I've noticed an interesting trend in forums and emails, often written by the spouse of a resident. The basic gist of it goes like this:
My spouse is a resident in ABC program in XYZ city. The cost of living here is high, I'm a stay at home spouse and we have 2-4 kids. We spend X on rent, our IBR payments are nearly $0, we drive beaters, we never eat out, we don't have Netflix, and our kids aren't enrolled in any extracurricular activities. Not only can we not save any money, but we're actually looking for the best way to borrow money in order to make it through residency, pay for fellowship interviews, and move to our first job.
Often times the writer is looking for some sympathy, or some budgeting/frugal living advice, or some advice on how best to borrow additional money. At first, I found the whole trend to be very strange and had difficulty understanding it. But after interacting with many people in similar situations, I think perhaps I can finally lend some useful advice for those in this situation.
6 Tips for Financial Survival as a Resident
#1 Best Medicine Is Prevention: Choose a Low COLA Residency
First, I think this issue can be prevented in the vast majority of cases. The resident or spouse often laments that they live in a high cost of living town. While that isn't always true (a recent advice seeker actually lives in a very average cost of living town according to any reasonable index of cost of living), location is a big part of matching into a residency. Sure, the strength of the residency program and your fit with the residents and attendings in the program are probably the most important factors in choosing a residency, but location will usually make the top three reasons for choosing one residency over another.
You may want to live close to family or close to recreational opportunities, but I would also urge you to take the cost of living of the city into consideration. Physician salaries tend to be very similar, whether you are living in a small city in the Midwest or in the Bay Area, and that holds true both for residents and for attendings. But an attending salary has a lot more wiggle room to make up for a higher cost of living in a desirable area.
I remember interviewing for residency at Stanford. The program was pretty good, but I ended up not even ranking it mostly because we couldn't afford to live in Palo Alto on a resident's salary, even with the extra stipend/signing bonus they were offering to use for the deposit on a studio apartment. We ended up in Tucson, my first pick anyway for strength of program and fit with the people. But as you can see with a decent cost of living calculator, $40K in Tucson is the equivalent of $69K in San Francisco. Stanford wasn't offering a $90K signing bonus to its residents.
Some specialties are very competitive and some applicants are not particularly competitive. But for the vast majority of graduating medical students, there is a wide choice of residency programs to apply to. If you are married and your spouse wants to stay at home with several kids, then I suggest you avoid applying to, ranking, and matching at programs in cities like New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco. Instead, focus your search on programs in the Midwest or Texas or a smaller town. “If Momma ain't happy, ain't no one happy.” And Momma or Daddy isn't going to be happy crammed into a 2 bedroom apartment in a major city with 3 kids, clipping coupons, and trying to get the beater through another 4 years of serfdom. High cost of living residencies are for single people willing to live with roommates.
#2 In Budgeting, the Big Things Matter Most
When it comes to making a budget, the big expenses matter most. That means housing and transportation. If there is ever a time to drive a beater in your life, it's when you are broke. That's medical school and residency. If there is ever a time to live in a cheaper place, it's while you're a resident. You know it is temporary and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, those lessons in frugality will still serve you well once the big bucks start rolling in. A longer commute may save you money on housing, but if you give the money back in gasoline and auto repairs, that isn't doing you any good. Besides, if there is ever a time in your life when a long commute is a really bad idea, it's when you'll be driving a lot when you're dead tired.
As a resident, we lived in an $800 duplex a half-mile from the hospital. It wasn't the best (nor the worst) neighborhood, but it kept our housing and transportation expenses very low. Not only could we get away with only one car, but that car didn't really get driven very often. Cars last a long time when your round trip commute is under a mile, and usually done on a bicycle.
#3 Safe Areas and Good Schools
Many residents and their spouses complain that they have to pay $X in rent to get a “decent place in a safe neighborhood with good schools.” Well, guess what? Decent places, safe neighborhoods, and good schools are expensive. That's fine if you can afford it, but if your salary is $3500 a month and rent is $2000 a month, then you can't afford it. It doesn't matter how good you are at budgeting when you spend 60% of your income on rent. Your children, like those of the other Americans in your city earning the median American household income of $48,000, will have to live in a place that only has “average” safety and “average” schools. Why would you possibly feel entitled to have your children in the best schools and to own a house in the best neighborhood when you have an average income? The “live like a resident” mantra doesn't just apply to new attendings. It applies to residents too.
