going to struggle to pay back any more than the interest, as that alone would be 9k the first year and would increase thereafter, as one of the perks of being compound interest, so over the time that I would be paying it back, the loan will continue increasing. So over a career, you wouldn't even think about it but I would end up paying at least 6 times as much as the original loan. So if I can self fund, I would save appropriately 600k which would allow me to, for example, start my own practice and find ways of helping future vets cope with their uni fees. But then I would have to find 20k a year from my family which is easier said than done
Worth noting that the Army funding for vets is paid in a small value over three years, and then a lump sum, once you've completed the Commissioning Short Course at Sandhurst.
If you were thinking of using that lump sum to pay some of student loan off, be very careful - know a few people who have been screwed over by paying it off early, through overpayment, or paying the interest on the full amount, not the amount left.
https://apply.army.mod.uk/roles/army-medical-service/veterinary-officer
ETS - both Bristol and Liverpool have OTCs so that's a good start too
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Dexter
Well-Known Member
You can work it out here. 40k should have been £95 a month.Unless you were on the old scheme but that was changed over quite a while ago, even that would have only been £148 a month
https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php
Michen
Well-Known Member
Hmmm, maybe I was earning more then I remember then when it was paid off.
Either way, I remember £400 ish a month coming out and it sucked. Regardless of salary.
As calculated by the OP above, I just don’t think people should view these huge loans and debts so lightly.
Lexi 123
Well-Known Member
You shouldn’t join the army just for saving money and not wanting to take out a loan if you just want to be a Vet go do the traditional route . not to mention it’s extremely difficult to get into now-days you have to have nothing medically wrong a be fitter than the average person. The regulations are stupidly strict so most people wouldn’t pass . also you retire young so you probably looking at a a new career in your 40s. Most of my family are in the army most are retired now don’t join for the wrong reasons you won’t last there you really generally have to love the army to stay there.
Lexi 123
Well-Known Member
nobody Should be joining the army to save money or to avoid get a student loan. clearly op is joining the army for the wrong reasons .