#4 Get Rid of Entitlementiasis
You might be a doctor, but you're certainly not being paid like one. Most residents are paid something very close to minimum wage, once you take into account all the hours worked. You don't deserve anything. You're not entitled to anything. The degree you have completed really prepares you to do only one thing — to be an intern. Why do you think you deserve a nice car, much less two? Why do you think your family should have two smartphones, or even two cell phones for that matter? Fancy vacations? Forget it. Food from the fancy organic food store? Get real. Cable TV and full-price movie theaters are not a luxury you can afford. 2-year-olds don't need designer clothes. You can keep food on the table, keep the car running, put clothes on the kids' backs, and put a little away for a rainy day, but this isn't the time in your life for European vacations and symphony tickets. Learn to be frugal now, and that time won't be far away, however. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a train.
#5 Boosting Income
There have been times in my life when I realized that cutting spending wasn't the answer. Sometimes it is far easier to boost income than to cut back any more. For a resident and spouse, that might mean doing some moonlighting, sending the spouse to work a couple of nights a week, or having the spouse work from home (perhaps watching the children of another resident whose spouse needs to work). Finding a job early in that final year of residency and securing a signing bonus can also go a long way.
#6 Borrowing Money
I think borrowing money should generally be a last resort for a resident. Yes, an attending can probably manage to pay back $20,000-30,000 borrowed as a resident. But I have found that those who cannot live on a resident budget are the same people most likely to rapidly grow into an attending budget. “Residency” or “physician” loans generally carry high-interest rates. Credit cards, even with 15 month 0% deals, are a short-term solution that may come back to burn you. Borrowing from family often comes with unwanted strings attached. Do yourself a favor: Choose a residency in a town where you can afford to live on a resident salary, and then live on a resident salary.
All of these tips, of course, also apply to medical school. I'm getting more and more emails from students with $400K+ in debt. Add on the costs of a family and that number can easily get to $500-600K after 4 years.
What do you think? What did you do right, or wrong, as a resident in order to survive financially? Any tips for those struggling to make ends meet who are already locked into a residency in a high cost of living area? Comment below!
I always had a roommate during med school and drove a modest car that was paid off. For the first half of residency I rented a room in a very nice place for $600 all inclusive and continued driving the same car. I splurged on going out with friends but never carried a credit card balance. I even got a personal trainer during residency. I should have continued that and I’d be golden, with 4 years of IBR payments under my belt, but I didn’t. When I started moonlighting I grew into my income by buying a very nice but small condo (where I’ll stay as an attending till my student loans are paid off). Now that I’m wrapping up residency I also finally splurged on a new SUV. I know these weren’t the best financial decisions for me, but I should still be able to have student loans (and my car loan) paid off in 4-5 years and have lived a very comfortable lifestyle in the process (granted it’s easier when I’m only supporting myself and not a spouse or kids). I wouldn’t do anything differently.
I don’t think this is the worst thing ever. You at least were conscious/aware of what you were doing. I think a lot of people do this type of stuff without being aware of the trade-offs they’re making.
During residency we realized our finances were getting out of control. We wrote all our debts minus student loans on a chart that we placed on the side of the refrigerator. We made sure that no matter what happened the balance did not increase month to month. It forced us to learn habits that later served us well in paying back those student loans. Out of residency we bought a small home and payed back way more monthly on our student loans than our mortgage using the same refrigerator chart that was then only student loans. Now in late forties with three kids we are doing same idea with the mortgage. Worked for us. Good luck! Don’t grow into your income till you are done paying off past choices.
We also kept our spending plan on the refrigerator. I printed it each week so we knew how much money in our ‘fun money’ accounts (or grocery or car repair accounts). Something about seeing it regularly made it more tangible, and more of a goal to not want to spend more.
Great expression of something I never experienced and can only see from a distance. One thought I would add is to somehome begin the process of finding a financial professional, somewhat older than you, to whom you can turn to with confidence to help answer questions about money and taxes and all those nasty things that interfere with your efforts to move beyond being a resident and attending physician. You may not get it right the first time, but having a frame of reference for when it becomes important to your future financial well being will serve you well. But we’re sometimes a greedy lot, so don’t rush to respond quickly to any long term “solution”.
Good post. I did my residency and fellowship in California. During those 6 years, we stayed in a single bedroom apt where the rent was $700/mo. I had the luxury of driving a scooter to work (since it rarely rains in California), while my wife drove an old minivan provided by her parents. We also had 3 kids during my residency/fellowship. My fuel costs for my scooter was between $1-2 per month. Crazy, huh? My wife stayed at home with the kids, taking them outside to play at the nearby playground since the apt was too small. I began moonlighting near the end, and saved up enough money to put a sizeabe downpayment on a home when I accepted my first job. Now, we live very comfortable.
I still wonder how some of the residents I trained with were driving BMWs (one guy actually bought an Aston Martin his last year of residency). I think maybe their parents had lots of money? I had the luxury of wearing scrubs just about every day, saving a ton on laundry costs. We have never carried a balance on our credit card in our entire lives. Not one single month.
Now, this comment might get a lot of hate mail associated with it, but I have no sympathy for those who are “struggling” on $40K resident salaries per year. Maybe one of the reasons I was able to save so much money was that I had a family, and therefore rarely had time to go out with the other residents for drinking sessions (which are quite expensive). In fact, I have chosen to not drink alcohol, which saves me a ton of money. I find it incredibly selfish for those making $40K a year to whine about their quality of life. Your big payday will come, I promise you. But for now, you’re a resident, so live like one.
While difficult to swallow for many, the advice above is GREAT advice, and I believe, well-meant. If you’re reading it and feeling picked on… don’t. I’m a stay-at-home mom, and we choose to live the principles above, and will continue to do so for a few more years. My husband will start his first attending job July 1, (insert mini victory dance) and we will continue to live this way for a few more years before we do any kind of “lifestyle-upgrade.”
I just wanted to share one a financial tip that served us well:
Have a plan for your tax return that doesn’t involve buying/upgrading anything. Our return was always highly anticipated, and was immediately thrown at our silly 8.5% loans. Using this strategy along with frugal-living, our now family of 6, was able to pay off $20,000 in loans during a 3-year residency.
Maybe try adjusting your taxes so you don’t get a refund at the same time you increase the monthly amount you pay to debt. If you are reading this site you are disciplined and/or care enough about finances to not spend the extra which you will never see in the budget anyway if the amounts are the same.
I wish I found this site in medical school. We made many mistakes in residency, bought a house, new car, private loan, credit card debt, being financially stupid… We did live in the midwest in a low col area so that helped. Luckily we have been able to turn things around, we paid off the past sins, and are saving/investing about 25% of our gross paycheck. And living within our means.
Here are things to save some cash and stay afloat:
I kept a flip phone on my parent’s family plan. My hospital gave me an ipad. So I was either at the hospital or at home, always in a wifi environment. I could check my emails om an ipad or look at lexicomp or other references. The times I was not in a wifi environment, a flip phone was more than enough. For guys, a phone is for making plans and emergencies only. You don’t need to check your email during your drive.
We got a tv and netflix once we had kids. Up until then we were using our old laptops and creative online tv/movie work around a which were free. Your ethics may vary on that. But we have never had cable tv. Between torrents, ota, and netflix we had all we need.
Bags of frozen chicken.
Amazon prime for dry goods.
Second hand baby clothes and toys.
Store brand formula (after I met a previous owner of generic formula producer)
Slickdeals and frequent couponing
A lot of nacho nights and salads as entrees at home. Chili also. Cheap meals that last days.
For the junior resident, it is important to learn and find someone who knows. Parents, attendings, or senior residents might have answers for financial tips. If not, post here or Bogleheads.
Avoid paying anyone or having anyone that is commissioned based in your corner if you are tight. The guy who wanted to sell me a whole life policy as a resident also wanted what was best for me financially. Someone trying to keep their head above water isn’t the right person for a whole life policy.
Great advice. I agree with the last poster. This needs to be mandatory reading in medical school. I think every medical school needs to convey this to medical students. I’ve made many spending mistakes in residency, luckily they are not insurmountable, but I didn’t have kids then. I think this advice and the article on the low income physician is something every medical student should understand. Every decision has consequences. Like a commenter said on the low income post, you can have a lot of things on a physician salary but really very few can have it all.
I know when I made spending choices in residency, it was always with the thought “my income will balloon when I am attending and I’ll be able to pay all of this off.” Unfortunately I didn’t have a great appreciation of what my loan burden really meant, the cost of taxes, the monthly costs of raising two kids, disability insurance, life insurance etc etc. and with that line of thinking it is very easy to not only grow into your income, but to over spend before you even have a bigger income.
To reiterate, I think medical schools need to better educate medical students on financial matters.
I think one thing I am either seeing more in WCI’s posts or possibly just noticing more lately is the focus on choices. Every piece of income is a choice and every expense is a choice.
Choice of specialty is a choice. Location of residency is a choice Quality of life is a choice. Safety is a choice. Feeding 4 mouths instead of 2 is a choice. Feeding 2 mouths instead of 1 is a choice.
My point is that, as WCI investor has noted many times, we all make choices. I guess my point is that you can’t avoid them, the key in my mind is to choose the ones that you are comfortable with for your long term goals. That’s what we’re all looking at anyway, right — the long game.
Just finishing up my intern year in an affordable, small Southern city. I certainly can relate to the emails you refer. I am fortunate to be a reservist, and earn an additional stipend plus drill pay. If it wasn’t for that, My stay at home wife would need to get a job that could pay for daycare for our 2 children plus extra – hard to find given her undergrad degree and lack of specialized training… As alluded to above, however, all of this is a choice. My wife made 30k/yr working 30 hours/wk while I was in med school, and we made the decision to have children and have her stay at home. To boost income, I have started a couple of websites and plan on moonlighting toward the end of this year. I also plan to sign with a contract next year as I finish up my EM residency to earn a stipend and moving allowance or a sign on bonus. In the meantime, my wife and I continue to pay off her undergrad loans – from 80k down to 20k so far. We also just finished paying off a residency/relocation loan that I used to do audition rotations and interview my last year of med school. In addition, we try our best to avoid the lure of using our slowly increasing income for personal wishes, but divert it toward paying off our highest interest loans (I hate you 8.5% grad plus) as quickly as possible. Our goal is to be finished with her undergrad loans before residency and have my 300k from med school paid off 5 years after graduation.
Whatever you residents do, don’t go moonlighting while you are “called in sick” or “doing research”. Your chairman will find out and then you have to confess. If you don’t confess, you will be kicked out for lying. If you do confess, you may or may not get booted out of the program.
Saw a guy in 1996 get kicked out — he had 6 months to go to complete general surgery and already had his spot in Plastics lined up. Now he can’t do general surgery or Plastics. He is stuck in small ER departments somewhere.
I realize 1996 was a long time ago, but some chairmen (chairwomen) are still pretty darn tough when it comes to residents skipping out of duties for personal reasons.
Better to ask you chair for a loan than to screw up your career! They are very resourceful people, most of them, and they may know where you can get help.
Location of medical and residency and then how you choose to live in those places are the most important choices you can make. I went to medical school in a big city with many of my classmates paying $1500+ for rent for studios and one-bedroom apartments. My first year I lived in a house with 4 other friends from college (none of them in medicine) paying $600/mo, then moved closer to the school downtown for my final three years, living with a roommate, and paying about $900/mo. My girlfriend (now wife) moved in with us for the final two years, which dropped my rent even further ($680/mo). Although the city was expensive, there was no need for a car. We didn’t have cable TV, and all other utilities were split 2-3 ways.
We moved to a lower COLA for residency. Now pay $700/mo mortgage. While we have to drive to work now, I’m cruising in a 2004 sedan with 170k miles while my wife is using a 1998 with 180k miles. We do now both have smart phones, but this is the one luxury we decided to allow ourselves during our training years, and they have come in handy in multiple situations while we are both working hectic schedules that don’t always line up. We don’t have kids yet, and from a financial perspective, I feel for those that do in residency. This is particularly true when one spouse stays at home. I have friends in that situation who qualify for WIC and/or SNAP. It may be hard to admit you need the extra help, but don’t rule out these programs if you are struggling and qualify.
Those residents with kids its a no brainer, you got to avoid the coasts. Kids are very expensive, and the expense is magnified on the coasts. Although both of us are residents, we have a nanny for our two kids (1900/mo), diapers, formula, some activities, ect. adds up. When interviewing be specific about moonlighting. The best places have in-house moonlighting starting in PGY-II.
As mentioned above, the key is to live frugally. I am too amazed at some residents who drive BMWs, go out all the time, yet don’t know anything about investing/saving/retirement accounts ect.
I got our residency director to buy WCI book for each resident. Prior to that we had shady insurance salesemen (diguised as financial planners) come in once a year with nasty pizza pitching their services.
The one thing that you have to keep in mind when you read these threads is that there is some bias in the posting. Some of these posts are nearly unbelievable – all we do is eat cold rice and we share one old-school Nokia and we drive a scooter from Dumb and Dumber 15 miles each way to the bus stop.
There is something to be said for maintaining a level of comfort during your training so you can focus on your training. For my first 2 years of residency I lived in a tiny studio far from my work. I paid down debt and saved a bunch of money but it sucked in other ways: I couldn’t have a friend over for a beer, couldn’t let my family crash with me when they were in town, etc. My last 2 years I moved to a place that while I’m sure didn’t make perfect financial sense it was the right move for me.
I got lucky, and matched in one of the lowest cost cities in the country, and got great training there. I wanted to be at a bigger name place on the coasts — but thank God it didn’t happen.
I am one of those who, even in a lower cost place, borrowed money in residency in order to be able to make it through. Had a wife and kids, and until all were in school and my wife could get some part-time teaching work while they were at school, it really didn’t make sense for my wife to work because of child-care costs.
I moonlighted in my last couple of years to make ends meet, but quit during my last year once I calculated that I had enough room left on my credit cards to make it through to the end. For someone who doesn’t do primary care, working ER’s is extremely stressful, risky from a malpractice standpoint, and takes years off your life.
I had two military years after that, and by living inexpensively (albeit not like a resident — I was again lucky to be in a low-cost city) we paid off all of our consumer debt in two years.
I was in a high-paying specialty and I went to live in a high-reimbursement, low cost of living part of the country in a practice that was seriously undermanned. I worked like a dog and we lived inexpensively (the price of the house we purchased was less than a third of my first year’s pre-tax income), and my student loan debt was paid off in two more years. Granted, my total debt load was nothing like what youngsters have today (I finished training 15 years ago).
We didn’t live like paupers in residency — but neither did we live as well as our blue-collar neighbors. We bought a house (rental property was more expensive) in the poorest neighborhood in the best school district in town. Our kids learned what it was like to be the poorest kids in their classes (all relative, of course — nothing like the ghetto neighborhoods of our city). It was good for them and set the tone for the rest of their lives.
Could we have lived more cheaply and had less debt? Yes, but I’m happy with how we threaded the needle and found a happy medium for us. The debt was worth it for the better quality of life — but as outlined above, I knew that the debt wouldn’t own us for more than a few years after finishing.
Were I going to medical school today, I would have to make very different choices — whether to marry, certainly whether to have children. I wouldn’t even dream of going to med school or residency in a high cost part of the country. I wouldn’t even have considered a low paying specialty. I don’t envy those going through training today.
I do worry that the sheer insurmountability of it all will increasingly cause trainees to develop a sort of learned helplessness about debt and their financial futures. All I can say is: “DON’T!” Don’t make decisions that consign you to a life of what is little better than indentured servitude. HAVE A PLAN. Choosing just not to think about it is the worst decision you can make.
Plan it all out in such a way that you can retire your debt completely within 5-7 years of finishing training. We work so hard in medical school, residency, and in our practices. It takes a lot out of us, even without financial strains, and that is part of why physicians have shorter life-expectancies than our peers. Debt is soul-crushing, and you want to be out from under it absolutely as soon as possible — for the sake of your patients, your family, and your health.
I think that a lot of younger physicians that I see today seem to have a combination of learned helplessness alternating with magical thinking that somehow it is all going to turn out OK just because they are doctors. Our 401K administrator confided in me that at least half of the younger physicians at our hospital aren’t even maxing out on their contributions. As late as we start with putting money away, maxing out one’s tax-deferred contributions is a bare minimum start toward preparation for retirement.
If you are in medical school and residency, congratulations on reading this website — pass it around to everyone you know. Unless they are independently wealthy, they need it.
Dr. Nelson’s Wife had a very good suggestion which is often pooh-poohed by traditional financial advisor/cpa people. Even though you are letting the IRS “use” your money for the year, getting a tax refund is sometimes the best way to save up a big chunk of change; I have recommended it often, esp. to millennial clients. Let’s face it – if you’re not following a strict budget, you’re probably going to spend your paycheck. (I call it the bank balance budget – if there’s money in the bank, you’re on budget.) Do whatever is necessary to get a smaller check in that case – raise your retirement contribution or your withholdings, both of which keep the $ in your name instead of Dominoe’s. A $5k refund can really make a difference.
While I don’t doubt you’re right, that many people use the IRS as a savings vehicle, they would be better off not doing so IF THEY COULD GENERATE THE DISCIPLINE TO SAVE MONEY.
Of course they would, and if frogs had wings, they wouldn’t bump their a**es, but I deal with the real world. If it helps until they generate the discipline they need, I’ll work with what I can get.
Wow… Such a nice read as I prepare to start my intern year next July. Unfortunately my old Volvo died on me last week and I had to take out a residency relocation loan to purchase a newer used (2010) Chevy Equinox to get me to the rest of my interviews.
Reading the article and through the comments, it seems like a lot of people have spouses and kids to support. I’m so thankful that I’m riding solo (27 year old single female) and only have to worry about myself. Maybe I’m selfish but I’m looking forward to spoiling myself a little during residency (I’m a sucker for dining out) while still being mindful of how I spend my money.
I remember getting my first residency paychecks and feeling like I had money coming out of my ears compared to what we were living on as students!
Great post. Sorry to bump an old article, but I’m just getting started. Maybe it’s hard to put a number on it, but, as a resident, what’s an ideal percentage of your income that should go towards housing and for transportation? Thanks
I don’t know that there is an ideal for each category. Nothing wrong with one guy spending more on housing and one guy spending more on transportation. The point is to look at it all together, try to stay within your means, make sure you have adequate life/disability insurance, try to put something into a Roth IRA, get any match available, have your loans managed correctly, and have a written plan in place for your first year of attending paychecks.
Thanks for the honest tips. I agree that for some reasons, once people graduate from medical schools, many feel entitled to live in fancy apartments or buy new cars.
In my fourth year of medical school, I worked to offset my living expenses so didn’t have to borrow money for rent, gas, or interviews. During residency in the Northeast, I spent only a few hundred on rent per month while my colleagues were spending 60-80% of the take home income. By the time I finished residency, I was able to pay off 1/3 of my loans. After a year of working in the real world, my loans were all paid off.
Great post. It’ll be hard to hear for some – I’m surrounded by friends who can’t fathom the idea that their kids shouldn’t get piano and dance lessons while they’re in residency and drowning in student loans – but a necessary message.
I learned the impact cost of living makes (inadvertently, before I was consciously thinking about finances to this degree) during residency. During my intern year, I was able to put away 20% of my gross salary (50k) because I lived in a small studio renting for about $550 a month. I probably should have been able to put away more. I was working 80 hours a week, so all I needed was a bed to come home to.
My advanced residency has been in a much higher cost of living part of the country. I’ve still been able to save money, but even though my gross salary has increased compared to intern year, I’m saving less. I could have saved more with better budgeting/frugality, it’s only in the last year or so that I’ve become a regular reader of this site and started thinking about this stuff more. But I can imagine how much more difficult it would be to save with 3 kids. Cost of living matters, and was a huge factor in my job search. It kills me when my friends from the Bay Area or NYC insist on going back, some of them for family (understandable) and others because they can’t “think of living anywhere else.”
Looking back, I think my biggest mistakes were 1) I could have easily saved $300-400 a month on rent during residency if I had hunted for an apt more carefully and 2) not being disciplined enough with my budget. Too many fun nights out / eating out. Great memories though. On the plus side, I avoided the airfares and exotic vacations other residents seem to go on routinely, and I tuned into this site before graduating from residency, which will save me a ton of money down the line.
Bumping this old article because it’s still so relevant! Question: if you can pay off med school by living extremely frugally and saving almost nothing, is that better than taking out less than 1X your attending year?
Then could start saving in ROTH in residency debt free? I’m married to a med student and we have no family help but I have a good job and we have a sweet deal where we live with undergrad students at a top university and tutor them/serve as RAs in exchange for free housing. We could just get out with almost no debt, but would have basically zero savings. Trying to seek wisdom on what to do.
Coming out debt free puts you way ahead of most. I wouldn’t worry about not having much savings. Most people have tons of debt AND no savings.